Top honors: Four of the nine Louisiana schools named 2016 National Blue Ribbon Schools by the U.S. Department of Education are located in Baton Rouge. They are: St. Joseph’s Academy, Madison Preparatory Academy, St. George and St. Thomas More. A total of 329 schools across the country were honored this year with the distinction, either based on their overall academic excellence or their progress in closing achievement gaps among student subgroups. The schools will be honored during an awards ceremony in Washington, D.C., on Nov. 7-8, where each will receive an engraved plaque and flag signifying its status as a 2016 Blue Ribbon School. Get more details on all 2016 Blue Ribbon Schools.
Opening soon: Baton Rouge sisters Amy Radle and Catherine Radle McKearn have opened a new concept store on Magazine Street in New Orleans that will feature art and wares by several Baton Rouge merchants. The sisters describe The Market | Magazine & Sixth, located at 2855 Magazine St., as “a mixed merchant, southern collective store” in a news release. They say initial merchants featured in the store include LD Linens, Discoveries Furniture and Bengals & Bandits, among others. Artists from Baton Rouge and New Orleans will be featured on a regular basis, they say. A soft opening is planned for Saturday, with a grand opening to follow on Saturday, Oct. 15.
Welcome back: NCAA President and former LSU chancellor Mark Emmert returns to Baton Rouge today to give a lecture this evening at LSU. The lecture, “Leadership in Challenging Times,” is free and open to the public. Emmert, who served as chancellor of LSU from 1999 to 2004, is giving the lecture at 7 p.m. in LSU’s Business Education Complex Auditorium. In advance of his lecture, Emmert chatted with Business Report about leadership, higher education, college athletics and politics. “I miss pretty much everything about it,” Emmert said when asked what he misses most about Baton Rouge. “In any place when you’ve moved around a lot, what you remember, of course, are people, and the people of Baton Rouge are just wonderful folks. Every time I bump into them, which is frequent, I just enjoy renewing old acquaintances and talking about what’s going on in this city.” Read Business Report’s full Q&A with Emmert.
