When East Baton Rouge School superintendent Sito Narcisse received a buyout on Jan. 12, it marked the end of a tumultuous three years as head of Louisiana’s second largest school system and swung an already troubled district back into uncertainty.
The change was set in motion after a Dec. 7 school board meeting that saw a new contract for the outgoing superintendent rejected in a tight 5-4 vote.
“It is hard for a Black man or a Black woman to serve as a position of leadership and be successful and also get a contract at the end of the day,” said school board member Dadrius Lanus, a supporter of Narcisse, at a news conference following the vote.
Appointed in 2021, Narcisse faced multiple controversies throughout his tenure, though he defended his success as superintendent when he spoke with the Reveille.
The most notable trouble of his term came from the 2022 “Day of Hope,” a field trip to a church billed as a college and career day where children were instead lectured on topics such as sexual assault, suicide and religion. Day of Hope is now the subject of a lawsuit by parents against the district.
More recently, a strike by bus drivers and cafeteria workers for better working conditions at the start of the 2022-2023 school year forced schools across the parish to close.
“For two weeks we had no idea if the bus was going to come and pick our children up,” said Tyler Hicks, parent to children in the school system.
Narcisse, at the time, was in Broward County, Florida, where he was vying for a position as the county’s superintendent, a position he was ultimately passed over for.
These controversies served to weaken an already fragile trust in the superintendent, who had previously received criticism for not moving his family from Washington, D.C., to Baton Rouge in what was perceived as a lack of faith in the school system he was administrating.
The issues the Baton Rouge community had with Narcisse didn’t stop there. Allegations of retaliation and fiscal mismanagement marred his time as superintendent.
“He’s very vindictive, and that’s a problem on the union side that we had with him, with a lot of our members,” said middle school teacher and local union leader Storm Matthews. “Like, people would be scared of going to the microphone at board meetings to even speak or do things because there was always fear of retribution.”
Matthews is no stranger to this “culture of fear.” Three potential instances of retaliation against her are currently under investigation, following a video that went viral of her speaking at a school board meeting in August 2023.
Then there comes the subject of money.
“I don’t know that anybody wants to inherit this budget crisis we’re in,” said Paige Colwell, former East Baton Rouge arts teacher who now teaches out of Lafayette. “I know that [Narcisse] manipulated people into spending money in areas that we really didn’t need.”
When contacted by the Reveille for comment, Narcisse defended his record as superintendent, touting the school district’s investments in tutoring, literacy and math coaches, as well as after school programs with partners.
“We have always worked with schools for programs and investments and receive direction from school leaders on their needs,” Narcisse said.
Before Narcisse’s superintendency, Colwell said she received $700 for art supplies for over 180 children. The year she left, 2022, she said her budget was reduced to $500 for the same number of students.
“He also quietly removed art programs in different schools, which never made the news,” said Colwell. “And he denied it whenever he was questioned on it.”
Colwell described a teacher who had been affected by these alleged changes.
“Her art program got removed and she was moved to another school site because there was no longer a job for her there. Then he removed the program at the site she was at,” Colwell said. “So, she had to move again. She moved to three different schools in three years. He just kept removing arts programs. She wasn’t the only one, either.”
In response to these allegations, Narcisse said the arts expanded under his superintendency.
“Throughout my tenure,” Narcisse said, “I have worked with the EBR board of education to provide support to schools that enhance opportunities specifically in the areas of arts, early childhood education, college and career programs and workforce development.”
Some in the community remain unconvinced.
“When you look at all these issues—reassigning teachers, denying teachers and staff stipends, failing to do the basics of the system like get kids to and from school, overspending emergency dollars—I mean, it goes on and on,” said Mary Juneau, who founded an advocacy group for parents in the parish and wrote a petition to remove Narcisse from the superintendent position.
She prefers interim superintendent Adam Smith.
“He’s pleasant; he’s knowledgeable. He cares about the children. He knows the community,” Juneau said.
Smith certainly does know the community. He worked for 27 years in the parish’s school system as a teacher, assistant principal, principal, assistant and associate superintendent, and he has four children all of whom graduated from the system.
He isn’t a stranger to the interim superintendent job, either. In October 2020, former superintendent Leslie Brown resigned after only about a month for unspecified health reasons. To fill her absence, public favorite Smith took over until January 2021, before Narcisse beat him out for the job in a 5-4 vote.
While it’s true that support seems to swell around Baton Rouge local Smith, in-state applicants are not necessarily given an edge in the decision-making process.
“We have many in this community who believe that we have to have people from out of state,” said Anna Fogle, a parent of children who graduated in the system. “That it’s people from out of state that have the answer. They want people who are ‘disruptors,’ who will upend the system and do things to make big changes.”
Matthews suggested that the board make a consistent vision for the future of the school system and hire in accordance with that idea.
“These are our kids, this is our community, these are our teachers. So, we’re not changing our vision and our direction every time we get a new superintendent, whether that’s every three years or every five years,” Matthews said.
Smith originally had an agreement with the school board that he wouldn’t pursue the permanent superintendent position, however, that restriction has been removed.
While a large part of the public is now clamoring for Smith’s expedited appointment to the job, he has not publicly said he will apply for the position. Regardless, the board must wait at least 30 days from the removal of the previous superintendent before deciding. This appointment can happen as early as Feb. 23, but the board has indicated the search will likely take several months.
Parents Hicks and Fogle want the same thing: stability.
“We need to go through the process and find the right person, whoever that may be,” Hicks said. “In the meantime, all these teachers and kids are caught up in this transition yet again. We need some stability.”
“We need stability,” Fogle said. “We need someone who has proven they are committed to our system, who will be here and stay here and care about this community.”
