‘It’s about money’: Incumbent Baton Rouge school board member has three challengers

After sailing to victory four years ago, Carla Powell-Lewis has a tough path to reelection to the East Baton Rouge Parish School Board, with three challengers seeking to replace her.

Much of Powell-Lewis’ current trouble stems from her July 2024 dramatic public disavowal of the well-heeled education reform groups that backed her successful run two years earlier. Powell-Lewis broke with those groups after she asserted that they opposed promoting longtime district administrator Adam Smith to permanent superintendent; the most prominent group, the Baton Rouge Alliance for Students, says it opted not to support or oppose any superintendent candidate.

“None of the stuff we have done here today as a board is about children. It’s about money,” .

Soon after, Smith withdrew. The board instead hired LaMont Cole as superintendent after he applied at the last minute.

Powell-Lewis’ opponents in the Nov. 3 election for District 3 include , a teacher, and , a dean at a school. Both work at local charter schools, and , respectively, as does Powell-Lewis, a high school civics teacher at the online , which is based in Gonzales.

A third opponent, , worked for six years as a guidance clerk at Scotlandville High, the largest high school in District 3, before she shifted to environmental activism — she’s currently executive director of the Clean Green Neighborhood Alliance. Her three children graduated from Scotlandville High as did Powell-Lewis’s son. The youngest of Williams’ four children attends Southern University Lab School and Stewart’s only child is grown.

In 2022, outside groups spent at least $14 on Powell-Lewis’ behalf for every dollar she spent out of her own campaign funds. Now, they’re repaying her by opening up their checkbooks for Williams.

Williams, 49, has been a full-time staff member at Helix Aviation since the school opened in 2021 and is currently its dean of culture. He said he’s also worked full-time since 2013 on , focusing on technology & information services.

And that doesn’t count , a nonprofit he founded 12 years ago to focus on community outreach and youth mentoring. He said the nonprofit remains active, though .

“We are still working in the community, no matter what,” Williams said.

This is his second bid for public office. Williams ran for Metro Council in 2020 but lost to then incumbent Chauna Banks, coming in last of four candidates.

Candidates for East Baton Rouge Parish School Board District 3

Money for, money against

Powell-Lewis — she added “Lewis” to her last name three years ago when she got married — said her opponents may not realize the political landscape they’ve entered.

“Some may be in the same space I was where they don’t understand the ramifications of taking certain funding,” she said.

One of the groups that previously spent heavily for Powell-Lewis has reported spending $6,000 so far attacking her in digital ads and mailers. , or ERNA, is the political arm of the better known , or DFER. ERNA also recently reported spending $6,890 opposing District 2 candidate Vereta Lee, a former school board member.

All four candidates in the race are Black, and three are Democrats in a district that is 89% Black and 71% Democratic. Stewart is not registered with a political party.

Powell-Lewis, 47, made her mark after she joined the School Board in January 2023, She quickly became vice president and then a year later president, a position she held for a year. It was an eventful time. It was marked by controversy surrounding then Superintendent Sito Narcisse, a transportation crisis in fall 2023, the forced buyout of Narcisse and the tumultuous search for a new superintendent.

A veteran social studies teacher, says she has a long to-do list if she’s reelected. These include adding parent-teacher associations to schools without them, a citywide literacy initiative she dubs “Zero to 100,” and reviving subsidized drivers’ education programs at local high schools.

“What we decide to do for children right now will determine what our community is like 20 years from now,” she said.

‘A village without the villagers’

Long-standing declines in student enrollment have accelerated in the last couple of years. currently has 650 students, half of its enrollment a decade ago.

Powell-Lewis wants the district to research more closely how students move around town, particularly those whom the district loses track of as they transfer to and from charter schools.

Enrollment declines led the board last year to vote to close nine schools last year and revamp others, including schools in District 3. Powell-Lewis worries about going too far.

“How do we preserve the pride that exists in our community?” she asked.

Joseph said schools are losing students because they are not welcoming and not addressing sufficiently the needs of the communities they serve. Truly “engaging the community” might help the district reverse this trend.

“We are trying to build a village without the villagers,” she said.

Stewart wants to launch a public information campaign to attract students.

“I have been begging the powers that be behind the scenes to employ a campaign to remotivate the citizens to embrace EBR again,” Stewart said.

Williams said if faced with a proposal to close schools he would size up the financial rationale but also decide “how does the decision improve educational opportunities” so that students get what they need.

“I’m not somebody who believes closing schools to be the first solution,” he said. “Schools are very important to our community.”

In early August, Cole was indicted in August on multiple public corruption charges arising from his previous job as an elected member of the Metro Council. All four candidates say they are willing for now to let him stay in the job.

Powell-Lewis credits Cole with putting the school system in as strong a position as “it has been in many years.” For instance, teacher vacancies are down this year, which Powell-Lewis credits to a large employee raise approved in June, particularly large for many teachers, that Cole championed.

“Someone asked me, ‘How can you say that was because of LaMont?’” Powell-Lewis recalled. “I said, ‘How can we not say that?’”

Joseph said Cole deserves his day in court.

“We don’t know all the facts. We’re kind of getting bits and pieces,” Joseph said. “I don’t want to speculate.”

Williams echoed Joseph.

“I’m 100% supportive of Mr. LaMont Cole,” said Williams.

Stewart said he’s worked with Cole, is a fan and said Cole deserves the chance to defend himself. At the same time, Stewart expressed concern that Cole’s legal troubles are tarnishing further the district’s already tarnished reputation. Stewart said he may reach a point where he would suggest Cole take a leave of absence “until this washes over.”

“This is not helping the EBR image whatsoever,” Stewart said.

Better information, more motivation

While she has less money than Powell-Lewis and Williams, Joseph’s campaign is getting noticed. She’s received several endorsements, , who represented District 2 before Powell-Lewis.

Joseph, 54, said she wants to provide parents with better information about how to make the most of what the district has to offer, something she prided herself in doing when she worked at Scotlandville High.

She’s also concerned that the district focuses too much on creating new options and failing to nail down basic education.

“If (the students) can’t read, do math and critically think, none of that other stuff matters,” she said.

Stewart, 63, is the most unconventional of the four candidates. When controversies arise, he often takes the mike at school board meetings to offer a comment.

He is the son of , one of the first Black on-air reporters on Baton Rouge television. The son opted against following his father into journalism. Instead, he got a bachelor’s degree from Southern University in animal science, initially worked in advertising and later decided to try his hand in the classroom.

Over the years, he’s taught at many schools across the Baton Rouge regions. Many of them, like Louisiana Rebirth, are alternative schools. He .

He’s most proud of a weekend school program, The Young Leaders’ Academy of Baton Rouge, where he worked from 1998 to 2022, which was highlighted at the time by Oprah Winfrey.

“It is my quest to bring this level of motivation and initiative and employ them in the public school sector because it was extraordinarily successful,” Stewart said. “And all we did was motivate these children to prompt them to believe that they could be the best that they could be."

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