Where did Weston Broome say "you must incorporate as a city first..."?

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Many opponents of White’s plan argued that the area, which consists of the unincorporated, southeastern portion of Baton Rouge, cannot form its own school district because it is not its own city. With this argument in mind, proponents of the separate school district came up with a new approach: they were going to break away from Baton Rouge altogether and create their own city (Samuels 2013b). Writing for The Times-Picayune, reporter Diana Samuels said that St. George supporters believed that forming a separate city would render their opponents’ arguments moot and that “the law would allow them to create a school district without returning to the legislature for a constitutional amendment” (2013b).1 Members of Local Schools for Local Children met to vote on a name for the proposed city, and in September 2013, they chose the name of St. George (Samuels 2013b). The City Incorporating the city of St. George was not the original intention of our grassroots group. Originally, we were attempting to provide local schools for local children through the creation of an independent school district in the southern part of the parish . . . Opposition to our efforts at improving local education from a faction of the Louisiana House of Representatives forced us to think differently. We found that incorporated cities like Baker, Zachary and Central have much better opportunities to create their own school districts. As we began debating whether to expand the fight into incorporating a city, we recognized what a wonderful opportunity we have to create Louisiana's next great municipality right here in St. George (The City of St. George 2013). Belinda Davis believed that the attempted incorporation of St. George would be different from the incorporations of Baker, Zachary, or Central because, unlike this time, there had not been a core group of dedicated parents who had organized to oppose those breakaways. One Community, One School District was formed to be that opposing voice. It had organized against the proposed breakaway school district, and now it was organizing against the proposed breakaway city. Belinda noted that one of their strongest arguments against the breakaway school district was that it would be the first time in Louisiana’s history that a collection of neighborhoods was given the right to have its own school system—all other school districts in the state were either parish- or city-wide districts. She and other OCOSD members believed this could set a dangerous precedent: “Why couldn’t the University Country Club decide to create its own school system?” she asked. “We saw this going down a slippery slope” (Belinda Davis, personal interview, November 24, 2014). She argued, however, that the St. George proponents wrongly believed that this distinction was the only thing stopping them from getting their own school district. While it would be easier to bring legislators to their side if they formed their own city, Davis did not think it would be guaranteed. If they successfully formed their own city, they would still need to go back to the legislature to change the bill that created the Southeast Baton Rouge School District, since the boundaries would now be different. Assuming that measure passed the legislature, they would need a constitutional amendment and a vote of the people of Louisiana in order to get funding for their school district (Belinda Davis, personal interview, November 24, 2014). 1 This belief, however, contradicts the ways in which the state legislature has handled similar issues in the past. See Appendix D for further

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