Standing side by side, LaMont Cole and Adam Smith took turns Thursday fielding questions about the present and future for the East Baton Rouge Parish school system.
In addition to being old friends, Cole and Smith are now coworkers: Cole, the superintendent, and Smith, the deputy superintendent. They said they were already hard at work, having spoken at 2 a.m. on the phone and then talking for two hours more Thursday morning before the news conference.
The nine-member parish School Board on Wednesday selected both for their new jobs, ending weeks of infighting and impasse over who would lead the state’s second-largest school district, home to more than 40,000 students.
Cole has represented District 7 on the Metro Council for two terms, and serves as mayor pro tem. A veteran educator with 26 years of experience, Cole has spent half of that time as chief academic officer for CSAL Inc., a Baton Rouge-based charter school network. He devoted the first half of his career working for the school system, including stints as principal of Capitol and Park Forest middle schools.
Smith, who has worked for the school system since 1996, has spent the past six months as interim superintendent, his second time in that role, seeking to land the job permanently. The School Board’s decision to name three finalists but not include Smith — he fell one vote short — sparked an immediate backlash that led to a stalemate and prevented any finalist from amassing a majority of five votes. The three finalists dropped out one by one.
Standing before reporters Thursday, Cole said being superintendent is a “job I’ve wanted since I was a student” and represents “the most important work of my lifetime.”
He noted that the new school year starts in just two weeks, on Aug. 8, and his top priorities are to make sure that all children and employees show up for school that first day.
“We want to assure families that they can trust this school system to do right by their children as they start a very exciting school year,” Cole said.
He then turned the mike over to Smith.
Smith detailed efforts to ensure that student transportation is in solid shape — last year, it was not, sparking weeks of turmoil. He also noted Baton Rouge is a “highly mobile community,” leading some families to delay enrolling their children until classes are well underway. He urged parents, if they have not already, to sign up their children immediately.
“It’s essential for all children to be registered for that first day of school,” Smith said.
This unusual, dynamic duo came to be in large part to help bring the superintendent controversy to a conclusion, And it looks like it has.
Since Wednesday night’s vote, the leaders of two teacher unions in East Baton Rouge Parish say they are no longer calling for a first-day-of-school sickout on Aug. 8.
Earlier this month, Valencea Johnson, president of the East Baton Rouge Parish Association of Educators, and Angela Reams-Brown, president of the East Baton Rouge Parish Federation of Teachers, announced they would hold such a sickout, perhaps for multiple days, if the board failed to make Smith the permanent superintendent.
Both Johnson and Reams-Brown say now they are pulling the plug on the idea in deference to Smith, since he has withdrawn his name from consideration for superintendent and thrown his support behind Cole.
Cole said he and Smith plan to talk with union leaders before the start of school.
“(We) will have some very candid and very transparent conversations,” Cole said. “We want to address any concerns that they may have.”
Cole and Smith’s new arrangement is unusual.
State law gives the superintendent the sole authority to hire and fire most school employees, while the board’s primary hire is the superintendent. However, the board, not Cole, is hiring Smith. The board is taking advantage of that allows larger school districts to hire directly a “deputy parish superintendent.”
The decision protects Smith from being fired or demoted as long as he is under contract to the board. While Cole is unlikely to punish Smith given their long-standing, close relationship, another superintendent might. During the three years Sito Narcisse was superintendent, Smith kept his title as associate superintendent but was stripped of almost all his duties, even forced to move to a remote district office.
Narcisse, who accepted a voluntary buyout in January, re-emerged for 19 hours this week, announcing Tuesday night he would apply to get back the job he had left six months earlier. An hour before Wednesday’s board meeting, he withdrew his name from consideration, easing the way for the hiring of Cole.
In the letter accompanying his new application, Narcisse said, if rehired, he would “immediately appoint Mr. Adam Smith as deputy superintendent of schools.”
Board leadership plans to spend the next week negotiating a superintendent contract with Cole. It will also be negotiating a contract with Smith, but Cole will be part of those negotiations.
Cole said this is not the first time the two have tag-teamed.
“He and I controlled education on Greenwell Springs Road,” Cole recalled.
From 2006 to 2008, Cole was principal of Capitol Middle. Four miles up Greenwell Springs Road, Smith was principal of Park Forest Middle.
“We worked together to ensure that children who were attending middle school along that corridor were safe and were excited about coming to school,” Cole said. “I’m super excited about having the opportunity to work hand in hand again.”
Cole thought for a second and continued.
“I say hand in hand again, but we’ve never stopped working together since we met 27 years ago,” he said. “We’ve always worked together to try to build a better community.”