schools

schools

Lycee Francais announces three finalists in CEO search

By Robert Morris | May 2, 2018

The three finalists for the top job at Lycée Français de la Nouvelle-Orléans are the charter school’s current academic director, the principal of a high-performing Uptown charter high school, and the former administrator of an immersion school in Maryland, Lycee officials announced Monday night. Lycee’s CEO Search committee has been meeting for months to find a replacement for CEO Keith Bartlett, who is retiring at the end of the school year this summer. On Monday night, following dozens of applications and second-round interviews with five candidates, the committee announced the following three finalists for the position:

Chana Benenson, principal of New Orleans Charter Science and Math High School. Benenson started at Sci High in 2006 as the inaugural leader of the school’s foreign language department and has been principal of the school since 2012. During that time, the open admissions achieved its first ‘B’ rating from the state — now close to an A — and secured a commitment for its long-held goal of a new building in the Biomedical District.

schools

Cohen High School to partner with Johns Hopkins University in redesign program

By Robert Morris | May 1, 2018

Walter L. Cohen College Prep High School is one of 31 high schools in Louisiana to receive specialized guidance from the Johns Hopkins University School of Education toward redesigning its instruction and support services for the 2019-2020 school year. Cohen High School’s failing test scores were among the lowest performing schools in the city in 2011, prior to its takeover by the New Orleans Charter College Prep. By 2015, its performance had risen to a ‘B,’ earning a visit from then-U.S. Secretary of Education John King. Cohen’s score slipped back to a ‘C’ the following year, and remained a slightly lower C in 2017. The Johns Hopkins program is primarily intended for schools for even lower scores of ‘D’ or ‘F,’ but some, like Cohen, were accepted as well on the strength of applications showing the potential benefit of a redesign. Other high schools in New Orleans accepted into the program include International High School and McDonogh 35.

schools

Lycee Francais to name CEO finalists next week

By Robert Morris | April 27, 2018

After fielding nearly 50 applications from international applicants, Lycée Français de la Nouvelle-Orléans board members plan to name the finalists for the position at a public meeting Tuesday afternoon, officials said. CEO Keith Bartlett is retiring at the end of the school year, so the board’s CEO Search committee has been meeting for four months to receive the applications and vet the candidates for his replacement. The committee has already held several meetings to interview them in recent weeks, and on Tuesday, May 1, the committee will reconvene for a final second-round interview in a closed-door executive session at 4 p.m.

At 5 p.m., the committee proceed to a discussion of which candidates should be named as finalists, said committee chair Ben Castoriano. The meeting will be open to the public, though part of that discussion may be held in closed-door executive session as well, Castoriano said. The finalists will then be invited back to the school to meet with parents, teachers and the full board.

schools

New Orleans College Prep prepares to return to OPSB this summer — without Sylvanie Williams (live meeting coverage)

By Robert Morris | April 23, 2018

The New Orleans College Prep charter network is putting the final touches on its transition this summer back to governance by the Orleans Parish School Board — without one of its elementary campuses, Sylvanie Williams.

College Prep’s board leaders are in the process of signing the lease agreements this week with the Orleans Parish School Board after recently voting to return to the OPSB, a formality given that state law requires all Recovery School District schools to return to the OPSB starting with schools’ new fiscal years this summer. Starting in July, College Prep will begin reporting to OPSB for the three schools it operates — Cohen high school, Crocker elementary and Hoffman early learning center — but not Sylvanie Williams, which College Prep will lose the charter for after several years of low performance. Sylvanie Williams has a new principal for the remainder of the school year, Kelly Knox, who was started earlier this year as an instructional manager at the school. The previous principal, Dr. Stanley Green, has “decided to move on” given that the school year is ending, said College Prep’s new CEO Joel Castro, but he declined to elaborate on the circumstances of Green’s departure. After Sylvanie Williams closes at the end of the school year, College Prep will move the items it purchased there out — such as laptops.

schools

Audubon Charter receives 1,200 applications for first year of new Gentilly campus

By Robert Morris | April 21, 2018

Audubon Charter School’s new Gentilly campus received an explosion of interest from parents this spring by way of 1,200 applications for fewer than 200 spaces, and officials are now preparing for a busy summer of preparations to open the campus in August. The school has already been assigned 171 students for grades preK-4 through second grade, and will add about 20 more in the pre-K3 grade once that program is approved through a separate process, Audubon officials said Saturday morning at their April board meeting. The school will add an upper grade each year after this one, until it reaches the eighth grade. On Saturday morning, the board approved a $1.9 million contract for the first phase of renovations at the Gentilly Terrace campus, which will exclusively focus on the first floor and outdoor areas where the youngest students will be. A second phase of renovations for the upper-floor classrooms will be approved later, said board member Eva Alito.

schools

Lusher Charter School board meeting (live coverage)

By Robert Morris | April 14, 2018

Lusher Charter School is holding its April monthly board meeting. See below for live coverage. Live Blog Lusher Charter School board meeting – April 14, 2018 window.cilAsyncInit = function() {cilEmbedManager.init()};(function() {if (window.cilVwRand === undefined) { window.cilVwRand = Math.floor(Math.random()*10000000); }var e = document.createElement(‘script’);e.async = true;var domain = (document.location.protocol == ‘http:’ || document.location.protocol == ‘file:’) ? ‘https://cdnsl.coveritlive.com’ : ‘https://cdnslssl.coveritlive.com’;e.src = domain + ‘/vw.js?v=’ + window.cilVwRand;e.id = ‘cilScript-56660cdb40’;document.getElementById(‘cil-root-stream-56660cdb40’).appendChild(e);}());

schools

Noble Minds, new charter school, to move into former Lycee Francais space at Carrollton church

By Robert Morris | March 27, 2018

The Noble Minds Institute of Whole Child Learning, a new charter school in the process of completing its first year, plans to move into the Central St. Matthew UCC church classroom building formerly occupied by Lycée Français de la Nouvelle-Orléans over the summer, officials said Tuesday night. Noble Minds opened this year serving children in grades K-2 on Herschel Drive in Algiers. Founded by educator Vera Triplett, the school’s five guiding principles, according to its website, are “whole child learning, learning by doing everyday, tight feedback loops, collaborative inquiry, and therapeutic versus punitive responses to challenging behavior.” “We are currently serving grades K-2 and will serve K-3 next year adding a grade every year until we are a full service K-8,” Triplett said in an email to Uptown Messenger.

schools

Design period for new Cohen High School building could take a year, College Prep says

By Robert Morris | March 27, 2018

The design process for the new Cohen High School is likely to take about a year, because the building will be a custom design rather than a template modeled off another school as previously expected, College Prep officials said Monday evening. Cohen has been awaiting the construction of its new campus since 2015, when the Recovery School District announced that it would not be combined with a new Booker T. Washington High School and instead given a new building on its current site. That project has recently gotten underway with a new round of conversations between Cohen and RSD officials, and College Prep officials said earlier this month they hoped construction could begin as soon as this year of a building modeled after the Livingston Collegiate Academy building in the lake area. Further preparations have revealed that the Collegiate Academy building’s footprint would not fit on the Cohen site, so Cohen’s building will be designed from scratch, College Prep’s new CEO Joel Castro told the board on Monday night. That design process typically takes about a year, but the delay may benefit the school by giving its community more opportunity for input on what they would like to see in the building, Castro said.