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BATON ROUGE, LOUISIANA
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F r i d ay, N ov e m b e r 21, 2025
BR-area schools show overall improvements
$2.00X
La. officials back plan to increase Gulf oil fields Proposal would bring millions of dollars into the state
BY MARK BALLARD Staff writer
STAFF FILE PHOTO By JAVIER GALLEGOS
Mary Price reaches out to hug a student while watching over breakfast during the first day of school at Progress Elementary on Aug. 7.
Rouge area school performance scores New grading system may Baton The official 2025 grades are based on 2024-25 school year data. The unofficial simulated grades show how lower scores next year performance districts would do under the state’s revised rating system, which takes effect in 2026.
BY CHARLES LUSSIER
Staff writer
SCHOOL SYSTEM
Most school districts in the Baton Rouge Rouge region improved their overall academic performance last year, with local districts holding five of the 10 top spots in the state, including West Feliciana Parish, which is leading Louisiana for the second year in a row. That’s the picture that emerges from annual performance scores and letter grades for Louisiana schools and school districts that were issued Thursday. It’s a picture that will change next year when the state rolls out a newer, tougher school grading system. Indeed, 30 out of 70 districts would get a different letter grade under the new system, for which state leaders released simulated results. Four of the 16 districts in the Baton Rouge region would have different grades, all lower. West Feliciana Parish rose to the top of the state rankings in 2024, displacing longtime leader Zachary. Hollis Milton, West Feliciana’s superintendent, said the parish sets a “standard of excellence in Louisiana.” He credited the “extraordinary commitment of our students, teachers, staff, families and community partners who work together every day to create a culture of excellence.” “Thank you to our entire West Feliciana family
ä See SCHOOLS, page 5A
2024 LETTER GRADE
2025 LETTER GRADE
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump proposed Thursday a five-year plan that would open about 1.27 billion acres to oil and gas exploration and hold seven lease sales off Louisiana’s Gulf coast, leading to acclaim from state officials. Trump’s plan will “boost domestic exploration and production in the Gulf of America and provide much-needed predictability,” said House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-Jefferson. Under provisions ä Trump Scalise inserted into the law, administration Louisiana will get a larger por- announces tion of the millions of dollars drilling off the federal government shares with states from the bids and California, Florida coasts. royalty payments. The 11th National Outer Con- PAGE 3B tinental Shelf Oil and Gas Leasing Program, when enacted, would replace the existing five-year plan released under the President Joe Biden administration. The current five-year plan sharply curtailed development of oil and gas deposits in the Gulf and elsewhere as part of the former president’s efforts to address climate change. Trump proposes to hold 34 offshore oil and gas lease sales between the years 2026 and 2031. His five-year plan also would open up waters off
ä See GULF, page 6A
2025 SIMULATED LETTER GRADE
Ascension
A
A
A
Assumption
B
B
B
Central Community schools
A
A
A
City of Baker schools
F
D
F
Meta will buy energy from La. solar farm
East Baton Rouge
C
C
C
East Feliciana
B
B
C
Iberville
B
B
C
Livingston
A
A
A
Pointe Coupee
C
C
C
Recovery School District - BR
D
D
D
St. Helena
D
D
F
Staff writer
St. James
B
B
B
A multinational energy company has completed construction of its first solar farm in Louisiana, a project outside Monroe that will generate enough electricity to power 17,000 homes and use a flock of 600 sheep as on-site lawn mowers. Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, will buy the renewable energy, though the solar project is not directly tied to the massive artificial intelligence data center the tech giant is building in northeast Louisiana. The renewable
Tangipahoa
C
C
C
West Baton Rouge
B
B
B
West Feliciana
A
A
A
Zachary Community schools
A
A
A
Louisiana (statewide)
B
B
Source: Louisiana Department of Education Note: Individual school grades in each district vary. For a detailed list, visit theadvocate.com
B Staff graphic
Sheep to serve as lawn mowers BY JOSIE ABUGOV
ä See SOLAR, page 6A
Recording of defendant details motive in 2017 killings Sharpe faces trial for murder charges
BY MATT BRUCE Staff writer
It sounded like a peculiar plot twist in a science fiction thriller. But it was a tragedy with real-life consequences. When Ryan Joseph Sharpe sat down with homicide detectives after being captured following a string of killings in 2017, he told investigators he was ensnared in a cabal involving several different federal agencies that forced him to kill. He claimed he shot and killed
WEATHER HIGH 83 LOW 64 PAGE 8B
former BREC Commissioner Carroll Breeden Sr. and two other men after he got a “surprise phone call” from “federal police” and two agents directed him to “earn tags” either by killing deer or people. If he didn’t follow the orders, Sharpe said, his friends, family and loved ones would be captured and taken to a “federal hotel,” where other prisoners were being detained in a “big federal case” involving “cop killings.” “I don’t go around shooting people just for the fun of it,” Sharpe told East Feliciana Parish sheriff’s deputies in an interrogation video. “All of this goes back to this federal hotel where all these people are under this big federal case.”
Sharpe, 44, alleged the conspiracy involved the FBI, special forces, State Police and the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries. But it was all a figment of his imagination. Sharpe is being tried for second-degree murder this week in Breeden’s Sept. 19, 2017, killing. If a jury of six men and eight women finds him guilty of the murder count, he’ll face another life sentence. Sharpe was already sentenced to life in prison last year for killing Brad DeFranceschi, a 48-yearold Boy Scout leader outside his East Feliciana Parish home. That
STAFF FILE PHOTO By BILL FEIG
Law enforcement officers escort convicted killer Ryan Sharpe from the ä See RECORDING, page 4A East Feliciana Parish courthouse after his 2019 trial ended.
Business ......................3B Commentary ................7B Nation-World ................2A Classified .....................8D Deaths .........................4B Opinion ........................6B Comics-Puzzles .....5D-7D Living............................1D Sports ..........................1C
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