Orleans Parish schools Superintendent Henderson Lewis will host his fifth town-hall meeting tonight at Alice M. Harte Charter School in Algiers.
The Lens will live blog it here.
Lewis will be joined by 4th District School Board member Leslie Ellison.
Last month, Lewis held four meetings across the city as he makes his way through each of the city’s seven school board member districts. At the last town hall on Oct. 22, the public asked Lewis how he would help schools carry on pre-Katrina tradition and legacy, how he would expand high-performing schools, and about the need for more computers at host school McDonogh No. 35.
The School Board oversees 24 schools. Most of the rest are controlled by the state-run Recovery School District which took over failing schools in the fall of 2005.
Lewis said he’s met with one Recovery School District charter board and will likely meet with more in the coming months as school scores are released and RSD charters learn whether they meet academic eligibility requirements to return. Four RSD ninth- through 12th-grade high schools are eligible, but elementary, middle and combination school scores will not be released until December.
At his meeting with board member Cynthia Cade, Lewis suggested a common start date for schools to make scheduling easier on parents.
Lewis has been starting the meetings with a 20-minute presentation that draws from a presentation he gave to the public two weeks ago about his first 180 days as superintendent.
After the presentation Lewis will take questions and comments from the public. Last month, the public asked about school construction, new buildings for all schools, charter schools and the relationship with the state-run Recovery School District.
Fifth District School Board member Seth Bloom’s meeting is scheduled for Nov. 9 at Andrew H. Wilson Charter School. Lewis said a meeting with the city’s 1st District representative will be scheduled in December. Current representative John Brown Sr., is running for election against two other candidates. He was appointed to the seat vacated by Ira Thomas who pleaded guilty to taking a bribe to rig a contract this spring. No candidate earned a majority of votes in the Oct. 24 primary election sending the seat to the Nov. 21 runoff.
Tonight’s meeting begins at 6 p.m. at the new Alice M. Harte Charter School at 5300 Berkley Drive.
