Thank you for visiting my website!

More importantly, thanks for allowing me to serve you on the East Baton Rouge Parish School Board for nearly sixteen years. As a community, working together, we have accomplished much in those years. From the ending of a desegregation lawsuit that began before I was born, to fixing roofs on every one of our schools, and building some remarkable new schools while renovating others, the evidence is clear. This is clearly a school system moving forward! None of this would have been possible without the help of so many caring citizens throughout this community.
 
During my service as your School Board Member, the academic achievement of our students, overall, continues to rise, in spite of the loss of portions of the district that had always had some of the highest scores. Year after year one of your EBR Schools is recognized as a National Blue Ribbon School. While we are not satisfied with the pace of student improvement, the findings of numerous national organizations such as the Stupski and Broad Foundations have determined that the schools and the administration of our school system have in place the teachers, the administrators, and the policies that are recognized as "best practices" to move this system forward. It is worth noting that the Recovery School District (RSD) schools have not made much progress in attracting parents: in spite of tremendous amounts of advertising and free publicity, the RSD schools remain half empty. At a recent meeting, it was pointed out by the RSD Superintendent that the charters in Baton Rouge under RSD control were performing much worse than they had under EBR control.
 
Events in the past few months have made clear to me that there are still those who serve on school boards for the wrong reasons. My continued pledge to you is to serve to the best of my ability, the interests of the citizens and the students of our community. I am not for sale, and I will continue to serve no other interests, and to expose, whenever and wherever I find it, evidence that suggests that the best interests of our students, and our community, are not being served.
 
I ask you for your support as we continue to build upon the successes of the past, and promises of the future. For a small sampling of the exciting changes that have taken place in EBR schools, take a look at the "Issues" section of our website!
 
Sincerely,
 
Noel Hammatt
School Board Member, District 7

East Baton Rouge Parish School Board