Following weeks of rumors and speculation regarding his interest in joining the school board, Cajundome Director Greg Davis has "taken the plunge," qualifying today to run for the District 2 seat being vacated by board President Carl LaCombe. Following weeks of rumors and speculation regarding his interest in joining the school board, Cajundome Director Greg Davis has "taken the plunge," qualifying today to run for the District 2 seat being vacated by board President Carl LaCombe. "I've been close to politics for 25 years as Cajundome director, and I always said I'd never go into it," Davis told The Independent Weekly today. "The thing that made me do it is, we have 30,000 kids in our public school system, and up to 18,000 of them are on free or reduced lunch, and many of them are dropping out, so I decided to take the plunge."
Davis, registered "no party," has been a community activist and occasional school board gadfly for public education issues, namely the rising dropout rate and achievement gap of children of poverty in Lafayette schools. He is a past chairman of the Greater Lafayette Chamber of Commerce, founding member of the statewide nonprofit Education's Next Horizon, education committee member of the 100 Black Men of Greater Lafayette, and a member of the Council for a Better Louisiana and the Lafayette Public Education Stakeholders Coalition. Davis has served as director of the Cajundome since 1993.
Davis says he wants to help make Lafayette the top performing school district in the state, with a goal of 95 percent of all public school students in Lafayette graduating and performing at grade level. "I would like for our school system to establish that as our longterm goal and that's what I will be advocating as a candidate," he says. "I think Lafayette can make that happen. I think Lafayette is unique and I think our expectations should match that."