schools

International School of Louisiana starts 2018-19 school year with 1,410 students

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The International School of Louisiana has resumed classes for the 2018-19 school year with 1,410 students across its three campuses, school officials said Wednesday. The flagship campus on Camp Street has nearly half of those students, who are enrolled in grades 3 through 8. The remainder are split about evenly between the K-2 grades at the Bethune campus in Dixon, and the grades 1-5 on Olivier Street on the Westbank. After a series of moves and reorganziations through Jefferson Parish and Mid-City in recent years, this school year marks the second in a row in the current configuration of three campuses. Enrollment remains about the same at each, with slightly fewer at Bethune now that the larger second grade class from Jefferson Parish students has been absorbed, said Head of Schools Melanie Tennyson.

schools

Lycee promises improvement to new school-bus system after first week’s “disaster”

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As if the first day back at school wasn’t challenging enough, many Lycée Français de la Nouvelle-Orléans students spent so long returning home on the charter’s school’s new bus system that parents gave up waiting for them at the bus stop, only to find out that the school was unsure where exactly the buses were for hours as well. “It’s been an all-hands-on-deck deal,” said board chair David Amoss. “The first day was an utter disaster, but it has gotten better since then. … What happened that week is completely unacceptable to anyone at the school or on this board.”

schools

Cohen alumni association raises concerns about design of new high school, declining scores

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The Walter S. Cohen High School Alumni Association — which fought after Hurricane Katrina to keep their alma mater from being merged with another school — is raising concerns about declining test scores under its charter operator and plans for a new high school building they believe is too small. New Orleans College Prep, which operates Cohen, received word in the spring that the construction of a new Cohen High School on the same site would be one of the final building projects undertaken by the Recovery School District with FEMA insurance money even as all school return to the oversight of the Orleans Parish School Board. The new school will be built on the opposite side of the Cohen property as the current building, according to plans agreed upon by the Recovery School District and New Orleans College Prep, and the existing building will then be demolished after the students move. The plan would allow Cohen students to stay on site during construction, rather than having to move off site into a temporary location for the expected three years of construction. “We can compete, recruit and retain our students if we have a facility that suits our modern standards,” said College Prep CEO Joel Castro.

events

Fundraiser at Eiffel Society will benefit two education nonprofits

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A happy hour fundraiser tonight at the Eiffel Society on St. Charles Avenue will benefit two New Orleans education nonprofits, one that recruits more black male teachers to provide positive role models in the classroom, and one that promotes success in science and technology. Hosted by the philanthropic organization “trepwork,” the fundraiser will run from 6 to 8 p.m. tonight (Tuesday, Aug. 21) at the Eiffel Society, and proceeds from drink specials will benefit the Brothers Empowered to Teach and STEM NOLA nonprofits. For more information, see the event announcement below from trepwork:

WHAT:           “trepwork for good” – a philanthropic event series hosted by trepwise & Eiffel Society to highlight eight local non-profits with four Pay it Forward Happy Hour events, once a month from August through November, to increase awareness and fundraising opportunities for each participating organization.

schools

Sci High board approves $6.2 million budget for 2018-19

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The governing board of New Orleans Charter Science & Mathematics High School approved a $6.27 million budget Thursday that includes a minor deficit because of the last-minute addition of a new bus route, but officials say they expect to make up the shortfall quickly as the year begins. “We do have a negative right now,” said board treasurer Jim Schnieders. “But I’m not terribly concerned about what we’re forecasting right now”

The budget is based on the expectation of 480 students for the current school year, with 72.5 full-time employees on staff, Schneiders said. The deficit is nearly $30,000 more than the $6.24 million in expected revenue. The deficit emerged when the year began with more students than anticipated taking the school bus from the Westbank, forcing the school to add a second bus to that route.

crime

FBI, police respond to emailed bomb threat at De La Salle high school

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New Orleans police and the Federal Bureau of Investigation are responding Thursday to a threat of a bomb that was emailed to De La Salle High School on St. Charles Avenue, authorities said. Shortly after 8 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 15, De La Salle received an email threatening that “a bomb will go off” Thursday if the school in the 5300 block of St. Charles Avenue failed to meet certain financial demands, according to the initial NOPD report.

schools

Audubon Charter’s upper school will move to Banneker campus; Allen building promised to Lusher

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After years of seeking a permanent home for its upper-school, Audubon Charter School has learned its middle school students will move out of their cramped Milan Street building as soon as next summer into the Banneker building much closer to their flagship Broadway Street campus. That decision effectively ends the long-running dispute between Audubon and Lusher over competing claims as to which school will receive the Allen building on Loyola Avenue. After Sci High moves out of Allen and into its new building in Mid-City, Lusher will receive the Allen building adjacent to their high school building, according to reports from the Orleans Parish School Board. Audubon submitted applications to the Orleans Parish School Board to have its middle school assigned to either the Allen building or Banneker, and held meetings with parents over the summer about both possibilities, said CEO Latoye Brown at Saturday’s meeting of the school’s governing board. In July, the OPSB announced that Audubon will move into Banneker after this year’s occupants, KIPP Believe Primary, moves out into its own permanent home on St.

schools

Lycee Francais hires new principals for each campus amid administrative restructuring

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Lycée Français de la Nouvelle-Orléans will have new principals over each of its two campuses next year as part of a restructuring of the administration following the hiring of its new CEO, school officials said Monday. CEO Marina Schoen has recently hired new principals for both the Patton Street and Johnson Street campuses, she told the charter school’s governing board at their Monday night meeting. The new principal overseeing the school’s Patton Street campus, home to children in preschool through second grades, will be Danielle Dufauchard, a former math teacher and Lycee administrator, according to the school website. Chana Benenson — a foreign-language teacher who led Sci High last year, and was a finalist for the Lycee CEO position alongside Schoen — will be the principal over grades 3 through 8 at the Johnson Street campus. Both new principals have just started work in their new positions in recent days, and are going through the beginnings of the orientation process now, Schoen said.

schools

Sci High prepares for new school year with new principal

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With two weeks left before New Orleans Charter Science and Mathematics High School students return to class, the faculty is now 100 percent staffed for the coming year — including a new principal. Dr. Monique Cola — a Tulane University Ph.D. in neuroscience who was previously the Vice Chancellor of Student Affairs/Executive Dean at Delgado Community College (read her full biography at the Sci High website) — was chosen by the school’s board as its next headmaster back in April, but did not start work until this summer. She told the Sci High governing board Thursday (July 23) that last week was her first week with children in the building as well — for a summer program — giving her a taste of the year to come. Of the Sci High faculty, 28 are returning and 13 are new, for a retention rate of 68 percent. Michelle Brown, vice principal academic affairs, said that a downside of an improving national economy is that the private sector is becoming an increasingly attractive to strong teachers.

schools

Cohen, Crocker College Prep schools hire new principals for upcoming school year

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Along with a new CEO over the New Orleans College Prep charter network, both Walter L. Cohen high school and Crocker elementary will have new principals for the upcoming year, school leaders learned Monday night. Darren Lewis, a former principal of Lake Area New Tech Early College High School, has been hired as the new principal for Cohen, said CEO Joel Castro at Monday night’s meeting of the New Orleans College Prep governing board. Kevin Word, who has spent most of a nearly 20-year career in education in Texas, will lead Crocker. Lewis told the board he is a native New Orleanian with 13 years in education, starting as an English teacher and working his way to principal. In his first year at Cohen, he said he will focus first on instructional quality, and then on attendance by students, professionalism of the staff, and overall attitude.