International School

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International School eyes office building on Thalia to help ease crowding at Camp Street campus

By Robert Morris | December 13, 2012

The International School of Louisiana is growing increasingly interested in an office building on Thalia Street a short walk from the Camp Street campus as a way to ease crowding issues there, but school leaders are also beginning to see it as a stepping stone to a larger new campus for the school several years down the road. In the short term, ISL leaders are also still considering modular buildings in the courtyard of the Camp Street campus, but that option’s drawbacks are well established. The common spaces of the Camp Street building, such as the cafeteria, would come under further strain with even more students at the campus, while the open space would be significantly reduced. Further, the annual rent on the modulars would likely cost more than the lease at Thalia Street, Head of Schools Sean Wilson told a group of parents and board members at an informal discussion meeting Thursday. The Thalia Street campus creates its own issues, and some services would have to be replicated at both facilities.

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Principal to resign from International School’s Jefferson Parish campus

By Robert Morris | December 13, 2012

Nobert Estrella, who led the International School of Louisiana’s Olivier Street campus in Algiers through its first year and this year became the first principal of the school’s new Jefferson Parish expansion, will resign next week and become a Spanish teacher at Helen Cox, according to a report at Nola.com. Estrella described “philosophical differences” and Head of Schools Sean Wilson called it Estrella’s “personal decision,” according to the report, which notes that family liaison Jessica Rodriguez will also be stepping down. At the Nov. 28 meeting of the International School board, Wilson reported that the Jefferson Parish’s middle school was experiencing both disciplinary and academic issues that needed immediate attention. Classrooms were to be made smaller and teachers were to be retrained, Wilson said.

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International School considers modular buildings or leasing Thalia Street office space to make room at Eastbank campus

By Robert Morris | November 28, 2012

The International School of Louisiana is now down to two primary options to create more space for students at its Camp Street campus: placing modular buildings on the campus, or leasing space at a nearby building on Thalia Street. Any reorganization of the grades across the Camp Street and Algiers campus has been taken off the table. Two other ideas proposed last month also seem unlikely: reducing the number of incoming kindergarten students below 100 could be difficult to sustain in higher grades if attrition rises, and sharing space inside another school would be difficult given the ISL immersion program, officials said. That leaves school leaders with the two options they essentially started with — modulars on campus or satellite space off campus — but each presents its own challenges. Modular buildings would have to fit inside the current school yard, using up that play space and forcing the school to find recreation area elsewhere.

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International School leaders to discuss space options at Wednesday meeting

By Robert Morris | November 27, 2012

Leaders of the International School of Louisiana will discuss their current options for finding more space for students at their Camp Street campus at Wednesday evening’s meeting of the school board. The number of students at the Camp Street building grows every year — though the incoming kindergarten class size remains at 100 — as more students remain at the school into the upper grades. Nearly all administrative offices have already been moved out and converted into classrooms, but more space is still desperately needed for the next school year, officials have said. For about a month, the leaders of ISL explored and then rejected an idea of reorganizing all middle school students to the campus in Algiers and all lower-grade students onto Camp Street, amid strong opposition from some parents. With that idea off the table, other options such as modular buildings or limiting the number of incoming students in some way have been raised, and the school board will hear an update on those efforts Wednesday.

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ISL rejects campus split, continue seeking more space for Eastbank students

By Robert Morris | November 5, 2012

Administrators at the International School of Louisiana have decided to abandon an unpopular plan to create separate elementary and middle schools at the Camp Street and Algiers campuses, and will instead try to preserve the current K-8 structure at each by finding more space for the Eastbank students next year, they have announced. Modular classrooms at the Camp Street location or a new satellite facility nearby remain the most likely options, and will be discussed at the Nov. 28 board meeting, according to the following email from Head of School Sean Wilson:

Dear Parents:

Thank you for your patience and feedback during the last couple of weeks. We have decided to take the Camp Street – Olivier Street split-campus idea off the table for 2013-14. Many things factored into this decision, including: our desire to keep grades K-8 in closer proximity to each other, opposition from a significant number of ISL families, and our projection that the Camp Street facility would be pressed for space again in 2-3 years even in a K-4 environment.

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ISL board promises to decide on campus-reorganization idea within two weeks

By Robert Morris | October 24, 2012

A proposal to separate the International School of Louisiana’s Eastbank and Westbank buildings into two campuses for lower- and upper-school students is still just one idea among many for next year, the school board promised a cafeteria full of concerned parents, and set a two-week deadline for themselves to endorse or reject it. The Nov. 8 deadline adopted by the board at Wednesday night’s meeting is just to make a decision on that option, though a solution to the overcrowding at the Camp Street campus may not be found by then, said board chair Andrew Yon. The quick turnaround is necessary, he said, in order to accommodate those parents from both campuses who want to apply to another school instead of taking their children across the river. “By far, the most disruptive option available is splitting lower and middle schools,” Yon says.

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ISL to discuss controversial proposal to move middle school students to Algiers

By Robert Morris | October 24, 2012

The International School of Louisiana is still considering moving all its middle-school students to its Westbank campus and consolidating all its lower-grade students in the Camp Street building, but amid strong opposition from some families to crossing the Mississippi River, no decision is expected at Wednesday night’s meeting of the school’s governing board. The Camp Street building has become overcrowded over the past two years as fewer and fewer students left the school’s upper grades — enrollment at Camp Street leaped from 510 students just two years ago to 600 this year, an addition of 90 students to a building that was already essentially full, said ISL board president Andrew Yon. This year, the school moved all the administrative functions possible to its Jefferson Parish campus to free up as much room as possible. Next year, however, just to the school’s current students, ISL must add a fourth section of the sixth grade and a third section of the eighth grade — which is impossible under the school’s current configuration. The school board’s original hope was to find satellite space near Camp Street, and split off several grades to start there, such as a small primary school for the youngest two grades, or a middle school for the upper grades.