BESE runoffs set for Roemer and Songy, Hill and Guillory

Chas Roemer was headed for a runoff Saturday night in his bid for a second term on Louisiana’s top school board in one of seven races that sparked rare, statewide attention.

In the other Baton Rouge area board contest, Carolyn Hill and Jim Guillory led a four-way battle for the District 8 slot on the state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education, according to unofficial results.

Runoffs are scheduled for Nov. 19, including the Hill-Guillory contest.

Statewide, three candidates backed by Gov. Bobby Jindal won, one was leading but headed for a runoff and one lost.

Jindal, who coasted to re-election on Saturday, is hoping to reshape BESE so he can prevail in the selection of the next superintendent of education and other key school issues in his second term.

BESE sets policies for an estimated 668,000 public school students.

This year’s contests featured campaigns of up to $250,000 for an unpaid job, heated splits over the direction of schools, and unusually heavy interest from Jindal’s team and outside groups.

Roemer, who holds the District 6 slot, was challenged by former Ascension Parish Superintendent Donald Songy, of Prairieville, and former teacher Beth Meyers, of Denham Springs.

With all 389 precincts reporting the results were: Roemer: 59,412, 44.58 percent; Songy: 38,400, 28.81 percent; Meyers: 35,469, 26.61 percent.

Roemer, a businessman, was backed by the Alliance for Better Classrooms, or ABC, which is a self-styled reform group.

The group was financed by Baton Rouge contractor Lane Grigsby and other business leaders and represents one side of the tug-of-war over the direction of public schools.

ABC favors sweeping changes in how schools are funded and promotes school choice, tax credits and tax deductions as needed options for families stuck in failing schools.

Songy was backed by the Coalition for Louisiana Public Education, which represents the other side of the debate.

It includes school board members, superintendents and the state’s two largest teacher unions and generally opposes calls for sweeping changes in public schools.

Coalition members have criticized Jindal’s influence over BESE, charter schools and letter grades for public schools.

Roemer and Meyers are Republicans. Songy is a Democrat.

“I am pleased,” Roemer said late Saturday night. “I suspected that this was where we were going to end up,” he said of the runoff.

But Songy, who will face Roemer next month, said the results show that well over half of voters cast ballots against the incumbent.

“And so I think that bodes well for me,” he said.

District 6 includes much of East Baton Rouge and Ascension parishes as well as Livingston, Tangipahoa and Washington Parishes.

In District 8, four contenders hoped to succeed Linda Johnson, of Plaquemine, who did not seek re-election.

Guillory, who lives in Plaucheville, is a retired businessman and former local school board member.

Hill, who lives in Baton Rouge, is a certified social worker.

The other contenders were Domoine Rutledge, who is general counsel for the East Baton Rouge Parish school system, and Russell Armstrong, a district support coordinator for the state Department of Education.

With 539 of 540 precincts reporting the results were: Rutledge: 24,134, 20.96 percent; Hill: 33,941, 29.48 percent; Armstrong: 24,255, 21.07 percent; Guillory: 32,813, 28.50 percent.

Rutledge, Hill and Armstrong are Democrats. Guillory has no party affiliation.

“I am just thrilled,” Hill said. “I have been crying all night.”

Guillory said he was pleasantly surprise by the results.

“I was hoping I would get in a runoff,” he said.

District 8 includes parts of East Baton Rouge and Ascension parishes as well as West Baton Rouge, West Feliciana, East Feliciana, St. Helena and Avoyelles parishes.

The other races are:

DISTRICT 7: Incumbent Dale Bayard, of Lake Charles, was unable to fend off a challenge by Holly Boffy, of Youngsville.

Both are Republicans.

With 470 of 475 precincts reporting the results were: Boffy: 81,544, 66.57 percent; Bayard: 40,947, 33.43 percent.

Bayard, a financial adviser, was backed by the coalition.

Boffy, who is director of professional development for the Associated Professional Educators of Louisiana, was backed by ABC and Jindal.

DISTRICT 3: Incumbent Glenny Lee Buquet, of Houma, was toppled by Lottie Polozola Beebe, of Breaux Bridge.

Buquet is a Democrat and Beebe is a Republican.

With 500 of 508 precincts reporting the results were: Buquet: 53,461, 44.24 percent; Beebe: 67,389, 55.76 percent.

Buquet, a 19-year veteran of BESE, was backed by ABC and Jindal.

Beebe, who is director of human resources for the St. Martin Parish school system, was endorsed by the coalition.

DISTRICT 1: Incumbent Jim Garvey, of Metairie, overcame challenges by Sharon W. Hewitt, of Slidell, and Lee Barrios, of Abita Springs.

Garvey and Hewitt are Republicans. Barrios has no party affiliation.

With all 387 precincts reporting the results were: Garvey: 57,417, 58.28 percent; Hewitt: 29,360, 29.80 percent; Barrios: 11,745, 11.92 percent.

Garvey is a lawyer and backed by Jindal and ABC.

DISTRICT 2: Incumbent Louella Givens, of New Orleans, was challenged by Kira Orange Jones, of New Orleans, Pam Matus, of LaPlace, and Ferdinand Wallace Jr., of Reserve.

With 517 of 524 precincts reporting the results were: Givens: 25,596, 29.72 percent; Orange: 33,960, 39.43 percent; Matus: 14,502, 16.84 percent; Wallace: 12,063, 14.01 percent.

Givens, Jones and Wallace are Democrats. Matus has no party affiliation.

DISTRICT 5: Incumbent Keith Guice, of Monroe, was defeated by Jay Guillot, of Ruston.

With all 828 precincts reporting the results were: Guice: 68,364, 45.38 percent; Guillot: 82,270, 54.62 percent.

Guice is a Democrat. Guillot is a Republican and backed by Jindal and ABC.

Comments

1) Comment by Get Real - 27/10/2011

@jeffshawdow...Do really believe that garbage. The only thing that Roemer has ever done is blame teachers and schools for the problems. No one hold parents and children accountability for their education. Reformer really....the scores never changed from when the state reported achievement with stars instead of the letter system. Look at the school score with the stars and with the letter grade when you compare they are the same.

2) Comment by bluedogdemocrat - 23/10/2011

@twinkie1, I lost respect for Michael Jackson (glad he lost against Yvonne Dorsey-Welch-Guillory) because he was paid to spoil, just as Cravins messed it up (his was ego) for Willie Mount of Lake Charles from beating Dr. Boustany in Lafayette area. The reality is I would rather have a moderate democrat then a right conservative. Someone next time needs to run against Dr. Cassidy. @ jeffsadow, your assessment is unfortunately correct, but there is no true establishment person who does not want some gradual change in the order of things from Pre K thru 16 college. The issue is process, not that change does not need to occur. Charter, charter, charter, voucher, voucher, vocher, TFA, TFA, NTP, NTP, are not the curealls for the ails of Louisiana's low performance. It has been said too many times, parental accountability, no tenure (I'm in favor, a good teacher does not worry tenure), performance evaluation done fairly and equitably, professional development to equip, student accountability, etc. Stop blaming the teachers for everything that is bad with our society therefore it's children. Johnny can't read, if mamma doesn't push reading at home and supports the teacher when Johnny won't be quiet or sit still long enough to read.

3) Comment by twinkie1cat - 23/10/2011

It is interesting to note that bluedogdemocrat mentioned the possibility that certain BESE candidates might have been Jindal machine backed plants. That obviously happened in the last congressional election when Michael Jackson, no party at the time, was placed in the North Baton Rouge run to take black votes from Don Cazyoux, ruining the opportunity for Louisiana to have at least a few non-Republican representatives outside of New Orleans. Money begats power in this state and this kind of crooked politicking needs to be exposed in the Advocate and everywhere else that it can be effectively used so that Louisiana can rise above the Republican hell Jindal has thrown us into. May God have mercy on Louisiana. We have a king who can buy the vote in the mansion and out-of-state money running this state. This could be a bleak 4 years.

4) Comment by twinkie1cat - 23/10/2011

The BESE District 6 slot may be one of the few hopes that supporters have to save the public schools with Jindal being tragically re-elected. Chas Roemer tried to make the election one of liberals vs conservatives, but, frankly Donald Songy is the kind of person we need on the BESE board. He is certainly no liberal. I doubt if such a person exists in Ascension Parish. I lived in Gonzales for 4 years and never found one. Instead of some Jindal yes-man politician, Mr. Songy is a career educator. He proved his value by running one of the top schools systems in Louisiana for many years and only retired at the end of the last one. That is Ascension Parish. I worked for one year for Ascension Parish Schools. I did not like the job, but it had nothing to do with the quality of the system, rather with a bully teacher who had the principal's ear and my strong preference for teaching poor, inner city students. The system was impressive both in the quality of facilities and the educational achievement of the students. Ascension did not go "on the cheap" and hire mostly inexperienced teachers. Many of us had Master's and higher degrees. (The bully did not and the fact that I knew what I was doing bothered her immensely.) The schools were well run with few fights and even the older buildings were kept in good repair and spotlessly clean. The teachers had the supplies they needed and were not forced to buy their own copier paper as occurs in many systems and really had to spend little of their own money on supplies. ( I was accustomed to spending $500-2000 a year out of pocket for supplies.) I never heard about any administrators being drunk at work or coming on to teachers as happened in another system. In other words Ascension was a professionally run system where students learned and only one group of students, the impoverished ones in Donaldsonville scored below average. We all know that poverty can have drastic effects on school achievement. But even their low was not as low as that of many other systems. Donald Songy is a strong supporter of public schools. He needs to win a BESE seat so that Bobby Jindal will have less opportunity to damage the schools further than he has already and in order to help the next State Superintendent be chosen who is what he or she must be to run Louisiana's schools, a certified, experienced, career TEACHER.

5) Comment by hemogoblin - 23/10/2011

What has Chas Roemer done for Baton Rouge schools? Look at the scores of the RSD schools, the charter schools, in Baton Rouge and find out. Evaluation and takeover of public schools is based solely on test grades without regard to the social and economic circumstances of the students in the school. This is the easy way to say, "We are doing something to improve education." But is this the best way to improve schools? The result of state takeover in Baton Rouge is displacement of teachers and principals, disruption of students' education, and substitution with charter schools that have little or no oversight and even worse test scores than the schools they replaced. It might look good in sound bites, but it has been a step backwards in education of our children. What would have a real impact on education in Louisiana? Longer school days so that someone is making sure the children do homework? Year round schools? Paying more to teachers who work in inner-city schools to get the best ones there? Improving education will require a whole lot more hard work than just giving letter grades to public schools based on standard test scores. It makes no sense to attack the teachers, the ones who work with our students day-in and day-out, often in very tough circumstances. If we really want to improve Louisiana education, our state and local governments should work with and support our teachers.

6) Comment by jeffsadow - 23/10/2011

I wish the article had been more about the reformers vs. establishment candidates. Refomers who won -- Garvey, Guillot, Boffy. Establishmentarian who won -- Beebe. Reformers in runoff -- Roemer, Jones, and Hill leans that way. Establishmentarians in runoff -- Songy, GIvens, and Guillory leans that way. End result -- with the three Jindal appointees, reformers have a majority, and with Roemer favored, Jones a little better than 50/50, and Hill in a tossup, it's looking like a successful campaign for reformers and, therefore, Louisiana's children.

7) Comment by BlameEveryone - 23/10/2011

Mr. Songy was my principal in grade school and had made his way to superintendent by the time I attended high school. The quality public education I received enabled me to breeze through LSU and graduate with honors. He was always a fair and diligent professional and his actions shaped the Ascension Parish school system into something to be desired. Proof can be seen by the large influx of residents after Katrina seeking private school caliber eduacation in the public system. According to the C. Roemer commercial, Mr. Songy is a liberal. Just a common hot-word political technique. Roemer will continue to spend $$ to hide the fact that their resumes don't compare. A businessman has no business determining better methods to educate our public. One thing is for sure, Mr. Songy will not run a negative campaign and his real world accomplishments should be all that are needed to win the seat in District 6.

8) Comment by LawyerDan65 - 23/10/2011

In DIstrict 6 more people voted for the former superintendent and teacher than voted for the non-educator incumbent....interesting...so the run-off is the incumbent vs the former superintendent of one fo the top school systems in the state

9) Comment by bluedogdemocrat - 23/10/2011

I am sorry Garvey won, that Guice & Bayard lost against the Jindal machine candidtes, but at least Beebee won, and there will be a run off with Songy vs Roemer, Hill vs Guillory and Givens & Orange-Jones. I'm not sure if Hill or Guillory were JIndal plants paid to run or if Orange-Jones was not a JIndal plant paid to run. The covering will be taken off soon.