Uptown Messenger file photo
The McDonogh 7 building, photographed in May 2013, is home to Audubon Charter’s upper school. (UptownMessenger.com file photo)
Audubon Charter School’s governing board is forming a committee to begin formal study of launching a new campus, officials said Saturday morning.
The board has already signaled to the Orleans Parish School Board that it is interested in replicating its school in the near future, said CEO Latoye Brown. At her request, the board formed a committee to begin creating a timeline for that effort and to “be part of the conversation from the ground floor up.”
“The board has officially approved the idea of replicating,” Brown said.
Board member Erica Murray, who volunteered to lead the committee, said the replicated school would be another elementary campus, not a high school, following the model Audubon has already established. The school would likely be situated in another neighborhood, perhaps Gentilly or the Westbank where Audubon is already seeing a high number of applications, Murray said.
The new committee will not just make recommendations, but actually help create the plan to create a new campus, Brown told the board.
“What is the timeline or timeframe for that?” Brown said.
A “replicated” school will operate under some different conditions than than the current Audubon does, because it still has some grandfathered aspects from soon after the hurricane, Brown said. For example, Audubon is considered a selective admissions school, but the replicated campus will not be.
Board member Eva Alito also suggested that they keep some committee spots open for incoming board members next year, so the rest of the committee will be named in the first part of next year. The first meeting of the replication committee will follow, likely in February, Murray said.
Also on Saturday morning, the board members unanimously rejected a consultant’s recommendation to suspend their term limits. The Orleans Parish School Board also gave a presentation on the possibility of Audubon becoming a Local Education Agency, which would give Audubon direct control over federal funding for some special education and other services.
The board is still meeting. For live coverage, see below.
