EBR Mayor Pro Tem Lamont Cole officially applies for EBR Schools superintendent position

BATON ROUGE, La. (WAFB) - After months of tumultuous debate, the East Baton Rouge Parish School Board says it will finally hire a new superintendent Wednesday.

And, in recent days, the name of one particular person continued to pop up in political circles as the board’s likely choice for that top job.

That name is East Baton Rouge Parish Mayor Pro Tem Lamont Cole. He confirmed to WAFB Wednesday morning, July 24, that he has officially applied for the position.

Cole is heavily involved in education, currently serving as Chief Administrative Officer of a charter management group, operating three charter schools in Louisiana. In that role, Cole is in charge of guiding instructional programming at each of those schools.

A graduate of both LSU and Southern, he has previously been a principal at both Park Forest Middle and Capitol Middle School in the district.

Cole has been interested in the job in the past. He applied to be EBR Superintendent in 2020 when Leslie Brown was ultimately hired for the position.

And, a head-scratching political move involving Cole’s current Metro Council seat last week now seems to make more sense.

Cole qualified last Wednesday to run for re-election to his District 7 Metro Council Seat.

However, in the final minutes of qualifying, Twahna Harris, Cole’s legislative aide who runs his District 7 office for him, qualified to run against him for that seat.

The deadline to qualify for the seat was at 4:30 p.m. Friday. Harris filed her paperwork at 4:22 p.m. Friday, documents show.

Political insiders speculate that is something she did at the urging of her boss, Lamont Cole, knowing he would likely have to step down from elected office to take on the job as superintendent.

While state law does not appear to specifically ban a superintendent from holding public office, it does say the person “shall be required to devote his entire time to the office of superintendent of schools.”

The board also recently announced it would be creating a new “Deputy Superintendent” position. Many speculate that second-in-command job is being held for Adam Smith, the current interim superintendent who applied for the top job but was not named as a finalist.

Earlier this month, the EBR School Board recently narrowed its superintendent search to three finalists. However, all three finalists withdrew their names from consideration.

According to a schedule released yesterday, the board will hold a special meeting this evening to reopen the application process for less than 24 hours before naming a new superintendent on Wednesday evening.

Harris did not return calls for comment.

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