Several months ago, we noted that the East Baton Rouge Parish School Board (which excludes the breakaway school districts of Baker, Zachary, and Central) adopted a new redistricting plan that reduced its membership from 12 to 11 members. The close of candidate filing today represents the first time EBR School Board members will be running under the 11 district plan.

All in all, 24 candidates are running for the 11 districts of the EBR school system. Three candidates are automatically elected because no one else filed by 5PM Friday: (District 1) Republican David Tatman (who replaces the retiring Dr. Derrick Spell), incumbent Democrat Tarvald Smith in District 4, and incumbent Republican Jill Dyason in District 10. Below are the competitors for the remaining eight districts (maps for the new districts are here):

District 2 – incumbent Democrat Vereta Lee vs Democrat Michael Self;

District 3 – incumbent Democrat Darryl Robertson vs Democrat Kenyetta Nelson-Smith;

District 5 -(incumbent Jay Augustine retired) Democrats Sterling Anthony, Ralph Johnson, and Evelyn Ware-Jackson ;

District 6 – incumbent Democrat W.T. Winfield vs Democrat Craig Freeman;

District 7 – incumbent Republican Noel Hammatt vs Republican Barbara Reich Freiberg;

District 8 – (Democratic incumbent Greg Baldwin retired) Republican Connie Bernard faces Democrats Brian Blackwell, Brandon Decuir, and Eva Kemp-Melder;

District 9 – incumbent Republican Jerry Arbour faces Democrat Marston Fowler and Independent Brett Jackson;

District 11 – incumbent Republican Randy Lamana  faces Democrat Brenda Carter and Indpendent Ray Allmon