News & Press (Test)

Battle lines were forming Wednesday morning over a hotly-contested bill aimed improving the East Baton Rouge Parish school system by giving principals sweeping new authority.

Leaders from a wide range of local businesses, from real estate firms and auto dealerships to contractors and attorneys—

A measure that would shrink the East Baton Rouge Parish school board from 11 to 7 members cleared its first legislative hurdle Wednesday.

At-a-Glance: A proposal to restructure the East Baton Rouge Parish School System took its first step through the Louisiana Legislature Wednesday, passing the Senate education committee.

Often at odds in the past, state Sen. Mack “Bodi” White, R-Central, has joined forces with the Baton Rouge Area Chamber to push legislation to shrink the size of the East Baton Rouge Parish School Board and to take power from the board and the superintendent and give it to school principals.

The Baton Rouge Area Chamber hopes its legislation to dramatically restructure Baton Rouge’s public school system will convince St. George supporters that they don’t need to form their own city.

With Tuesday’s filing deadline looming in the Legislature, a diverse pair of local lawmakers has introduced legislation for the Baton Rouge Area Chamber that would put into practice BRAC’s recently unveiled plan for restructuring the EBR school system.

Baton Rouge is one of just 16 communities around the globe that have been selected by IBM to benefit from the company’s Smarter Cities Challenge competitive grant program this year. The initiative, which IBM started in 2010, aims to address critical issues facing communities around the world by putting teams of IBM’s experts in selected cities for three weeks to work closely with city leaders and deliver recommendations. The grant awards are valued at $500,000.