NOLA Public Schools issues a report on its investigation of John F. Kennedy High School, the Orleans Parish Assessor gets caught defending a policy that his staff later said was never really a policy, and residents of the toxic Gordon Plaza housing development press Mayor LaToya Cantrell for help with relocation.
Posted inCriminal Justice
City Planning staff recommends raising bed cap at Orleans jail
Planners’ recommendation would raise capacity to 1,731 beds, but limit the inmate count to 1,438. Proposal must still go through Planning Commission, City Council.
Posted inGovernment & Politics
Assessor defends costly policy on business taxes for weeks; later, his staff says the policy doesn’t exist
The policy Williams described likely would have cost the city and other Orleans Parish agencies millions of dollars.
Posted inSchools
Court-appointed special education monitors detail how the state picked the wrong New Orleans schools for federal consent decree scrutiny
Calculation errors, sloppy record-keeping led to 10 schools being erroneously picked for special monitoring. Plaintiffs’ attorney says the details in the report are troubling and point to the state’s inability to oversee New Orleans’ decentralized system.
Posted inSchools
Newly hired Kennedy HS Principal out six weeks into school year
John F. Kennedy High School’s new principal Harold Clay left the Gentilly high school less than two months into the school year.
Posted inBehind The Lens
Behind The Lens episode 50: ‘It’s more than just voting for a candidate; civic engagement is bigger than that’
City Council weighs the property tax rate as a budget deadline looms, KIPP New Orleans edges closer to the New Orleans Public Schools’ enrollment cap, and a statewide effort to register Louisiana’s 36,000 re-enfranchised voters.
Posted inSchools
NOLA schools chief: Initial Kennedy HS investigation ‘inconclusive,’ though later findings ‘a different story’
The district’s long-awaited report on the scandal that led to half the school’s senior class being unable to graduate on time is five pages long and light on details.
Posted inGovernment & Politics
Top Cantrell deputy warns of dire consequences without increased property tax revenue, but council member calls it a ‘scare tactic’
Montaño says city could face $25 million budget hole without roll forward.
Posted inSchools
Law firm hired to investigate Kennedy HS quickly ruled initial grade changing allegations untrue
It’s unclear how Adams and Reese attorneys reached the conclusion. And one official from Kennedy’s charter board suggested that opinions have since changed.
Posted inCriminal Justice
Council committee urges courts to forgive court debt, outstanding warrants
The New Orleans City Council’s Criminal Justice Committee unanimously called for the forgiveness of all outstanding debt individuals have accrued from fines and fees in Municipal and Traffic Court. The committee also encouraged the City Attorney’s Office, which prosecutes traffic and municipal code offenses, to dismiss “low-level, non-violent, and so called Quality of Life offenses, […]