Attendees at the Rotary Club of Baton Rouge meeting on Dec. 11 at Drusilla Catering were perhaps expecting guest speaker EBR Schools Superintendent LaMont Cole to review the handout they received touting his 100 days in office. They got a lot more.
“You can read that at your leisure. It talks about my takeaways. It talks about some of the work. I want to talk about the why — why we do this work,” he said.
And for about 30 minutes, Cole talked about his “whys” in a riveting presentation that at times drew laughs from the full ballroom and deep emotions from Cole. The former Metro councilman and longtime educator, who was named superintendent eight days before the start of the school year, highlighted several examples of why he works so diligently — from a student who faced many challenges and desired to meet him personally, the inspiration of Glen Oaks coach Harvey Adger who only missed one day in 50 years of service or the principal who was attacked and injured at school but vowed to back at school the next day.
Cole then got emotional when he reflected on his 77th day in office. That was the day he visited a mother and former student, whose three children were shot. The 8-year-old EBR Schools student died.
“The family was forever changed as a result,” said Cole, his voice cracking. “And as hard I’m trying not to be emotional, this is my why, because our students deserve to live in a city and be safe.”
Cole challenged attendees to make a commitment to play a part to help “ensure we take care of the babies.”
“We can’t do this alone. I can’t do this alone,” he said. “These are my children. These are your children. They’re our children, and we have a responsibility to take care of them. And where does it start? It starts in our schools. “
Thank you the Rotary Club of Baton Rouge for your support of EBR Schools.
