Raise the Bar BR aims to build and deepen the understanding of the current education landscape in Baton Rouge, encouraging parents, families and community members to support new leadership and a new vision of success focused on excellence, equity and accountability. Raise the Bar BR will highlight the significant needs across East Baton Rouge Parish and will focus on the progress that has yet to be achieved so that all students across the district have access to a high-quality education. Leading into the fall, our team hopes to underscore the value of a high-quality public education and the success that can be attained by every student if the EBR school board and superintendent champion parent choice and autonomous schools that directly meet the needs of their students through innovative practices and enhanced standards and accountability.
In order to carry out the goals listed below, the East Baton Rouge Parish School Board should first commit to bold leadership and strong partnerships with parents, community organizations and advocates. The Board should also be willing to select a superintendent who is supportive and capable of transitioning the district into a 21st century governing entity.
The East Baton Rouge School Board should have a strong knowledge of school choice policies and champion the public education options across the district, including authorizing new public charter schools with strong applications and proven track record of success. The Board should further establish a performance framework that is district-wide and is modeled after the state's accountability system. The performance review should be implemented on an annual basis and requires the Board to take aggressive action on the bottom 10% of schools modeled after BESE policy.
The East Baton Rouge School Board should value equity for each and every student in the district. Under this value, we encourage the school board to establish a unified enrollment system, ensure free and equitable transportation services, protect funding for certain student groups like special education students, ELL, students with disabilities, etc., and enhance school climate and improve school discipline practices.
The East Baton Rouge School Board should adopt more equitable and fair practices of selling or leasing under-utilized facilities for public schools, including public charter schools. These practices may also include leveraging public-private partnerships to streamline the process by which a school gains access to a quality facility. The East Baton Rouge School Board should adopt a long term plan for returning all schools to local control, including evaluating school performance, a unified enrollment system and facilities preservation and management.
The East Baton Rouge School Board should value and seek input from their constituents and community members throughout the district.
