BATON ROUGE, La. (BRPROUD) — All district seats on the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education are open for qualifying. The governor appoints another three at-large seats, and their terms run along with the governor’s.
BESE sets rules and standards for public early and K-12 education in Louisiana. The board decides curriculum and classroom policy, sets program budgets and creates regulations for schools, administrators and teachers.
The primary is set for Oct. 14. The general election will be Nov. 18.
Across Louisiana, voters will cast ballots for the governor, lieutenant governor, attorney general, secretary of state, treasurer, insurance commissioner and commissioner of agriculture and forestry.
Qualifying for state and local races was Aug. 8-10. If a race had only one candidate at the end of qualifying at 4:30 p.m. Aug. 10, that person is set to take office at the start of the next term.
Who’s running for each seat?
District 1
- Paul Hollis, Republican
- Lauren Jewett, Democrat
District 2
- Sharon Latten Clark, Democrat
- Eric J. Jones, Democrat
District 3
- “Sandy” LeBlanc Holloway, Republican
District 4
- Paige Hoffpauir, Republican
- Stacey Melerine, Republican
- Emma Shepard, Democrat
District 5
- “Toby” Brazzel, Republican
- Lance Harris, Republican
District 6
- “Ronnie” Morris, Republican
- Jodi Rollins, Republican
District 7
- Cathy S. Banks, Republican
- Kevin M. Berken, Republican
- Erick Knezek, Republican
District 8
- Preston Castille, Democrat
- Dolores “DeeDee” Cormier-Zenon, Democrat
