School Principal Follows 'No Office' Rule and Unusual Dress Code. Three Years Later, His Policies Go Viral (Exclusive)

Mar. 15, 2025

Jared Lamb with his rolling desk.Photo:Javier Gallegos/The Advocate

Javier Gallegos/The Advocate

When Jared Lamb began his job as the principal at BASIS Ed school in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, he noticed the school lacked a conference room.

With more 800 students at the time, the 43-year-old realized the importance of having a central meeting space. So, he decided to convert the principal’s office into a conference room. But instead of seeking out another office for himself, Lamb found an extra AV cart rolling around in the hallway, which he transformed into his mobile office.

Now, three years later, Lamb hasn’t looked back.

“I do everything from giving teachers positive feedback or words of encouragement,” he says. “I step in for teachers who need emergency restroom breaks or grab extra photocopies from the staff lounge for those who are running short.”

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Jared Lamb with his wife and one of their three children.Jared Lamb

Jared Lamb

Thinking back to his early days as a principal, Lamb says he was “definitely not wearing tennis shoes.”

“I was definitely wearing some type of probably Brooks Brothers dress shoes or some other type of dress shoes that were probably very uncomfortable,” he says.

But with his sneakers on, Lamb stays in motion. He moves from the morning meeting with students straight into rounds to check in with faculty and staff across the entire campus, a routine that takes him just more than one hour.

“I spend most of my day visible,” he says. “I walk in and out of classrooms. If I need to respond to an email, I do it from an empty hallway while students are in class.”

“During major transitions, I’ll often park my cart underneath a stairwell on the side just to make sure that I’m not walking traffic,” he adds. “So you do have to maneuver, especially during big student transitions, so I’m not stopping the flow or preventing students from getting to class, but we navigate the best we can.”

Principal Jared Lamb rolling his cart.Jared Lamb

On the front of his cart, Lamb displays posters summarizing his core beliefs as an educator: professionalism, student achievement and growth mindset. These words not only hold sentimental value to him but also serve as reminders for his staff to help students reach their full potential.

Lamb adds how when he first started rolling around on his cart it was just him; now it’s his entire administrative team.

“We literally had a fleet of carts rolling through the school, and so our deans were on rolling carts, our assistant principals were on rolling carts,” he says. “It’s really created just a great environment of leading with support and making sure that our teachers and students have what they need to be successful.”

“I learned early on that as an administrator, my role is about supporting those around me so they can do their best work,” continues Lamb, who has been in education for 16 years. “Effective support can truly set up a school and its students for success.”

Since adopting his mobile approach, Lamb has shared his experience on social media to inspire other educators. His social media journey began a few years ago when he noticed other administrators using TikTok to showcase their schools and aid in teacher recruitment.

After the last day of school in 2023, he created an account and went to his school’s campus. Knowing nothing about the app, Lamb challenged himself to post a TikTok video before leaving that day. By the next morning, the video, which had initially garnered just four views, had gone viral.

HisTikTokaccount now has more than 119,000 followers, and onInstagram, he’s reached 225,000.

“That gave me the encouragement to keep posting more content,” he says. “I noticed a lot of negativity out there, with videos of teachers packing up their classrooms and talking about leaving the profession. But I love this work.”

“I believe working with students is the greatest job in the world, so creating a positive platform not only generates excitement about the profession,” he adds.

The TikTok has become a family affair, with his wife and three kids helping out with filming and editing. He says often his kids — two of whom attend his school — will argue over who gets to star in the videos.

But when it comes to seeing their dad roll around his cart on campus, his kids react differently.

“My son and I will have moments where we’ll be passing each other in the hallway and he’ll deliberately look the other way, like he’s embarrassed, that his dad is the one rolling around on the cart,” Lamb says.

“My daughter, meanwhile she still loves the fact that I’m rolling around,” he adds. “As I’m rolling through her classroom or I’ll see her in the hallway, she’s always tapping her friend to point and say, ‘That’s my dad.’ "

source: people.com