Southeast BR School District Pending in Senate

BATON ROUGE — Supporters of the proposed Southeast Baton Rouge Community School District say the new school system can provide an outstanding education to children in the Woodlawn-Parkview area.  But they say it can help do something else as well: Begin to bring families with children back to the public schools and back to East Baton Rouge Parish.

If the experience of the Central Community School System is any indication, they may be right.

The Central Community School System has grown from 2,500 student in July 2007 to 4,300 today — a 72 percent increase.  The enrollment records of the Central school system show that almost all of their increase came from private schools and from Livingston Parish.  Only a handful came from Baton Rouge.

When interviewed about the growth of enrollment in Central schools last year, Central schools Supt. Mike Faulk said many of the families who moved from Livingston into Central because of the new school system were former Central residents.  Faulk said they had moved to Livingston because they felt they had no choice, but once schools in Central improved, they came back.

Norman Browning, chairman of Local Schools for Local Children, said he believes many of the families who have moved to Livingston and Ascension in search of quality schools would move back to East Baton Rouge Parish to take advantage of the new Southeast Baton Rouge school district.