The school district is expected to make an announcement about the future of McDonogh 35 Senior High School this week.
Author Archives: Marta Jewson
Marta Jewson covers education in New Orleans for The Lens. She began her reporting career covering charter schools for The Lens and helped found the hyperlocal news site Mid-City Messenger. Jewson returned to New Orleans in the fall of 2014 after covering education for the St. Cloud Times in Minnesota. She graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison with majors in journalism and social welfare and a concentration in educational policy studies.
Jewson has covered New Orleans schools for 15 years through the nation's largest education reform experiment. She was a founding member of the outlet's Charter School Reporting Corps and was instrumental in holding schools accountable to sunshine laws during the rapid expansion of charter schools in the city.
Posted inSchools
Teachers must re-apply for jobs to close out Harney’s school year
The Orleans Parish school district plans to take over the embattled charter school next month and operate it through the spring. But the district is not guaranteeing it will retain the school’s current staff. Interviews started this week.
Posted inBehind The Lens
Behind The Lens episode 10: ‘We’ve been fighting BP for years’
Video of a drug bust leads to renewed questions about the city’s sprawling surveillance network. Producer Tom Wright hears from people who were left ill after the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010.
Posted inSchools
Harney governing board votes to negotiate surrender of school’s charter
The Orleans Schools Superintendent has called for the school to close. District expected to run the school directly through the end of the year following the end of its charter.
Posted inInside the News Room
Week in Review: Habitual offender prosecutions down in New Orleans
Habitual offender prosecutions down in New Orleans Orleans Parish District Attorney Leon Cannizzaro’s office has scaled back its use of the state habitual offender statute, a law used to raise potential prison time on repeat offenders, often by decades. The New Orleans DA’s office once led the state in so-called “multiple bills.” A 2016 report […]
Posted inSchools
One-quarter of city schools now have filters to remove lead from water
The installations won’t be done until the spring of 2019, nearly three years after the school districts first promised to test for lead.
Posted inSchools
Harney charter board fires principal in meeting that may have violated Open Meetings Law
Orleans school district superintendent is in the process of revoking Harney’s charter. The school will close this spring. Harney’s lawyer denies sunshine law violations at Friday meeting.
Posted inInside the News Room
Week in Review: School closure decisions pack Orleans school board meeting
Public frustration boils over at meeting on school closures, but board policy stifles comment Thursday’s Orleans Parish School Board meeting devolved into shouting at times, as frustrated citizens struggled to conform to the district’s public comment policy following school closure and relocation announcements. Orleans schools Superintendent Henderson Lewis Jr.’s biggest news included five school closure […]
Posted inSchools
Public frustration boils over at meeting on school closures, but board policy stifles comment
Superintendent Henderson Lewis presented his closure recommendations as a report. Public comment was not allowed.
Posted inSchools
Superintendent moves for mid-year charter revocation for Harney academy
The school would be run directly by the district. At a meeting on Tuesday, Lewis renewed his call for the Harney’s board to surrender the school.