By james art 
As he outlines his plans, Superintendent Lamont Cole continues to reshuffle the top ranks of the East Baton Rouge Parish school system, including rehiring a former district communications director and demoting the personnel director hired by his predecessor, Sito Narcis.
In the past two months, Cole has also promoted and demoted a handful of other second-level district administrators.
Since being hired in late July, Cole has put together a new organizational chart to replace what he inherited from Narcisse and Adam Smith, who served as interim superintendent for six months.
Cole originally hoped to have a new organizational chart ready by October, but pushed that back until January after completing the tasks set out in the 100-day plan he issued when he started as superintendent.
Taylor Gast officially took over on September 30 as head of communications. It’s a post she holds from 2018 to 2021, hired by former Superintendent Warren Drake. Gast left in May 2021, three months after Narcissus arrived. She spent most of the interim running StudioE, the marketing arm of Julio Melara Enterprises.
She said the meeting had been a happy one so far.
“Since I’ve been back, I’ve been telling everybody, ‘I’m so happy to be home,'” Gast said. “Once you immerse yourself in the fabric of EBR Schools—meeting students and connecting with faculty, principals, and staff—you can’t help but feel inspired by the determination here to change the world.”
Cultivation Department
A lot has changed since 2021.
While Gast largely ran things on her own, Narcisse’s communications department grew rapidly. His three communications executives oversaw several staffers who put out a steady stream of social media posts and videos related to Narcissus’ many initiatives. They created a set of newsletters, revamped a district website, as well as launched new school apps and a district-wide app.
The advanced department also took on family and community engagement, working with and helping to train dozens of newly hired parent liaisons and family engagement assistants in the district’s lower-performing schools.
Gast said he is glad to have a larger staff, especially Perry Robinson, director of communications, who is responsible for many of the public relations duties that previously took up most of Gast’s time.
“Now we have an opportunity to be proactive, and that’s exciting,” Gast said.
Gast’s job does not include the family and community engagement duties Narcissus added. They now fall into the hands of Marlin Cousins, who is the district’s new administrative director of family and community engagement. Cousin spent eight months as interim communications chief, but his roots are in parent and community engagement, and he said he’s “very excited” to lead that effort again.
“It is imperative that our parents and caregivers are actively involved in their children’s education,” Cousin said. “Research shows that when parents are involved in their child’s education, academic achievement increases and behavioral problems decrease.”
Gast and a cousin serve on Cole’s leadership team.
More developments
The HR department is also changing.
In mid-October, Cole ousted longtime HR chief Nicola Hall. Hall has been reassigned to serve in the new role of administrative director of child nutrition, where she leads nutrition services for the district, including Ellen McKnight Hill, the newly appointed director of child nutrition.
Hall’s human resources duties are being carried out in the meantime by Beanca Brumfield-Williams. A longtime human resources administrator, Brumfield-Williams also took Hall’s place on Cole’s executive leadership team. Meanwhile, the district posted an ad on Oct. 18 seeking a new human resources chief.
Narcisse hired Hall to take over human resources in November 2021. It was difficult at times. Hall dealt with periodic unrest among the staff, caused occasionally by Narcisse’s initiatives, and at times maintained poor relations with groups of staff. Hall’s department has also struggled to fill teaching vacancies, which have grown significantly during the pandemic, forcing teachers to routinely cover extra hours.
Cole also replaced several of his executive directors, a level of administrators who typically oversee school principals and other district staff. Here are some of his latest moves:
- Promoted Johnny Sam to executive director of school leadership; she was previously an elementary school principal. Sam’s promotion coincides with the departure of Crystal Aquillard, herself an executive director of school leadership, who is leaving to work for the Louisiana Department of Education.
- Promoted James Smith to executive director of alternative education, replacing Larry James, who subsequently resigned. James was previously the Special Support Programs Coordinator.
- Promoted Tirza Fernandez-Brazier from executive director of school leadership focused on school counseling to become coordinator of special support programs.
- Promotes Amber Boyd to executive director of school leadership, focusing on workforce issues; previously she was the director of the regional Career-Technical and Educational Center. Boyd replaces Karen Smith, who was reassigned to the relatively new job of employee retention and accountability coordinator. Smith was one of Narcissus’ first employees, serving as his influential chief of staff, a position that has since been eliminated.