Charter boards overseeing 17 schools must decide by the end of the year if they want to move from the Recovery School District to the Orleans Parish School Board. But there are still reasons for schools to stay put, such as funding issues and concerns about the management and leadership of the local school system.
The meeting starts at 6 p.m.
Also during budget hearings, council questions management of new Crescent Park.
Looked at from several different angles, New Orleans public schools have a comparatively high percentage of possible cheating on standardized tests, The Lens has found after reviewing the most recent state data available. Testing experts offered a broadly accepted rationale: cheating tends to increase when standardized tests are used for rewards and punishments of schools, teachers or students. For a variety of reasons, New Orleans schools have more riding on the outcome of test scores than public schools elsewhere in the state.
Also, City Council members push to have 311 become more responsive to citizen complaints.
Last year, the Orleans Parish School Board claimed that students at Robert Russa Moton Charter School got an advance look at LEAP test questions. After reviewing its own investigation, the board now says that's not the case.
School officials are aren't sure which contractor is responsible when something breaks.
Critics of the Orleans Parish School Board say the central office is still bloated. But administrative staffing has dropped 90 percent compared to an 81 percent drop in enrollment. OPSB officials say they also have to provide services for private and charter schools.
Doris Roché-Hicks apparently didn't sign contracts with her family members, which would clear her from one set of legal concerns about their employment. But there are discrepancies between copies and originals of the same documents, and charter officials won't discuss why they're different.
