Lake Area New Tech principal resigns in first week of classes

New Beginnings charter system's personnel turmoil continues.

Turnover continues in the New Beginnings Charter School Network — the network’s high school principal resigned at the beginning of the new school year.

Classes started Aug. 5 for Lake Area New Tech Early College High School students, and Principal Chad Broussard resigned the first week of August, New Beginnings CEO Sametta Brown said.

New Beginnings has struggled with attrition — losing one-third of its staff this summer. Last year, principals at three of the network’s four schools, including the high school, resigned.

Broussard was named principal of the high school just last December, after then-principal Michael Booker left the network.

Broussard “has taken an assistant superintendent position in New Jersey,” Brown said Thursday.

In the meantime, Brown said, Assistant Principal Darren Lewis will serve as interim principal.

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 to New Orleans in the fall of 2014 after covering education for the St. Cloud Times in Minnesota. She graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison with majors in journalism and social welfare and a concentration in educational policy studies.

Jewson has covered New Orleans schools for 15 years through the nation's largest education reform experiment. She was a founding member of the outlet's Charter School Reporting Corps and was instrumental in holding schools accountable to sunshine laws during the rapid expansion of charter schools in the city.