In what was likely the most tumultuous Orleans Parish School Board meeting held since the board’s contentious pre-Hurricane Katrina days, members Tuesday night stopped arguing among themselves and with some audience members long enough to raise the city’s property tax modestly and appoint its interim and deputy superintendents. Undoubtedly, a major source of the turmoil […]
Tag: Orleans Parish School Board
Posted inGovernment & Politics, Schools
Interview with OPSB's Thomas Robichaux: Looking beyond school system's past
Thomas Robichaux Thomas Robichaux, 43, a former city attorney who now works as a lawyer for a gaming distribution company, ran in 2008 as a reform candidate for a seat on the Orleans Parish School Board and today is its president. Few dispute that change was sorely needed. For years the city school system had […]
Posted inSchools
OPSB may shuffle, combine campuses
By Jessica Williams, The Lens staff writer | The Orleans Parish School Board has announced next year’s school building assignments and schools’ long-term homes for the 17 schools they govern. Some changes may be news to parents, though others were detailed at previous board meetings. Next year, McDonogh No. 35 and the Architecture Design and […]
Posted inSchools
Orleans School Board grants initial approval to two new charter schools for 2012-13
By Jessica Williams, The Lens staff writer | Only two of seven charter applications were tentatively approved by the Orleans Parish School Board Tuesday night, despite vigorous support by some board members and audience members. Encore Academy and Citizens’ Committee for Education will revise their financial and organizational plans, hoping to win full approval to […]
Posted inOpinion
Educator's vision: continuum to college, meaningful work
Now with Loyola’s Institute for Quality and Equity in Education, Andre Perry is pushing a reform agenda through research and multi-media messaging. Photo by Jessica Williams. One in a series of conversations with New Orleans educators Andre Perry describes himself as an education “thought leader”. His work has run the gamut from advocacy for immigrant […]
Posted inSchools
OPSB approves 2012 school spending plan
By Jessica Williams, The Lens staff writer | The Orleans Parish School Board approved a $45 million budget for its six direct-run schools, and another $65 million for 11 charter schools, after a public hearing on Thursday. General fund expenses for the direct-run schools decreased by 9 percent from last year’s budget. Orleans Parish School […]
Posted inInvestigations, Schools
Despite state mandate to keep students in class, some schools continue to have high suspension rates
High suspension rates plague New Orleans schools. Seven years after an attempt to lower them, educators see little progress.
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
Jo Ellen Smith announcement was premature, though School Board hopes to buy site
By Jessica Williams, The Lens staff writer | City officials were quick to announce the sale of Jo Ellen Smith hospital to the Algiers community at a public meeting last week – but the Orleans Parish School Board says it hasn’t quite made the deal yet. Councilwoman Kristin Giselson Palmer told a crowd at the […]
Posted inGovernment & Politics, Schools
Audubon Charter gets temporary digs in Gentilly after lead levels scuttle earlier plan
By Jessica Williams, The Lens staff writer | Students at Audubon Charter School will have a temporary home next year after all. The school is slated to move by January to the old Jean Gordon School site on Chatham Drive in Gentilly while its Broadway campus undergoes a $14 million renovation, expected to take two […]