Three New Orleans schools won't have their charters renewed next year, with one set to close and two others slated to be taken over by other charter school organizations.
During an annual charter review at Monday's school board meeting, New Orleans Schools Superintendent Avis Williams recommended terminating charters for the Living School, Robert Russa Moton Elementary and Lafayette Academy at the end of the 2023-24 school year.
On Monday night, the Orleans Parish School Board agreed.
“We must push for excellence in this school district and that’s our only goal here,” said board member Leila Jacob Eames. “We just can’t continue to fail our children.”
All three schools recently received an F rating, according to annual performance data released last month by the state Department of Education.
The three schools will join at least eight others that have closed or merged since 2018 due to declining enrollment and low academic performance scores.
Schools' reactions
A number of supporters showed up in support of the Living School, which has just under 200 students and more than a third have special needs or are English language learners.
"I felt like I had people. I had support. I had a team behind me,” said Living School student Rio Valdez.
Valdez said his experience at the school “uplifted him” when compared to other schools he attended, including Ben Franklin High School where he remembered “crying in the stairwell” and feeling alone.
In an interview, Living School CEO Stefin Pasternak said the way schools are measured is broken and doesn't reflect the individual needs and overall wellbeing of students.
"This whole journey for our school has been a fight since before we opened because we were trying to make space in a system that doesn't understand the holistic work that were doing," he said.
Moton, an elementary school in New Orleans East, and Lafayette Academy, a K-8 school with campuses in the Carrollton area, will be taken over by new charters. But which organizations will take over has not been decided. The schools will stay open, and students are guaranteed a seat for 2024-25.
Moton Elementary had withdrawn its intent to renew before Monday's meeting because they welcomed a new charter that would benefit the students.
“It was never our intent to say oh we quit. Our decision was based on providing for the well-being, stability and peace of mind for our students, our parents, our staff and our community,” Moton board member Cheryl Beaco said during the meeting.
Lafayette Academy is in the fourth year of its initial five-year contract, which made it eligible for a charter extension, along with four other schools that were automatically granted extensions. Lafayette was the only one that required a deeper look into its performance — also called a comprehensive evaluation.
"Lafayette teachers, students and families have worked hard and made progress,” said Community Academies Board Chair Brooke Wyatt. "Unfortunately, our growth at Lafayette Academy to this point was not enough."
Community Academies operates two other schools — Esperanza Academy and Foundation Preparatory Academy.
Pandemic's 'lingering impact'
"I recognize the incredibly hard work that students, parents, and teachers have put into this school community and that this news is difficult to receive," Williams said in a letter sent to families last week.
Williams acknowledged the “lingering impact” of the pandemic on school communities and said the evaluation process looked at schools under those circumstances.
Before the pandemic, schools were evaluated using annual state performance scores, but other measures were considered in 2020 when scores were waived by the state Department of Education.
Enrollment, parent surveys, and growth compared to other open enrollment schools are some of the factors considered in addition to academic performance. Schools that receive an F for three consecutive years or during their renewal year are not recommended to continue by the superintendent.
Two schools were recommended to get shorter three-year contingent renewals: Lord Beaconsfield Landry High School in Algiers and Phillis Wheatley Community School in Treme.
Schools with renewals
Here are the contract terms for schools that met renewal standards:
- Edwards Hynes Charter School at UNO - 5 years.
- McDonogh 35 Senior High School - 5 years
- Kipp East - 5 years
- Kipp Leadership - 5 years
- New Orleans Math and Science - 5 years
- ReNew Dolores T. Aaron Elementary - 5 years
- ReNew Laurel Elementary - 5 years
- ReNew Schaumburg Elementary - 5 years
- Samuel J. Green Charter School - 5 years
- Sophie B. Wright Institute of Academic Excellence - 5 years
- Success at Thurgood Marshall - 5 years
- Opportunities Academy - 7 years