Bricolage Academy departing Touro campus for Mid-City; new OPSB charter moving in

 Posted by at 12:36 pm  schools
Jan 292015
 
Josh Densen of Bricolage Academy speaks at an open house at the Touro Synagogue campus on Jan. 29. Bricolage is moving out of Touro this year, and Cypress Academy is moving in. (Robert Morris, UptownMessenger.com)

Josh Densen of Bricolage Academy speaks at an open house at the Touro Synagogue campus on Jan. 29. Bricolage is moving out of Touro this year, and Cypress Academy is moving in. (Robert Morris, UptownMessenger.com)

Bricolage Academy, an Orleans Parish charter school that opened two years ago, will move out of Touro Synagogue on St. Charles Avenue next year and into Mid-City, while Cypress Academy — one of the newest OPSB charter schools — will open next year in the Touro space. Continue reading »

Parents seethe over loss of charter at Wilson school in Broadmoor

 Posted by at 11:29 am  city government, schools, state government
Jan 212015
 
Andrew H. Wilson Charter School principal Logan Crowe speaks to more than 100 people gathered at the school Tuesday night. (Robert Morris, UptownMessenger.com)

Andrew H. Wilson Charter School principal speaks to more than 100 people gathered at the school Tuesday night. (Robert Morris, UptownMessenger.com)

The impending loss of the charter at Andrew H. Wilson charter school in Broadmoor — one of New Orleans’ most deeply established and celebrated charter schools, but also one of the city’s lowest ranked campuses in state scores — has parents in the community deeply upset.

The school’s strengths, they said at a heated public meeting Tuesday night, run far deeper than superficial and unfairly-calculated test scores show, and they fear that the individualized care they are used to their children receiving will give way to a cookie-cutter approach if a larger operator takes over. Continue reading »

Lusher Charter will maintain neighborhood admissions district for next school year, officials say

 Posted by at 9:59 am  schools
Nov 152014
 

The boundaries of the school district for kindergarten admission to Lusher Charter school. (UptownMessenger.com)

The boundaries of the school district for kindergarten admission to Lusher Charter school. (UptownMessenger.com)

Lusher Charter School will continue to give admissions preference to incoming kindergarten students whose families live in a small district around the elementary school next year, officials announced Saturday amid concerns from some parents that that path into the school is soon to end.

“Nothing is changing as far as the process we’re going through for this year,” said school CEO Kathy Riedlinger. Continue reading »

Lycée Français nearing purchase agreement for Priestley campus, officials say

 Posted by at 6:32 pm  schools
Nov 102014
 
The front door of the Priestley school building in west Carrollton. (Robert Morris, UptownMessenger.com)

The front door of the Priestley school building in west Carrollton. (Robert Morris, UptownMessenger.com)

Lycée Français de la Nouvelle-Orléans officials expect to sign a purchase agreement with the Orleans Parish School Board for the old Priestley campus in west Carrollton within a week or two, launching a 90-day evaluation period before the sale becomes final. Continue reading »

 Comments Off

The other big election in the Dec. 6 runoff: Orleans property-tax renewal for school building repairs

 Posted by at 11:58 am  elections, schools
Nov 052014
 
Lusher Charter School operations director Frank Israel checks on a classroom under renovation at the Freret campus in late October. (Robert Morris, UptownMessenger.com)

Lusher Charter School operations director Frank Israel checks on a classroom under renovation at the Freret campus in late October. (Robert Morris, UptownMessenger.com)

With the major U.S. midterm elections now in the rearview mirror, school officials around New Orleans are now looking to the Dec. 6 runoff.

While Louisiana decides between Bill Cassidy and Mary Landrieu for U.S. Senator, New Orleans voters will also decide whether to renew a property tax that will begin building a citywide fund to maintain school buildings in Orleans Parish — which some school leaders say is crucial to ending the decades-long cycle of neglect and deterioration at city school buildings. Continue reading »

Some Uptown schools soar, others tumble in latest performance scores

 Posted by at 11:59 am  schools
Oct 222014
 
School Performance Scores for Uptown campuses, based on date released by the Louisiana Department of Education. (UptownMessenger.com)

School Performance Scores for Uptown campuses, based on date released by the Louisiana Department of Education. (UptownMessenger.com)

While Lusher Charter School remained the highest-performing school in Uptown New Orleans last year, two language-immersion schools surged forward to narrow the gap, according to the latest School Performance Scores released by the state this week.

Three other Central City elementary schools also showed improvement, growing from their previous grade of a ‘D’ in 2013 to a ‘C’ this year, the reports show.

But three other schools — each of which had been singled out for growth in previous years — tumbled precipitously in 2014, losing a letter grade from previous year’s performance. Continue reading »

 Comments Off

jewel bush: Bullying can only be addressed when students speak up, and schools listen

 Posted by at 11:57 am  crime, opinion, public safety, schools
Oct 212014
 

jewel bush

Last week, an eighth grader at a ReNew Schools charter in New Orleans East suffered second-degree burns from having scalding water thrown on him by another student. He required skin grafts for the wounds to his legs. This wasn’t the first time this student had been attacked on campus. A few months earlier, a different student slammed his head into the concrete.  He reported that incident too.

I applaud this student for being brave enough to come forward. It takes guts to speak out against bullying.

Anyone who caught the RTA, or the “Rita” as we called it, to school in New Orleans in the 1990s or 2000s has a wild story or two to tell about extreme bullying. Continue reading »

Lycee Francais gives school leader a permanent title and a raise

 Posted by at 11:59 am  schools
Oct 142014
 

Keith Bartlett (via lfno.org)

Keith Bartlett (via lfno.org)

When Keith Bartlett was chosen to lead Lycée Français de la Nouvelle-Orléans late in the summer of 2013, the very future of French-immersion charter school was in question.

Its governing board had just been replaced through a process in essence mandated by the state government, and several of the new members had already resigned. Its two founding school leaders had publicly parted ways with the school, the temporary school leader was under increasing public scrutiny — as were the school’s finances. Disagreements over the causes of the problems sharply divided parents, and monthly board meetings were balancing acts between simmering tensions and open acrimony.

Reflecting the atmosphere of uncertainty, Bartlett was appointed school CEO last year with “interim” very publicly affixed to his title, and board members promised another search for a permanent successor. Against that background, then, the same board’s decision Monday night to make Bartlett the permanent CEO with a more-than-20 percent salary increase — and applause from parents who had been some of the school’s sharpest critics — was all the more striking. Continue reading »

 Comments Off

City Council approves alcohol sales at Sylvain owners’ new Magazine Street project

 Posted by at 11:59 am  business, city government, schools
Oct 082014
 

The former Duke Morgan spa on Magazine Street, photographed in September 2013. (Robert Morris, UptownMessenger.com)

The former Duke Morgan spa on Magazine Street, photographed in September 2013. (Robert Morris, UptownMessenger.com)

The owners of the French Quarter’s Sylvain easily continued their path toward a new restaurant on Magazine Street last week, when the City Council voted to approve alcohol sales in the building. Continue reading »

Michelle Obama names Lusher student “National Student Poet”

 Posted by at 12:59 pm  schools
Sep 212014
 
From left, Cameron Messinides, Madeleine LeCesne, Ashley Gong, First Lady Michelle Obama, Julia Falkner and Weston Clark in the Blue Room of the White House, Thursday, Sept. 18. (submitted photo)

From left, Cameron Messinides, Madeleine LeCesne, Ashley Gong, First Lady Michelle Obama, Julia Falkner and Weston Clark in the Blue Room of the White House, Thursday, Sept. 18. (submitted photo)

A Lusher High School senior has been chosen out of 13,000 students across the country as a 2014 National Student Poet by First Lady Michelle Obama, and joined her at the White House this week for a poetry reading. Continue reading »

Page 1 of 33 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33