Faulk Led Way to Excellence for Central
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General Excellence Louisiana Press Association CENTRALCENTRAL CITYCITY National Newspaper Assn. Central’s Great Birthday Bash Central’s 12th Anniversary of Incorporation 5-10 p.m. July 15 Wildcat Stadium ® & The Leader NEWSNEWSJuly 2017 • Vol. 20, No. 7 • 16 Pages • Circulation 18,000 • 50,000 online • www.centralcitynews.us • 225-261-5055 Mayor Shelton Reports on Central’s 12th Anniversary TheCentral Making State of the City Solid Recovery One Year After Historic Floods Woody Jenkins Editor BATON ROUGE — Central Mayor Jr. Shelton delivered his Annual State of the City of Central Report Tuesday on the 12th anniversary of the creation of the City of Central, July 11, 2005. The mayor reviewed the difficult year the city has experienced since the 1,000-year flood of August 2016 and the city’s efforts to help its citizens get back on their feet. Mayor Shelton invited everyone to Central’s annual Birthday Bash this Saturday from 5 to 10 p.m. at Wildcat Stadium. The State of the City address was held at the Ronald Reagan News- maker Luncheon at Café Améric- Central Mayor Jr. Shelton with Sen. Bodi White, Cameron and Don St. Romain, and Supreme Court Justice Jeff Hughes ain. It is sponsored by the Repub- is very slow growth. In fact, it has around the state and nation at the 50 homes, and one of them was too lican Party of East Baton Rouge. grown by only one-half of one per- cities that are dying and ask them- important not to accept. That was In his address, the mayor an- cent in the past 10 years, he said. selves if that’s the kind of city they Shoecreek, which will be located swered critics who attack his pro- He said every city is either grow- want to live in. on the Central Thruway across growth policies, saying the reality ing or dying, and most cities are He said the Council has only ap- from Wal-Mart. “This development is that while Central is growing, it dying. He invited citizens to look proved three developments of over See MAYOR on Page 16 Faulk Led Way to Excellence for Central ertheless, after extensive interviews and Faulk Brought System public hearings, Faulk was selected and be- came the first employee of the new school system. From a Mere Concept Central was scheduled to take over the four public schools located in Central from To No. 2 in Louisiana the East Baton Rouge Parish School Sys- CENTRAL — Central schools Supt. Mike tem on July 1, 2007. At the time, EBR was Faulk, who built the Central Community struggling and ranked No. 58 out of Louisi- School System brick by brick from the ana’s 69 school systems. ground up, will resign his position De- The four existing public schools in Cen- cember 31, 2017, to become the Executive tral — Bellingrath Hills Elementary, Tan- Director of the Louisiana Association of glewood Elementary, Central Middle, and School Superintendents. Faulk was the first Central High — were in generally poor person hired by the Central School Board physical condition, especially Central Mid- in early 2007. Since then, he has done what dle School, which was laced with asbestos few people have done in modern times — and had been partially condemned. create an independent school system. Working with a supportive and gener- After voters statewide approved a con- ally non-political school board, Faulk de- stitutional amendment to create the Central veloped a plan and began interviewing and school system in 2006, the new Central hiring personnel. He put high value on the Community School Board was appointed credentials and qualifications of applicants and took office in early 2007. One of the and appeared to stay away from hiring peo- board’s first actions was to begin a search ple based on political connections. for a new superintendent. Several candi- At Central High School, which was a dates applied, including some well respect- relatively high performing school, he kept ed local candidates. most of the personnel in place. In contrast, Faulk, a Cajun from Iberia Parish who at Tanglewood, which had been performing had served as superintendent in Morehouse poorly, he only retained four of 31 faculty Parish and as a high school principal in members. Supt. Mike Faulk has resigned effective Dec. 31, 2017. Texas, was considered a long shot. Nev- See 10 YEARS on Page 8 2 Thursday, July 13, 2017 COMMUNITY PRESS, LLC CAPITAL CITY NEWS CENTRAL CITY NEWS & & South Baton Rouge Journal Vol. 26 • No. 7 The Leader Vol. 20 • No. 7• CCN No. 402 910 North Foster Drive Post Office Box 1 Baton Rouge, LA 70806 City of Central, LA 70739 910 North Foster Drive Vol. 1 • No. 4 Istrouma Journal Baton Rouge, LA 70806 Phone (225) 261-5055 • Entire contents © 2017 Email stories and photos to [email protected] Published Monthly on the first Thursday of each month The Leader was founded April 30, 1998. The Central City News was founded April 21, 2005. They merged May 4, 2006. The South Baton Rouge Journal began publication in 1989. It went on hiatus in 2008 during its 20th year of publication. The Journal resumed publication as the Capital City News on Aug. 16, 2012, with Vol. 21, No. 1. Istrouma Journal began April 6, 2017 Editor & Publisher Woody Jenkins Business Manager Jolice Provost Account Executive Kim Powers Member, Louisiana Press Association and Chamber EBR Deadline for news and advertising: 5 p.m. Friday before publication SCOREBOARD FOR SALE — Workers took down the scoreboard at the Istrouma foot- $18 a year by subscription in advance • $25 a year outside East Baton Rouge ball stadium to make way for a new one. Now as a fundraiser effort, the old one is for sale to the highest bidder. For information, call Wayne Messina at 505-7137. Independent, Unelected Boards Skim Cream Off the Top Pockets of Prosperity in Struggling City-Parish ply undedicate all these funds? Well, flooded and never repaired, which entities are always building and add- that, my friend, is easy to say and now sit empty and rotting? ing more and more and more. They Agencies Flush very difficult to do! Most people agree we need more are indeed “pockets of prosperity” in The same political forces that got roads, bridges, and drainage. South a sea of hurt. While Need for the funds dedicated emerge anytime a of Florida Boulevard, it’s impossible Two of these entities are BREC reform is proposed. Those who want to go anywhere during much of the and the Library Board. to “reform” the system almost al- day because our roads are jammed Sometimes their arrogance gets Drainage, Roads ways lose and often quite justifiably. beyond capacity. We see rural bridg- away from them, such as when the One example is dedicated funds for es closed because they are unsafe. Library Board decided to tear down Continues Unmet law enforcement supplemental pay. Then we watch those bridges stay a perfectly good library downtown A legislator may talk big about re- closed for months awaiting money and build another in its place. Woody Jenkins pealing it and even offer a bill to do to repair them. Or BREC, which proposed tearing Editor so. But when 400 of your local po- We saw historic flooding last Au- down the Baton Rouge Zoo, located licemen and sheriff’s deputies show gust, and we see “ordinary” flooding in North Baton Rouge, and moving BATON ROUGE — For years, there up at the Capitol for the committee quite often. Sometimes it is because it somewhere close to the extreme have been well-justified complain- hearing on the bill, even the author is the money was never spent to build southern border of the parish at the ing that too much of our state bud- likely to vote against his own bill — projects that were and continue to be Iberville Parish line. get is tied up in so-called dedicated just to show how sincerely he regrets desperately needed. BREC has more than $100 million funds. This is money locked up such a grave error! So we have a City-Parish govern- in surplus. Yet, its funds, like those by the Louisiana Constitution or Howover, the problem of dedi- ment with a huge annual budget. Yet, of the Library Board, are never sub- state statutes, which can only be cated funds is not confined to state much of the money is wasted. So the jected to the City-Parish budget pro- used for certain specified purpos- government. It is just as bad, maybe City-Parish is always short on money. cess. They are their own fiefdoms. es — not necessarily for what the worse, at the local level here in East However, on the other side of the Some of our City-Parish Council greatest needs in the state may be. Baton Rouge Parish. coin, local government in this parish members and state legislators should Of course, dedicated funds don’t The City-Parish doesn’t do much has “pockets of prosperity.” These sit down and come up with a plan to happen by accident. Legislators in well and it does many things poorly are governmental agencies that seem require those two boards to come to one four-year term want to protect but one thing it is good at is squan- to defy the law of gravity. their senses and pay part of their lar- certain money from the whims of fu- dering money. You would think we The City-Parish government may gess to the City-Parish as their share ture legislators. So they pass a law.