Even as finalists Kevin George and Andrea Zayas spent nearly eight hours Monday trying to persuade community members that they are the right choice to lead the East Baton Rouge Parish school system, representatives of three employee groups issued an ultimatum.
“We will not be silent and we will not be complicit,” said Valencea Johnson, president of the parish’s chapter of the Association of Educators teacher union. “We will not be there on Aug. 8 if Adam Smith is not appointed as superintendent of the East Baton Rouge Parish school system.”
Smith, a 28-year veteran of the school district, made an early exit from the search on June 28 when he fell one vote short of being named a finalist himself. Smith has been interim superintendent since January.
Johnson announced the planned first-day-of-school sickout at a press conference Monday night, sitting beside leaders of two other employee groups. They were flanked by two dozen other union and community members.
Angela Reams-Brown, president of the parish’s Federation of Teachers, said the sickout won’t necessarily end after the first day of the 2024-25 school year.
“After the first day of school if we don’t get what we are looking for, we will be looking at the second day of school and the third day of school,” said Reams-Brown. “We need the board to understand that what we are asking for is in the best interest of the students, employees and this school district.”
Also speaking Monday was Earmer Jackson, president of another employee group. Associated Professional Educators of Louisiana, or A+PEL, a non-union teacher association. Jackson echoed Johnson and Reams-Brown but stopped short of calling for a sickout herself.
“Stakeholders and employees are stressed right now because of this (superintendent) search,” Jackson said.
“What we are hearing is that the board members do not represent us,” she continued.
The two finalists are George, director of the LSU Lab School in Baton Rouge; and Zayas, former chief academic officer of Boston Public Schools. They return Tuesday for formal interviews before the School Board at the School Board Office, 1050 S. Foster Drive. George’s interview starts at 4:15 p.m. and Zayas’ interview starts at 6 p.m. A final vote is scheduled for Thursday at 5 p.m.
Monday night’s press conference by the employee groups occurred in a conference room at the district’s Professional Development Center. In the room next door, Zayas was answering questions by a panel of parents.
A few minutes earlier, when that same panel was questioning George, a few individuals spent several minutes filibustering that interview, objecting to the presence of parent Paige Lowry, vice president of the local chapter of the politically conservative group, Moms for Liberty, calling the group “racist.” Lowry was recommended to the panel by board member Nathan Rust.
It was an unruly end to a long day.
George and Zayas stayed composed during the hours of interviews.
“People ask me if I’m tired,” George said at one point. “I say No. I can talk education all day.”
Monday was supposed to be even busier, but grew less after the unexpected departure of finalist Krish Mohip, a veteran educator from Chicago who spent three years as superintendent of a troubled school district in Ohio. Mohip withdrew his name Saturday from contention, saying he is taking another job.
Adam Smith’s absence loomed over Monday’s proceedings.
Over the course of 10 sessions, which started at 10:30 a.m. and did not end until 7:40 p.m. Monday, George and Zayas both answered questions about Smith
George said sizable support that district employees have shown for Smith is a credit to him but also indicative of what you would hope from a top leader.
“It would be a problem if he didn’t have that kind of support,” George said.
A native of Crowley who has worked in multiple school systems in Louisiana, George has never worked for East Baton Rouge Parish before — he said he has a sister who is an employee. He said he will strive to get to know people and win them over.
“I don’t expect you to trust me on day one,” George said. “Trust is earned over time.”
Zayas said she recognizes the challenge ahead. She said she watched the “painful” June 28 meeting where Smith was excluded as a finalist and later spoke herself with Smith.
“There is an open wound and a little Band-Aid won’t do,” she said. “There needs to be a process of overcoming what has happened, not only just now but what has happened over time.”
She said she is not looking to overturn the district .
“Not everything is broken, not everything needs to be torn down,” Zayas said. “The question is how do we make the smart changes.”
George sounded a similar note.
“(EBR) has some amazing things, we need to continue, correct the things that need to be corrected and continue to move forward,” George said.
The controversial three-year tenure of former Supt. Sito Narcisse was reflected in the questions posed and in the finalists’ answers.
Narcisse accepted a voluntary buyout in January, six weeks after the School Board voted 5-4 to not renew his contract. Smith, who was narrowly defeated three years earlier in a previous bid for superintendent, immediately took over as superintendent.
Narcisse was an ambitious, but divisive leader, supported by some community and business leaders, but greatly disliked by many rank and file employees. Smith by contrast is well liked, with many employees who’ve had positive personal encounters with him through the years.
Both George and Zayas emphasized that their styles are to work closely with school staff.
“The quickest way to upset people is to force something down their throats," George said.
Speaking to a panel of teachers and principals, Zayas promised to be very visible and very available.
“I think everyone has my phone number at this point,” she said. “We’ll have (periodic) check-ins, but just call me and let me know what is going on.”
George is best known for his time as superintendent of schools in St. John the Baptist Parish from 2013 to 2019. He boasted that St. John improved from a D letter grade when he started to a B – it later slipped back to a C later in his superintendency.
“If you give me five years, we will be a school system with an A rating,” George promised. “That’s what I do. I move schools.”
At the same time, he said he didn’t have any “magic tricks.” He said he focuses on basics, putting good teachers in classrooms, finding good principals and letting them do their jobs as professionals.
“We know there is no panacea or silver bullet,” he said. “If there was, everyone would be doing it.”
Zayas, who grew up in New Jersey, has a more varied resume, working as an art teacher, opening her own charter school in Brooklyn, before rising to school administration, spending one year as a turnaround superintendent in Camden, N.J. and later three years with Boston Public Schools, home to about 47,000 students. She also worked for five years in New Orleans, including two years in leadership development with KIPP, a prominent charter management organization. She still owns a home in New Orleans.
She said wants schools that prepare students for a range of futures, from trades to college: “We can’t choose that for them."
“My responsibility is to make sure they are prepared to walk through any door they want to walk to when they graduate,” Zayas said.
