Deidra Bradley’s last day as principal of Medard H. Nelson Charter School was Oct. 17, network CEO Sametta Brown confirmed today.

The charter school will be run by its director of curriculum, Trinnell Spears, in the interim, Brown wrote in an email to The Lens, responding to questions. She is the leader of the New Beginnings Schools Foundation.

Brown did not specify why Bradley was no longer with the network and said the search for a new principal is underway.

The New Beginnings network oversees two elementary schools in addition to Nelson, and one high school.

Bradley was the only principal out of the four who didn’t resign in the  2012-13 school year. During that time the resignation of Capdau Charter School Principal J’Vann Martin went unannounced to parents for more than two weeks.

Following that, Lake Area High School’s replacement principal resigned during the first week of the 2013-14 school year, leaving the school after less than a year.

Bradley did not return a phone message left at her home.

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...

11 replies on “Nelson Charter School principal out of her job since last week, New Beginnings confirms”

  1. Ramsey Green and the New Beginnings Schools Foundation are overpaying CEO Sametta Brown with public money for education. The only thing Sametta knows how to do is FIRE or PROMOTE, and even then, she doesn’t do that well. And as if the excessive salary is not enough, Ramsey and the “group” provide an additional $35,000 incentive pay for Sametta to DO THE JOB SHE IS ALREADY NOT DOING. Does this “broad” wear some kind of special perfume or does she have access to Love Potion #9?! LMAspO (that’s my pet snake ASP, and he just loves human folly – goes back to his ancestor in “The Garden.”). Did everybody forget when THE LENS reported when Sametta paid out that what? ($45,000) incentive pay to a classroom teacher at Capdau?

  3. I worked for New Beginnings. The administration bullies their teachers and forces them to implemented outdated or plain bad teaching methods, and then threatens to fire you when you don’t meet outrageous demands. This rate of turnover should be a sign that New Beginnings has been failing in their job for YEARS. The only reason test scores improved are because a. NBSF advocates strict to-the-test teaching and b. there was a huge turnover of students because…why would you want to send your child to a perpetually D and below network of elementary schools. Its sad.

  4. The charter network used to be called the “UNO” New Beginnings..and it, of course, was founded by UNO. The school administrators were worked into some kind of educational leadership “plan” whereby they would “administrate” the schools and earn their doctorates in Educational Administration at UNO. Shannon Verrett was the administrator at Capdau. I guess he must have completed his doctorate at UNO, because that eas the firsr administrative turnover. These UNO charter schools have been mis-run from the start. Teachers were working overtime and being paid for six hours a day! Yes, turnover was high. Sametta Brown came from Brian Riedlinger’s Leadership Center – Riedlinger’s salary is largely accounted for by the Baptist Community Ministries, but what this all boils down to is that there are some people who continue to make a boatload of public money that should be going to students (via curriculum) and teachers. And there is something drastically wrong at most of the schools where individual teachers are being duped, and if they complain, they get dumped. So, the choice is GET DUPED OR GET DUMPED. Open meeting laws are one thing, but this board is not meeting its responsibilities according to what charter school law was intended to do. Forget grassroots. This is a top-down corporate model, and a few overpaid administrators are running the whole show.

  5. would love to talk to you both more about ed. policy. I am currently an education rights law student in Virginia, and Tulane alum 2013

  7. R.Rubes, you are a very unusual fellow. Best of luck in the field of education rights. You already know that things are not what they seem here in New Orleans. When are you due back? Hopefully before we slide into the Gulf and the 1.8 billion dollars in school building construction money is not depleted. Lee Barrios posted her email and she has enormous knowledge and actual experience in the field of education. You couldn’t get ahold of a better source to keep you abreast of what is going on locally and in the state. My ASP (that’s my pet snake ASP) thinks that I should remain only “a voice crying in the wilderness” for now, but if things change, my ASP and I will let you know. Having said that, if you can figure out a way for us (me and my sorry ASP) to converse with you about educational policy, etc., and remain anonymous, then let us know. Obviously, you have no problem revealing your identity, but I am a gaddam silhouette going by the name of “nickelndime.” Does that tell you anything? LMAspO!

  11. Marta, pick n choose. So many problems, but you might want to pay attention to the OPSB-authorized EINSTEIN CHARTER SCHOOL before the Feds do.

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