Saturday was run-off election day in Louisiana. One of the candidates vying for an elected position was Kira Orange Jones, candidate for the local district seat in the state’s Board of Elementary and Secondary Education. Orange Jones won, defeating eight-year incumbent Louella Givens in an election that signifies major changes that could soon take effect in how Louisiana chooses to educate its young.
Orange Jones made a visit to some of her sign-waving supporters on election day, and here are scenes from her visit to the supporters on the corner of St. Charles Avenue and Louisiana Avenue in New Orleans. Orange Jones is seen at in the center of the below picture with her face shown on a campaign sign in the background.
At right in the above picture is Dwight Rhodes, who serves as Chief Academic Officer for the ReNEW Charter Management Organization.
A Vocation For Service
“I’m running for this office because I think all children deserve the opportunity to have a great education. I myself am a career educator, and, so I’ve seen first-hand what’s possible when children are given access to educational opportunities that are transformational. I think all kids deserve that,” Orange Jones, seen again below, said.
“I also know from my own personal experience the role education plays in changing lives because I myself am someone who benefited from having really great teachers in my life, that changed my life. So, I chose education and I ultimately chose BESE because I think all kids deserve that,” she continued.
This busy intersection in New Orleans wasn’t the only place Orange Jones visited on election day.
“We’ve got tons of supporters all across the district. We’re spread across five parishes today from St. Charles and Louisiana [the intersection at which these pictures were taken] to St. Charles, Louisiana, which is a parish,” Orange Jones, seen below greeting supporter Brian Weimer, said.
“We’ve got kids holding Kira Orange Jones signs in Algiers on the Westbank as we speak. All day I’ve had the chance to go around and visit the different sites and meet all kinds of people who are working hard to get out the vote today,” Orange Jones concluded.
Weimer, a New Orleans attorney, is seen again above.
The supporters were camped out in the neutral ground of Louisiana Avenue on the river side of St. Charles Avenue.
Many, like Rhodes, seen again below talking to a visiting cyclist, are part of the charter school movement.
Rhodes is seen again talking below to Orange Jones in the middle of the intersection.
Mike Hobbs, seen below, supporting not only his candidate but also his school in the upcoming LSU-Mississippi football game that night, said that he was campaigning for Orange Jones because of “support of schools, support of school choice, support of having parents that can be independent-minded.”
At least his candidate in the election won; his school didn’t fare so well in its football match that night.
The above picture is posed and was taken per a request from Rhodes.
Here are a few additional pictures.
A few additional pictures and some larger versions of some pictures already seen in this post can be seen here.
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