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Smith announced these changes last week in a memo to principals, reflected soon afterward on the district’s website.
In an interview, Smith said things remain “very fluid” and he may or may not make more changes.
“I’ve been away. I haven’t been housed here in Central Office,” Smith said. “I’m just trying to figure out everything and who’s doing what.”
After Narcisse took over in January 2021, he sent Smith into administrative exile. Narcisse let him keep his title and pay as associate superintendent but removed him from the leadership team and moved him to a remote district office away from the Central Office on South Foster Drive.
In Smith’s evolving organizational chart, John McCann is the new chief of operations and Marlon Cousin is the new administrative director of communications & community engagement. Both are filling vacancies on an interim basis. The last occupants of those jobs were Monique Scott-Spaulding, now administrative director of workforce development, and Ben Lemoine, who recently left for a job with the Louisiana Department of Education.
McCann has held many high-level jobs in the school system, including stints overseeing middle schools, high schools and support services. He also spent several years as principal of Woodlawn High. Like Smith, McCann was sent into administrative exile during Narcisse’s tenure, last serving as a dean of students at Capitol High.
Cousin spent six years as a social studies and a lead teacher at Istrouma High before moving to Central Office. He also spent the past 20 years as parent or community liaison, leading efforts to strengthen ties between the school system and parents and members of the community.
McCann is now overseeing school security, facilities and transportation. Smith said he’s tasked McCann first with improving transportation. The school system started this school year in crisis with too few drivers and a lot of nonworking buses, leading to missed routes and long delays getting kids to and from school.
“Right now, I’m trying to get an audit of what’s in transportation — buses and bus drivers — and see what buses need to be replaced,” Smith said, noting that district policy calls for buses that are 25 years or older to be taken off the road.
Smith said he has also directed top administrator Arcelius Brickhouse to help McCann work on the transportation problem.
“Transportation, I won’t call it a problem, I’ll call it an opportunity,” Smith said.
In the meantime, Smith has relieved Brickhouse of his previous duties and taken him off the leadership team.
Brickhouse was recruited to Baton Rouge by Narcisse in summer 2021 and spent the past two years as chief of schools, a job from which he oversaw daily operations at all district schools. It’s arguably the most important cabinet post. Brickhouse in the past served as acting superintendent when Narcisse was out of town.
Taking over as Smith’s interim chief of schools is another veteran East Baton Rouge administrator, Laura Williams. Williams was the longtime principal of LaSalle Elementary and for the past eight years served as an executive director, just below the cabinet level. Of late, she’s overseen a south Baton Rouge region with five elementary schools — Highland, Magnolia Woods, Mayfair Lab, McKinley and Wildwood — and one alternative school, Southdowns School.
Smith said he’s long admired Williams.
“When she was principal at LaSalle, she took the school from a D to an A (state letter grade),” Smith said. “Not many people can say that.”
Smith said he’s also expanded the chief of schools portfolio, adding curriculum, which was previously overseen by Chief of Academics & Literacy Shenoa Warren. Smith said he sees school operations and curriculum as being a natural fit, saying that in the past the district had one administrator oversee both.
“What I didn’t want to happen is content or curriculum people talking to teachers without principals knowing what was going on,” Smith said.
Another change not reflected in the current organizational chart involves Chief of Schools Caron Smith. She is still a member of the district leadership team, but Supt. Smith said he’s shifting her to workforce development, including the district’s fledgling student internship program.
Caron Smith was one of Narcisse’s first hires after he was appointed as superintendent in January 2021. She had worked with Narcisse in Washington, D.C., but, unlike many other Narcisse hires, she also is from Baton Rouge and had spent much of her career in the East Baton Rouge Parish school system. As chief of staff, Smith has had an important set of duties, including overseeing charter schools, magnet schools, federal programs, strategic planning, child welfare & attendance as well as Narcisse’s Pathways to Bright Futures initiative.
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