Audubon Charter changes winter break for campus move

Work has begun at the Audubon Charter School’s temporary site in Gentilly after the soil passed its lead testing, and the school has set a date for a community meeting about traffic concerns around its Broadway campus.

Tests on the soil at the former Jean Gordon campus found lead levels well beneath state standards, according to a report posted at the school website. One of the 10 samples from underneath an oak tree on the site was high enough to require an additional test, but it was determined to be within normal limits as well, the report reads.

The move to the new campus will take place Dec. 26 to 29, so the school’s winter break has been altered around those dates. The last day of school for students will be Dec. 16; no classes will be held Dec. 19 and 20 so faculty can pack, and teachers will return to the new school on Jan. 4 to begin unpacking in their new rooms. Students will return to school Jan. 9, according to the new calendar.

Meanwhile, in preparation for the renovations to the Broadway campus, a meeting with neighbors will be held at 6:30 p.m. Nov. 1 to discuss traffic issues around the site. Neighbors have suggested making Garfield and Hurst one-way streets around the school to make pickup and dropoff more orderly, and principal Janice Dupuy said she has already asked parents to use that pattern, so an official change will be fine. Residents have also suggested expanding and enforcing the “no parking” areas around the school to keep traffic moving on Broadway, another suggestion Dupuy said she supports.

“We’re in total agreement with that,” Dupuy said.

With both the move to the temporary site and the renovations to Broadway now essentially on track, the building that remains in question for the school is the Carrollton campus. Officially deemed a “temporary” site also, it has been slated for part of the Orleans Parish School Board’s $7 million stabilization fund, but that money will only apply to the main building — not the 10 old portable buildings on the site.

Recovery School District superintendent John White has pledged to make permanent school assignments by December, and Dupuy said she continues to hope that the Orleans Parish School Board will make a decision about the Carrollton campus soon as well.

“We will be here until they find some place for us to go,” Dupuy said. “It’s wonderful that the RSD schools will know where they are going, but I think our families still would like to know what will happen to the Carrollton campus.”

Dupuy raised the same point with school officials at a meeting Thursday night.

“There was no response, but I know that they’re listening,” Dupuy said.

The school board also heard about the school’s recent “A+” rating from the state, and received a clean report from its auditor. To read a recap of our live coverage of the meeting, click “Replay” in the box below.