The future of John McDonogh High School, the Treme charter school slated to temporarily close at the end of the 2014-15 school year, will be the focus of a community meeting Friday.
I will live-blog the meeting below, starting at 2 p.m. It will be held in the school library at 2426 Esplanade Ave.
The high school will close for renovations a year from now and will reopen for the 2016-17 school year, according to the Recovery School District and the president of the school’s current charter operator, Steve Barr.
A member of the John McDonogh Advisory Committee, a community group formed to provide oversight to the charter operator, Future is Now: New Orleans, pegs the opening for a year later.
Friday’s meeting, spearheaded by the advisory committee and the John McDonogh Alumni Association, is envisioned as a forum for students, parents, teachers, alumni, community leaders and political leaders to “express their vision” for the school when it reopens, according to Ann Marie Coviello of the advisory committee.
Under management by Future Is Now: New Orleans, the school received a School Performance Score of 9.3 out of 150, had low enrollment, and suffered from budgetary problems. The school was also the subject of an Oprah television network docu-series, “Blackboard Wars,” which drew criticism from some parents and students.
Recovery School District superintendent Patrick Dobard told NOLA.com/The Times-Picayune that the charter will have expired by the time renovations are complete, and Future Is Now won’t be eligible for renewal.
According to Coviello, the goal is to relaunch John McDonogh as an open-admission, academically rigorous high school with arts and music offerings as well as sports programs.