At its monthly board meeting the Choice Foundation unanimously voted to remain under the Recovery School District and not return to the Orleans Parish School Board at the end of the 2012–13 school year. The Choice board governs Lafayette Academy, which was one of more than a dozen schools eligible to move under the oversight of the Orleans Parish School Board following a period of academic improvement.

As president of the Tremé Charter School Association’s board of directors, Roslyn Smith is used to overseeing the faculty and staff of McDonogh 42, an open enrollment, public charter school educating students from Pre-Kindergarten through eighth grade with almost 450 students an enrollment  in 2011-2012 of 527 students. But as of July 1, she found herself in charge of only a skeleton staff managing the handover of the school to another charter school management organization, the Choice Foundation.

Choice Foundation, the charter management organization that currently runs Lafayette Academy and Esperanza Charter schools, discussed its takeover of McDonogh 42 at its June 29 board meeting. Choice’s Executive Director Mickey Landry cautioned the board that the upcoming year would be one of “massive change.”

These documents cover the 2011-2012 Mid-Year revisions here, the actual budgets as of the end of April here, and the DRAFT budget for 2012-2013 here.

Choice Foundation, which runs the Esperanza Charter, Lafayette Academy, and McDonogh 42 schools, held its 2012-2013 budget hearing in addition to its monthly board meeting on May 30. The initial 2012-2013 budget is $18,562,980, a 41 percent increase from last year.

McDonogh 42 Elementary Charter School, the Choice Foundation’s soon-to-be acquired charter, will remain at its current location for the 2012-2013 school year, the Choice Foundation’s board announced at a second May gathering. McDonogh will be under the control of its current charter operator, the Treme Charter School Association, until July.

Review the proposed budget here.

By Yomi Akinyemi, The Lens charter school reporter |

A recent spate of violence that claimed the lives of two students at a nearby school was a focus of the Choice Foundation’s monthly board meeting on May 2. Principal Mickey Landry said the killing of the two students from KIPP Believe, blocks away from Lafayette, mirror escalating violence around the community in the past few months.

Choice Foundation, the charter management organization set to take over McDonogh 42, has asked the Recovery School District to delay a scheduled move to a new campus, from January 2013 to June 2013. Fran Trujillo, McDonogh 42’s principal-to-be, said relocating the school four months after Choice’s takeover would be disruptive.

How to assimilate Esperanza Charter’s growing number of non-English-speaking students was a focus of Choice Foundation’s February board meeting. .

The state Department of Education today released the list of New Orleans schools eligible to participate in its voucher program. The program, called the Scholarships for Educational Excellence Program, has for the past three years offered low-income students from low-performing public schools the chance to attend the private school of their choice, with the state paying the bill for tuition and fees.

Choice Foundation, operators of Lafayette Academy and Esperanza Charter School, has been approved to charter two more schools, McDonogh 42 and a yet to be named school in Jefferson Parish, the Choice board of directors said at their monthly meeting, Feb.1. Board President James Huger said that while the foundation has been given the “all clear” to take over McDonogh 42, there’s a slim chance the deal might collapse if the school’s current board sues the state Board of Elementary & Secondary Education, as threatened.

Lafayette Academy has been listed as a breakthrough school by the National Association of Secondary School Principals, the school’s board announced at its monthly meeting, Nov. 30.

Tomorrow’s meeting agenda for the board governing Esperanza Charter and Lafayette Academy may be reviewed here.

Repercussions of the newly adopted Common Core State Standards Initiative dominated discussion at the October  board meeting of Choice Foundation, which operates Lafayette Academy and Esperanza Charter School. “I expect our test scores, the state’s test scores, to go down,” Lafayette principal Mickey Landry said.

The Choice Foundation, which governs Lafayette Academy and Esperanza Charter, cancelled its board meeting scheduled for September 28th at  4 p.m..