On this week’s episode, the Orleans Parish School Board is wrapping up its annual charter renewal process. Two schools found out last month that their operating agreements would not be renewed for next year. Another, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Charter School in the Lower 9th Ward, had to wait until this week to find out it will be renewed on a three-year “contingency basis.” And education reporter Marta Jewson has the latest school COVID data for New Orleans.

The city of New Orleans has dismissed a formal contract protest lodged by cable and internet provider Cox Communications, which lost out in the contractor selection process for a major “smart cities” project. Cox alleges that the city and an outside consultant, who is connected to the winning bidder, worked to fix the bidding process.

And the state Department of Public Safety and Corrections adopted a new “disciplinary sanctions matrix” meant to provide a transparent rubric for punishment throughout the Louisiana prison system, but despite the new policies, many prisoners are still facing indefinite lockdowns.

Our guests this week are reporters Michael Isaac Stein, Marta Jewson and Nicholas Chrastil and editor Charles Maldonado.