How do you tell a kindergartener that his school is closing? Anthony and Alicia Parker, both 29, had to have that discussion with their 5-year-old son Anthony Jr. last week. On Friday, the state school board closed the kindergarten-through-fourth-grade Lagniappe Academies, effective at the end of this school year.

Four schools in New Orleans recently have been closed or assigned to new operators. Although the processes to make these changes have become somewhat more public, the decision to hand over public schools to a new management organization still is being made primarily behind closed doors.

The transmitter sets the clocks for all the lights in the city and allows them to be programmed remotely. The fix could correct flashers that activate on weekends and holidays, but not when kids are in school. That was one of the problems revealed by a Lens survey in January, which found that nearly half of the lights malfunctioned.