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BATON ROUGE, LOUISIANA
S at u r d ay, F e b r u a ry 22, 2025
‘Imagine something new’ Superintendent LaMont Cole reflects on first 100 days, looks ahead to what comes next for East Baton Rouge Parish schools
LaMont Cole speaks at a luncheon marking his first 100 days leading the East Baton Rouge Parish school system.
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Lawsuit challenging La. execution methods reopened BY MEGHAN FRIEDMANN and JOHN SIMERMAN
Staff writers
A federal judge has reopened a long-running court case that could put Louisiana’s plans on hold to execute death row inmates Jessie Hoffman and Christopher Sepulvado next month. U.S. District Judge Shelly D. Dick, the chief judge in Louisiana’s Middle District, agreed Friday to reopen a lawsuit initially filed in 2012 that challenged the state’s execution methods. The decision came in response a request from attorneys for death row inmates who sought to urgently reopen the case — and who are ultimately seeking stays of execution for Sepulvado and Hoffman. When the suit was first filed, Hoffman and other death row inmates challenged the state’s execution methods as Louisiana sought to execute Sepulvado by lethal injection. The plaintiffs succeeded in delaying his and all other executions, in part because Louisiana could not obtain proper drugs for lethal injection — then the state’s only approved execution method. Dick, an appointee of former President Barack Obama, dismissed the case in 2022 after then-Attorney General Jeff Landry argued it was moot, since the state was unable to get the lethal injection drugs and was not executing anyone. Dick’s
ä See LAWSUIT, page 4A
STAFF PHOTO By MICHAEL JOHNSON
BY CHARLES LUSSIER Staff writer
LaMont Cole, a veteran educator and local politician, has faced some tough challenges in his first few months as superintendent of Baton Rouge’s biggest school district. In his first 100 days leading East Baton Rouge Parish public schools, Cole started bolstering school security to deter students from bringing guns to school, closed failing charter schools and selected his leadership team. Going forward, his most pressing priority is tackling the contentious issue of closing and consolidating schools. Cole also has to contend with improving low-performing schools, budget reform, increasing employee pay, changing school start times and allowing transient
students to stay in their preferred schools. “We have to imagine something new, we have to imagine something different, we have to have the courage to do something different,” he said. Cole spoke Friday at a luncheon to mark his first 100 days as superintendent in a wide-ranging talk entitled “Turning Vision Into Action.” He spoke at the Water Campus, flanked by a panoramic view of the Mississippi River. The audience was filled with people who have known Cole throughout his 27-year career as an educator and two terms on the Metro Council. Newly elected Mayor-President Sid Edwards, who until recently was the football coach at Istrouma High, said it is a “magical” time in Baton Rouge in terms of possibilities, and
said Cole is a big part of that. “You have a superintendent here who is getting it done,” Edwards said. The 51-year-old Cole grew up in Baton Rouge and graduated from Tara High, a public school within the district he now leads. He said his vision is for students to be exposed and ready for what is beyond their neighborhoods, then the world. “They need to understand what it’s like to be on the Bluffs at Southern University at 4 o’clock, in Mumford Stadium and hear The Human Jukebox,” he said, ”and then speed down Scenic Highway to Nicholson and walk into Tiger Stadium just in time for them to say, ‘It’s Saturday night in Tiger Stadium.’ ” To get there, though, the
ä See IMAGINE, page 5A
Impact Charter School board ousted by state Audit accuses founder of financial mismanagement
BY CHARLES LUSSIER Staff writer
Decried by school officials as a “takeover,” Louisiana education leaders on Friday tossed out the board of directors of troubled Impact Charter School in Baker. The Louisiana Board of Elementary and Secondary Education’s decision was unanimous to oust the board’s seven directors. The move also likely means the eventual departure of the school’s founder, Chakesha Scott.
ä See IMPACT, page 4A
Change to I-10/I-12 west merge ends need to weave
WEATHER HIGH 54 LOW 44 PAGE 6A
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I-12 westbound’s new configuration 10
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Left and center westbound lanes continue on I-12; right lane must exit to I-10 eastbound
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Left and center westbound lanes continue on I-10; right lane must exit to I-12 eastbound
Essen Lane on-ramp to I-12 westbound temporarily closed
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“There will be no weaving to get to the College Drive exit, and I-10 and I-12 will both have through lanes to continue west,” said Rodney Mallett, the state Transportation Department’s communications director. BY ELLYN COUVILLION The highway realignment is part of the Staff writer nearly completed, $52.3 million I-10/I-12 The days of Baton Rouge drivers craning College Drive flyover project, which aims to their necks and frantically cutting across allow drivers to more safely reach the Colseveral lanes of traffic to get off Interstate lege Drive exit. And it makes a designated 10 at College Drive are almost over. westbound exit ramp for College Drive that A permanent reconfiguration of how I-12 is easily accessible from both interstates. West merges with I-10 West just before the “It will be safer, and this new alignment, College Drive exit in Baton Rouge will go when completed, will help with (traffic) coninto effect at 5 a.m. Saturday, according to gestion,” Mallett said. the state Department of Transportation and Work on the project, which began in earDevelopment. nest in April 2021, is expected to be completWestbound I-12 lanes will pass under the ed by midyear. When it is finished, there also new I-10 westbound overpass and continue will be a designated exit ramp for College as the left lanes of I-10 West, transportation ä See WEAVE, page 5A officials said.
A look at the planned traffic shift on the College Drive flyover project:
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Realignment makes it easier to exit at College Drive
I-10/I-12 College Drive flyover lane shift
Staff graphic by DAN SWENSON Source: Department of Transportation and Development
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100TH yEAR, NO. 237