The Orleans Public Education Network is hosting a series of community discussions on the future of public school governance in New Orleans. The series intends to ensure the community is heard in the governance conversation, network executive director Deidre Johnson Burel said. The meetings will be held each Saturday during the month of October, to […]
Tag: Community voice in charters
Posted inGovernment & Politics, Schools
Would-be local charter operators vent frustrations at state school board meeting
A frustration that’s become commonplace among community groups that feel disenfranchised by the Recovery School District’s latest decisions prevailed Wednesday night at a New Orleans meeting of the state school board. More than 100 people gathered Wednesday to hear the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education approve requests for changes to one submitted charter application, […]
Posted inSchools
Group stripped of charter introduces McDonogh 42 parents to new leaders
By Jessica Williams, The Lens staff writer | Despite a vow by a failed charter operator to fight the state’s revocation of its contract to run McDonogh No. 42, , an attitude of cordiality prevailed at tonight’s open-house to introduce parents to the new charter operator. Treme Charter School Association officials, who will continue running […]
Posted inSchools
RSD turns over 5 schools to charter groups, closes another; vocational efforts unveiled
By Jessica Williams, The Lens staff writer | The Recovery School District announced today which charter operators next year will manage five schools that are now directly run by the district. It also unveiled new career and technical programs to be instituted within the district’s high schools as early as next fall. The charter management […]
Posted inCharter Schools, Schools
Landry alums fight merger plan, as RSD grapples with shrunken Algiers enrollment projection
Over a hundred people attended a Recovery School District meeting Dec. 15 at L.B. Landry High School to discuss a planned merger with O. Perry Walker High School. Chris Meyer, an RSD department supervisor, gave a presentation on how and why the schools will be combined. The presentation was greeted with shouts and jeers from […]
Posted inSchools
Sojourner Truth charter gets one-two punch; teachers leaving before doors shuttered
By Jessica Williams, The Lens staff writer | Citing discontent with the current administration, at least five teachers or staffers at a doomed charter school have already resigned or have plans to not return after the Christmas holidays, The Lens has learned. Parents and students at Sojourner Truth Academy were told last month that the […]
Posted inSchools
OPEN plans community forum on education
By Jessica Williams, The Lens staff writer | In culmination of a yearlong effort to get community members to engage in education issues, the Orleans Public Education Network is hosting a roundtable discussion Saturday dubbed Let the Circle Be Unbroken. This event marks the end of the organization’s One Step community-engagement campaign, though a spokeswoman […]
Posted inGovernment & Politics, Schools
VAYLA study reveals student concerns about quality of education at six city high schools
By Jessica Williams, The Lens staff writer | Those with the greatest stake in the city’s educational system – its students – came together today with criticisms and recommendations for reform. In what it’s calling the most extensive student-led evaluation of the New Orleans public school landscape since Hurricane Katrina, members of the Vietnamese American Young […]
Posted inGovernment & Politics, Schools
Innovative RSD planning process enters final month: public weighs in on needed changes
By Jessica Williams, The Lens staff writer | More transparency, more equity, and greater levels of commitment to non-charter schools were among requests from community members at a public task force meeting Tuesday night with Recovery School District head John White. Members of the task force – comprising representatives from the RSD, the non-profit Orleans […]
Posted inGovernment & Politics, Schools
Charter school conversion leaves some parents anxious, some hopeful
An infant rattled his mother’s car keys in blissful ignorance as she wondered aloud where his brothers would go to school in the fall. Two students in matching school uniforms whispered and appeared confused by the worked-up parents standing around them. And a toddler covered her ears with her hands as a stranger yelled. The […]