New candidate emerges for local BESE seat

With Republican Chas Roemer sitting on the fence regarding a re-election bid in BESE’s 6th District, which encompasses the Baton Rouge region, new names are beginning to bubble to the surface. The latest belongs to Donald Songy, a Democrat from Prairieville who formerly served as superintendent of Ascension Parish schools. The local district also includes Livingston and Washington parishes, as well as a portion of Tangipahoa. Songy served as superintendent from 2006 to 2010 and oversaw the construction of five new schools. Overall, he left the parish school system with the fourth-highest performance score rankings in the state. The campaign he’s mounting for the BESE seat foregrounds this professional experience. “We cannot afford to blindly accept the advice of people with little or no actual teaching experience who may be quick to throw out new programs and fads year after year, or to propose ‘magic bullet’ solutions,” Songy says. “These things don’t work. We have lost education dollars that we can’t afford, and we’ve squandered time for learning for too many of our children.” The BESE primary election is scheduled for Oct. 22. —Jeremy Alford