At an emergency meeting Monday night, the New Beginnings Schools Foundation board placed CEO Michelle Blouin-Williams on paid leave pending the outcome of an independent investigation into allegations of grade inflation and falsifying public documents related to a bus contract. The three-school charter network’s board voted unanimously to hire the law firm Adams and Reese […]
Posted inBehind The Lens
Behind The Lens episode 26: ‘I didn’t want this fight’
Tom Wright goes to a rally for the “March Against Death Alley.” Michael Isaac Stein talks to Councilwoman Helena Moreno about how to change Entergy regulation in New Orleans. And we interview Berr Voss-Potts, the 13-year-old whose off-the-shelf lead test prompted the school district to install filters this week at Plessy Community School.
Posted inSchools
Harney’s emergency bathroom repairs complete, school district says
The school district is leaving portable toilets on campus as a precaution.
Posted inSchools
Lead filter installation now nearly complete at Plessy Community School
The move comes one week after a 7th-grader’s water test prompted action. Dozens of other New Orleans public schools are still waiting for lead filters.
Posted inGovernment & Politics, Opinion
When is Cantrell going to stop cuddling with the pro-monument crowd?
Keep them here — and keep them off pedestals.
Posted inSchools
Students at school slated for closure face yet another hurdle: no bathrooms
Plumbing contractors were digging up Edgar P. Harney elementary school’s lush front lawn on Willow Street Tuesday afternoon while a portable toilet trailer sat on the school’s blacktop playground along busy Claiborne Avenue. “The bathrooms aren’t working,” one of the workers told The Lens. A clogged sewer line was initially to blame. But when contractors […]
Posted inEnvironment
Seven years and $9 million later, wastewater assimilation a slow starter in New Orleans
S&WB and the City of New Orleans announced in 2011 that they were partnering with St. Bernard Parish to help rebuild the Central Wetlands around Bayou Bienvenue. More than seven years later, the project has yet to discharge a single gallon of treated wastewater.
Posted inSchools
New Beginnings CEO placed on paid leave during investigation into grade inflation, falsifying records
Law firm will investigate grade changes at Kennedy High School and allegations that CEO falsified board records related to a lucrative bus contract.
Posted inSchools
School district delays lead water filter installation at French Quarter school
Orleans district promised Monday installation at Plessy after a test performed by a student found possible contaminants. But the filters won’t work properly without booster pumps. The district says about 16 schools need the pumps.
Posted inCriminal Justice, Opinion
Racist police violence: two very different cities with something in common
Shameful record of torture and killings by cops here and in Chicago