The St. James Major campus in Gentilly, currently occupied by Hynes Charter School. (Robert Morris, UptownMessenger.com)
Many Audubon Charter School parents and teachers see the St. James Major campus in Gentilly as an attractive option for a temporary campus after Hynes Charter School moves out of it during the winter break, they told school officials after hearing about four new options at a Thursday afternoon meeting.
Before the school can begin a two-year renovation of its Broadway campus, it must find an interim location for the students who are already there, and the urgency of the search has increased since a site in the Lower Garden District was deemed unacceptable earlier this summer. The Orleans Parish School Board has asked Audubon to have an answer by Aug. 1, little more than a week away.
Two of the options described Thursday, vacant lots at the former Jean Gordon site in Gentilly and behind the Orleans Parish School Board offices in Algiers, were already fairly well known. But Thursday was the first mention of the St. James Major possibility, and of a fourth option, the Our Lady of Lourdes campus at Freret and Jena that currently houses Sojourner Truth Academy.
Each campus comes with its own assets and drawbacks.
Most attractive about St. James Major is the facility itself, which has ample space for Audubon’s classrooms and offices, but the timing of the move poses a major concern. If Hynes is not ready to move out during winter break, it is unclear what effect the resulting delay to Audubon moving out of Broadway could have on the renovation project.
That issue represents a significant “unknown variable,” said the Rev. Cornelius Tilton, chair of the charter board that governs Audubon. “There are no guarantees,” Tilton said.
The former Jean Gordon site is a similar distance as the St. James Major site, and parents in the audience noted that since it formerly held a school, its space seems well set up for a temporary campus. The environmental testing that eventually led to the downfall of the Lower Garden District site has not been completed, however.
The lot behind the OPSB offices in Algiers was the only site to garner outright opposition from the audience of 100 or so parents and teachers Thursday, primarily because of the transportation difficulties posed by getting to the westbank. Because it is paved, however, lead dust is not an issue there.
The Our Lady of Lourdes site, while a good bit closer to Audubon’s current facilities and potentially available for August, is only available for a year, so Audubon would be faced with the same dilemma again next summer for the second year of the Broadway renovations. Further, Audubon needs eight ground-floor classrooms for the youngest students, and Our Lady of Lourdes only has room for six — meaning modulars would still be required.
Whether the building will even be vacant is unclear. The Orleans Parish School Board declined to renew its lease with the Archdiocese for that site for the coming year, but Recovery School District officials said Thursday that they are finishing negotiations with the Archdiocese to keep Sojourner Truth in the building for one more year.
Even so, a conflict over the Our Lady of Lourdes building seems unlikely, based solely on the strong opinions parents expressed at the Audubon meeting. After about 90 minutes of free-flowing discussion, Tilton asked the audience which school they would prefer, and the overwhelming majority voted for St. James Major. Tilton then asked for a second choice, and the votes were again clearly in preference for the Jean Gordon site. Our Lady of Lourdes only had a handful of supporters, and the westbank campus seemed to have none.
Audubon’s board will meet at 4 p.m. Friday in a special meeting to authorize Tilton to sign any documents necessary to expedite the move, given the short time frame involved. If possible, Tilton said he will pursue the St. James Major option as the school’s first choice, but cautioned that information is still being exchanged rapidly and that other board members may have discovered unforeseen complications with that campus.
“We just got into this conversation yesterday,” Tilton said.
The large, vocal crowd at Thursday’s meeting had none of the rancor that characterized an earlier meeting about lead contamination at the Lower Garden District site, suggesting that some of the anger and mistrust over that issue have subsided. Indeed, many of the parents Thursday were genuinely optimistic about the St. James Major site.
“It sounds like it’s outfitted for everything we need, and they say it’s in good shape,” explained Tel Baillet after the meeting. “The best case scenario is we end up Uptown and there’s no huge upheaval for us, but that’s not going to happen.”
To read our live coverage of Thursday’s meeting, click “Replay” in the box below.
