BY DOUG GRAHAM | Staff writer Superintendent LaMont Cole faced some big decisions in his first 100 days as the leader of East Baton Rouge Parish schools. His next priority is tackling the contentious issue of closing and consolidating schools. Other things on his plate: improving low-performing schools; budget reform; increasing employee pay; changing school start times; and allowing transient students to stay in their preferred schools. “We have to imagine something new, we have to imagine something different, we have to have the courage to do something different,” he said at a luncheon Friday. See what else Cole had to say. The Louisiana Board of Elementary and Secondary Education has decided to remove the board of directors of troubled Impact Charter School in Baker. The move likely means Chakesha Scott, the school's founder, is probably on her way out the door. Scott's management of the school was called into question by a damning state investigative audit of the school's operations earlier this month. Read about what's next for the school. Traveling west on Interstate 12 in Baton Rouge should be safer after the permanent reconfiguration where the highway merges into Interstate 10 just before the College Drive exit goes into effect today, the state Department of Transportation and Development said. The highway realignment is part of the nearly completed, $52.3 million I-10/I-12 College Drive Flyover project, which began in earnest in April 2021 and is expected to be completed by the midyear. Read what the changes will mean for drivers. | 