Lycée Français de la Nouvelle-Orléans board will consider a recommendation to keep interim CEO L. Keith Bartlett on for an additional year at a special board meeting next week.

After a series of nationwide CEO searches beginning early this year left the French-curriculum charter school without a leader last spring, Bartlett came on in an interim capacity in late June.

Board member Erin Greenwald said that after the CEO search committee met Wednesday they decided they wanted to put forth a recommendation to extend Bartlett’s contract until June 30, 2015.

“The primary point is that Keith has done a year’s worth of work since he’s arrived,” she said, adding that Academic Director Marina Schoen, also new this year, has played a major role in developing those systems as well.

Greenwald said the two essentially had to backtrack and create systems for the school that should have been established the first year.

“We feel that Keith is extremely adept at dealing with all of the school’s constituencies,” she said, an important quality after a tumultuous year ended with an entirely new board and the new CEO.

Two of Bartlett’s charges, Greenwald said, are to increase diversity and lead the school through the French accreditation process.

“We basically feel that after everything that’s happened at the school that the transitional period should be a two-year period,” said Greenwald.

Greenwald said stability in leadership was important for the young charter school, which is still not quite clear of financial concerns and in the midst of searching for a facility to house the expanding school.

“It’s going to be better for the school.”

The board will consider the recommendation at a special meeting Nov. 21 at 6:30 p.m.

Marta Jewson

Marta Jewson covers education in New Orleans for The Lens. She began her reporting career covering charter schools for The Lens and helped found the hyperlocal news site Mid-City Messenger. Jewson returned...