Doing well, despite poverty: Five Capital Region public schools will be honored by the Louisiana Department of Education for performing well, despite high poverty. Forest Heights Academy of Excellence, Glasgow Middle and McKinley Middle Magnet from East Baton Rouge Parish, along with Southside Elementary and Springfield Elementary in Livingston Parish, will be recognized at the High-Performing, High-Poverty Schools Awards Ceremony, set for Tuesday. To earn the designation, a school must have a baseline School Performance Score of 100 or more for two consecutive years and have at least 65% of students receiving free or reduced-fee lunch. This year, 56 schools have earned the designation.
New men on the bench: Tennessee and Georgia Tech have selected new coaches to head up their respective men’s basketball programs. Tennessee has turned to Missouri State’s Cuonzo Martin to stabilize a basketball program facing NCAA sanctions following recruiting violations by former coach Bruce Pearl. Martin went 61-41 in three seasons at Missouri State after eight years as an assistant coach at Purdue under Gene Keady and Matt Painter. During his tenure, the Bears improved from 11-20 in his first season to 26-9 in the 2010-11 season, earning them their first Missouri Valley Conference regular-season championship and Martin the MVC coach of the year honor. Georgia Tech has picked Dayton coach Brian Gregory to rebuild its beleaguered basketball program, which has experienced hard times since reaching the national championship game in 2004. Gregory coached at Dayton for eight seasons, posting a record of 172-94. He guided the Flyers to a pair of NCAA appearances, reaching the second round in 2009 with an upset of West Virginia. Dayton also won the NIT in 2010, beating North Carolina in the championship game.
