Encore Academy gets one more year at Crocker building as New Orleans College Prep moves in

ENCORE Academy, the new charter school that emphasizes music and individualized instruction, will be allowed to keep its temporary home in the Crocker building on Marengo Street even as the Recovery School District is assigning New Orleans College Prep to move in.

The Crocker building was finished this fall, and both the small Crocker Arts and Technology School and ENCORE Academy moved in under a plan to share the building for two years. Crocker’s test scores continued their slow downward drift this year, however, prompting the state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education not to renew its charter.

Because of some similarities in their focus on the arts and some overlap in their services within the building, ENCORE leader Terri Smith had hoped she would be able to invite the Crocker students to attend ENCORE, and for all of them to remain as a unified campus together, she said. Last week, however, it was announced that New Orleans College Prep will be taking over the former Crocker students — partly at the urging of the outgoing Crocker administrators — and that ENCORE will have only one more year in the Crocker building.

Many ENCORE families contacted the Recovery School District in support of merging with Crocker, Smith said, but to no avail. Now, the ENCORE board will spend 2013 looking for a new home for the 2014-15 school year — a permanent location, she said.

“We really don’t want out families to have to move more than one time,” Smith said.

ENCORE’s enrollment is currently at 206 students in its first year, and its wing of the Crocker building will let it grow to about 275 students next year. Smith said she is still trying to explore what might happen if enough of Crocker’s current 225 students apply to ENCORE.

“We will let the Crocker families know that we welcome their children,” Smith said.

The ENCORE governing board will meet at 6:30 p.m. tonight at the Crocker building, 2301 Marengo Street. The full agenda is below:

1. Call to order

2. Roll call

3. Approval of previous meeting minutes

4. Committee Reports
a. Executive
b. Policy
c. Finance
d. Fundraising

5. Old Business
a. Retreat review

6. New Business
a. Amending charter to include specific enrollment zip codes
b. Changing committee format
c. Adopting new committee descriptions
d. Adoption of new committee annual calendars
e. Adopting new board member application
f. Interviewing prospective board members

7. Presentations
a. School Leader Monthly Report

8. Public Comment

9. Adjourn