The International School of Louisiana’s Camp Street campus. (UptownMessenger.com)
The International School of Louisiana will drop its language-readiness exam for incoming kindergarten students, but tighten mid-year admissions for first-grade students, officials said Wednesday night. Continue reading »
The Inspire to Empower Gala promises to be an incredible and inspiring evening for all who attend! Guests will enjoy an array of hors d’oeuvres, desserts, and libations in the gorgeous Alice M. Harte courtyard and atrium while listening to live entertainment and bidding in a silent auction.
The Lusher Charter School governing board has for 11 years underpaid Chief Executive Officer Kathy Riedlinger, an oversight that’s added up to about $51,700 owed in back pay, officials announced during a board of director’s meeting Saturday. Continue reading »
Sylvanie Williams College Prep elementary on Martin Luther King Boulevard, photographed in March 2017. (Robert Morris, UptownMessenger.com)
With a state-assigned letter grade approaching that will likely determine whether New Orleans College Prep loses the charter for Sylvanie Williams Elementary, the network’s governing board embarked Wednesday night on a process to re-examine the structure of the entire organization. Continue reading »
Mayor Mitch Landrieu speaks Tuesday afternoon about the response to Tropical Storm Harvey. (via Facebook live video)
After a surprise day off Tuesday for Tropical Storm Harvey’s rains, all students in the Orleans Parish School Board and Recovery School District will return to their schools as normal on Wednesday, officials announced. Continue reading »
All Orleans Parish School Board and Recovery School District campuses in New Orleans will be closed Tuesday amid concerns about flooding, and may remain closed later in the week depending on the weather, officials said. Continue reading »
Keith Bartlett (via lfno.org)
“I was only supposed to be here one year, and this is year number five,” Bartlett said. “It just looks like it’s the right time.” Continue reading »
New Lusher High School principal Steve Corbett (center) talks to Lusher board member Reuben Teague and Lusher elementary principal Jan Rice on Saturday. (Robert Morris, UptownMessenger.com)
Lusher High School has a new principal for the 2017-18 school year, as its founding leader moves into a support role within the Lusher administration. Continue reading »
A member of the Our Voice/Nuestra Voz advocacy group reads a question in Spanish during a town hall on education Thursday night. (Robert Morris, UptownMessenger.com)
Spanish-speaking families need more assurances that their children won’t be discriminated against while at schools, and more insight into the way that the school district funds teaching English as a second language, an advocacy group told Orleans Parish School Board officials at a town-hall meeting Thursday evening in Central City.
Orleans Parish School Board superintendent Dr. Henderson Lewis Jr. speaks during a town hall meeting Thursday, Aug. 24, at KIPP Central City Academy. (Robert Morris, UptownMessenger.com)
Lusher Charter School. (Robert Morris, UptownMessenger.com)
In 1961 — only a year after Ruby Bridges had famously integrated New Orleans’ public schools — Sylvia Branch became the first black child to attend Robert Mills Lusher school, and still today recounts how the Lusher administration welcomed her with literally open arms.
Branch’s admission, however, would have been anathema to the school’s namesake, Robert Mills Lusher, who followed a Confederate governmental career with leadership of the state’s public schools, and used that post to promote “the supremacy of the Caucasian race,” in his words. For more than three decades from the end of the Civil War until the end of the 19th Century, Lusher fought in word and deed for the idea that the purpose of the public schools was to ensure that white students remained in a better social position than blacks.
Now — as Nazi and Ku Klux Klan sympathizers march nationally in support of Confederate monuments, while activist groups in New Orleans demand the removal of memorials to white supremacists, and children and adults alike struggle to make sense of it all — celebrated local historian and author Michael Tisserand has released the results of his research into Robert Mills Lusher’s racist legacy.
Author Michael Tisserand reads from his book “Krazy” at Octavia Books in December 2016. (Robert Morris, UptownMessenger.com)
Sylvanie Williams College Prep elementary on Martin Luther King Boulevard, photographed in March 2017. (Robert Morris, UptownMessenger.com)
Based on the most recent test scores, officials with the New Orleans College Prep charter network are projecting that the state will assign Sylvanie Williams elementary an ‘F’ rating for the just completed 2016-17 school year, two letter grades below the ‘C’ that they were striving for in order to avoid losing the charter. Continue reading »
The Lycée Français de la Nouvelle Orléans campus on Patton Street.
Natalie Kaharick (via NOLA College Prep)
YAYA Arts Center will host Brass ‘N Glass, a free event that will showcase student work and feature live music by the Panorama Brass Band and art for sale. Continue reading »
The Lycée Français de la Nouvelle Orléans campus on Patton Street.
The Lycée Français de la Nouvelle-Orléans charter school is still working out the details on the lease renewal for its Patton Street campus, preparing to move into the newly renovated Johnson building and deciding how to handle its space in a church on South Carrollton after a prospective tenant pulled out. Continue reading »
