• By CHANTE DIONNE WARREN
• Advocate staff writer
• Published: Oct 17, 2009 - Page: 4B

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John Dilworth said Friday he has spent his first 100 days getting a handle on the school district’s needs — working with teachers, visiting with students and meeting their parents — in order to galvanize the community and increase involvement.

The new East Baton Rouge Parish School superintendent met with about 50 people attending a Forum 35 Public Education Project luncheon at Juban’s Restaurant.

“Our passion is how can we galvanize the community to make a difference in schools,” Dilworth said.

A former Montgomery, Ala., superintendent, Dilworth started working in Baton Rouge on July 1. His meetings with business people, teachers, students and parents have helped him focus on priorities that get people involved.

Dilworth cited a recent visit to the Shaw Center where he met an executive who committed to adopting Banks Elementary School and to providing students’ supplies and other needs, he said.

Dilworth said he meets regularly with teachers and believes in making decisions after consulting with them. “We get input on what they think on implementing programs.”

He also said he wants to develop strong avenues of communication with parents.

“We need a network to get parents who are not involved, engaged in the lives of their children to teach them the importance of getting kids to school on time …” he said.

Dilworth said there are areas that he wants to improve, including expanding free pre-K programs to middle-class families already burdened with mortgages and car notes.

Currently, pre-K programs are geared for “at-risk” children.

Dilworth also said he wants to start year-round schooling because children in poverty often have nothing to do in the summer when “education ceases” for them.

According to the public system, about 80 percent of students receive free or reduced-price lunches — an indicator of poverty, he said.

Also, establishing a career education center in Baton Rouge would provide skills and knowledge to all students and prepare them for the day they enter the work force, he said.