Lamont Cole
LaMont Cole is a resident of district seven in Baton Rouge. He has lived in Fairfield, Eden Park, and Capital Heights. LaMont has either lived, attended school, or worked in district seven for the past 40 years.
He has dedicated his life to improving the community and serving as a positive role model to inner-city youth. He has been in the field of education for 25 years. His commitment to education was fostered at a young age by his strong and nurturing mother. He credits his upbringing and his faith in God for placing him on the right path for success. He began working with young children in 1988, when he worked as a teacher’s aide at The Duffield’s Children’s Centre in Brooklyn, New York.
His passion for education led him to complete a Baccalaureate of Arts from Louisiana State University and later a Master of Education from Southern University in Administration and Supervision. He has served as the Assistant Principal at Westdale Middle and McKinley Middle Magnet, and principal at Park Forest Middle School and Capitol Middle school in East Baton Rouge Parish. His last assignment as principal was for The Community School for Apprenticeship Learning, known to most in the Baton Rouge areas as CSAL, which is a 6-8 grade charter middle school in Baton Rouge where he worked diligently to improve education for inner-city youth leading it to be one of the top performing charter schools in the state of Louisiana. He currently serves as the CAO of CSAL INC., which is a charter management group operating three charter schools in the state of Louisiana where he guides the instructional programming at each school.
Mr Cole’s masterful leadership is evidenced on a daily basis as he interacts with students, teachers and parents. He is often found in the classrooms supporting teachers, guiding instruction, and motivating students. In his 16-year career as a school leader, he and his teams have always been successful moving schools forward positively. He successfully guided the instructional practices which helped to earn Madison Preparatory the letter grade of ‘B’ and a National Blue-Ribbon award for Academic Excellence. CSAL Middle School also earned a letter grade of B under Mr. Cole’s instructional leadership. Both happened in the fall of 2015.
His work as Chief Academic Officer of a network of public schools has afforded him the opportunity to increase educational outcomes through creating a space within the community that promotes and inspires academic rigor and participation. As the former president of Baton Rouge’s NAACP and former program director of the Young Leadership Academy, Cole increased organizational impact through innovative initiatives. During his leadership with NAACP, he fought to change the state's accountability system which for years kept students from being promoted to the 4th and 8th grade and in some cases did not allow students to graduate from high school. As the program director of “Young Leader’s Academy, he directed and helped to mentor over 100 young men yearly to be better citizens in the Baton Rouge community.
Mr Cole’s community leadership extends to service on the board of HOPE Community Redevelopment, a board member of The Tyrus Thomas Foundation and The Glen ‘Big Baby’ Davis Foundation. He has also served on other boards, including the ABC Board and the board for Jess’s Bra Closet.
In addition to these leadership obligations, Mr Cole served as the President of the Baton Rouge NAACP and was a co-host of a weekly radio show called NAACP speaks, for five years where he engaged the listening audience in discussions of challenging community issues.
In the fall of 2015 Mr. Cole was nominated to serve on the East Baton Rouge Parish Metropolitan Council to represent District seven in Baton Rouge. He was successfully appointed to serve in the seat of Metro - Councilman for District seven in Baton Rouge. In the fall of 2016 Mr. Cole was elected by the people of district seven to serve on the Metro – Council for four years. Mr. Cole has received numerous local and state-wide awards for his service to the Baton Rouge Community.
Councilman LaMont Cole has served as Councilman of council district seven since January of 2016. During his service, he gained national acclaim for his activism and advocacy for police brutality reform during the wake of the Alton Sterling murder. Months later after the “Great Flood of 2016”, he led the charge to raise thousands in philanthropic funding to support families in rebuilding and achieving normalcy.
In addition, to this work he has led the charge to execute a Disparity study which is required by law to provide a comprehensive analysis of just how fractured the economic distribution system is, and how minorities are being left out of the equation. He, along with other advocates and politicians, intend to use the findings from this study to further push the agenda for increasing resources, establishing a goal’s program for small and minority businesses and re-investing in North Baton Rouge. In addition, he was a member of the mayor’s use of force committee which established the city’s first de-escalation policy for the police department.
He has worked with the Capital Heights Community to establish a crime prevention district for the area. He also worked with the members of Capital Heights to build a pocket park over Wards Creek on Capital Heights. He has also worked with Hundred Oaks community to address infrastructure issues.
Under Cole’s service, the city’s first needle exchange program was enacted and policies to decriminalize marijuana were introduced. He worked with members of the business community to establish guidelines for the ITEP program which for over 80 years allowed for tax abatements for manufacturing companies with no local input.
Mr Cole is also the CEO of the ColeGroup, which is an education consulting firm specializing in leadership development, community organizing, school improvement and motivational speaking.
Mr. Cole devotes many weekends to spearheading anti-gun and anti-violence rallies in the community, as well as coordinating community volunteer efforts like voter registration and workforce training. Mr Cole’s life is a striking example of service through action, as each day he shapes and inspires the youth of our community and works to improve the quality of life for all citizens.
His commitment to the community is demonstrated in both his annual bike ride against violence and his implementation of a free bike registration program to decrease police confiscation of bikes. His annual job fairs increase access to job training skills and employers. On any given weekday evening, you can find him at a local football game or community event, being in his element--with the people.
In the fall of 2020 Cole was re-elected to serve as the councilman for district seven. On January 2, 2021 he was elected by his colleagues on the council to serve as the Mayor-Pro Tempore. He is the first African – American male to be elected by his colleagues to serve is that capacity.
Cole’s mantra is “there are only two times in life when one must commit him/herself to any level of significant success when working to serve people,--when you feel like it and when you don’t.” A man truly for and with the people, Cole’s every step is calculated with those he serves in mind. Cole is committed to bringing about the type of change to disrupt the status quo and to replace the fractured, city with systems and policies that support equitable access and opportunities for all people.
He is the husband of Cassie Cole and the proud father of daughter Parker Cole and son Carter Cole.