The International School of Lousiana’s Olivier Street campus in Algiers.
The Camp Street building has become overcrowded over the past two years as fewer and fewer students left the school’s upper grades — enrollment at Camp Street leaped from 510 students just two years ago to 600 this year, an addition of 90 students to a building that was already essentially full, said ISL board president Andrew Yon. This year, the school moved all the administrative functions possible to its Jefferson Parish campus to free up as much room as possible. Next year, however, just to the school’s current students, ISL must add a fourth section of the sixth grade and a third section of the eighth grade — which is impossible under the school’s current configuration.
The school board’s original hope was to find satellite space near Camp Street, and split off several grades to start there, such as a small primary school for the youngest two grades, or a middle school for the upper grades. The board created a committee to begin looking for a suitable space, but so far, nothing has turned up, Yon said.
Last month, the school leaders proposed a radically different plan to the board: Consolidate the lower grades at Camp Street, and put the fifth through eighth grades at the Olivier Street campus in Algiers. The Olivier Street campus is not yet full, since only kindergarten and first grades have opened there, so the reorganization would essentially find room for the growing upper grades without having to pay for more space.
The board asked the school leaders to prepare a survey of school families, which came back with a “dramatic” finding, Yon said. Though not all families responded, it appears that about 30 percent from each campus would leave the school if they had to move their children across the river.
“We would like to use our facilities to the fullest, optimal capacity, and right now we are under-utilizing Olivier and over-utilizing Camp Street,” Yon said. But a 30-percent exodus would create a new problem: “If that happens, we would probably be using both spaces to less than their capacity.”
The board is still weighing its options, and interest remains in the original plan for satellite campus at Camp Street, if space can be found, Yon said.
“We want to make sure there’s not a creative way to not do the split, before we do the split,” Yon said. “The split is going to cause a lot of upheaval.”
Yon said parents from about 20 families attended a recent meeting of the school’s strategic planning committee and discussed the proposal for more than two hours then. Though many of them opposed the reorganization, they held a positive, constructive conversation about the possibilities for solving the facilities issue, Yon said — expressing his hope that a similar tenor will prevail during Wednesday night’s meeting of the full ISL board of trustees.
“We don’t need to hear the same opinion expressed 25 different times for three minutes each time,” Yon said. “It’s a discussion of alternatives, not a litany of opinions.”
The board will likely need another meeting or two to solve the facility issue, perhaps even a special meeting just on the topic, Yon said. But the parents who said they will leave if the reorganization plan is adopted have asked for a decision in time for them to apply to other schools, and Yon said Wednesday night’s meeting will set a firm deadline for a decision, to honor that request.
The board meets at 6 p.m. Wednesday in the cafeteria of the Camp Street campus, 1400 Camp Street, and the campus reorganization proposal is first on the agenda.
This is a terrible idea. I completed the survey and attended the meeting this past Monday night too, offering up the solution of temporarily moving the library to a modular building or mobile setting to accommodate the needed 2 extra classrooms next year. This while a more viable solution is found. My family is in the 30%, and this proposal will not fit our lives. Creative solutions can be found, but the clock is ticking, and to bring this to the attention to the parents now smacks or poor planning and oversight. It’s disappointing and sad as choosing to proceed in this direction will disrupt and unravel so many families lives and routines as well as the school’s momentum. “Change can be hard for some,” my wife overheard one of the decision makers say aloud recently as if to say the decision was already made. Unfortunately I wouldn’t label this a change so much as a dynamic shift impacting car use, travel time, pollution, and quality of life. Not to mention money. There is a sight out there, but the committee did not reveal what sights had been passed up, only that ISL would be last on the list to ever be granted another building from the state. And if that’s the case, then looking outside the realm of ordinary or known inventory should be in order, carefully measuring potential sites for appropriateness. Not forcing a change a whopping 30% will not embrace.
I am one of the 30% as well. This is awful for my children and for our family much like for yours.
I’m with you, JPV. I have 2 kids at ISL Camp St, Kindergarten & 1st grade, and change would not be difficult: it would be impossible. Consider the families that live and work on the East Bank: cross the CCC to get to ISL Algiers on time; rush hour traffic coming back across CCC to get to work on time; arrange to leave work early 5x/ week (?!?!) in order to get to ISL Algiers by 5:30 to avoid late fees from after school care, then back across CCC in rush hour to be home around 6:15. There’s no way. It is obscene that the leadership is considering forcing families to make this choice and demonstrates terrible planning and decision making. Holy Cross made modular work for 3-4 years post K; Sci High is doing it now with success; there’s no reason ISL can’t be creative and do the same until a long term solution is found.
They are looking for other sites. They visited properties in Lakeview, Gentilly and a parent suggested a potential site in Algiers Point within the last two weeks. The problem with most of the sites is that they require too much renovation. Our budget only has about 500K in it for renovations and every site they have looked at so far has been too small or needed too much work. As far as the suggestion about moving the library to modulars: this is a temporary solution to a bigger problem. It would only buy them one year at most and I think they are looking for a more permanent solution.
Change is hard, but so many parents in this city, because of our school system (public and private) are required to travel across the city multiple times to take our kids to a school that can give our kids the best they can offer. I am a Westbank parent whose children go to Audubon Charter. We used to drive all the way to the Riverbend, now I drive to the Gentilly campus while the Broadway campus is renovated. Next year will be a problem for us. I will have one child at Carrolton campus and the other at Gentilly. I have been struggling with what to do. I’m still struggling. But with the help of parents and carpools we are just going to have to make it work for at least a year. Audubon is important to us, it is diverse, caring, and my kids are getting a great education. I know there are some Westbank parents with kids at ISL, the move would actually be good for them. You just can’t suit everyone. The problem is we just don’t have neighborhood schools anymore, and there are a variety of reasons for that. Some good, like achieving diversity, and some not so good, like the sad fact that schools close to us may not be of the quality we desire for our children. So the question as a society that we must address (as opposed to issues of a parent just looking out for our kids) is how to we make all our schools high quality. School board elections are coming up. What can all these candidates really offer? They need to share solutions.
And as part of this post, Jean-Paul Villere, I hope I communicated that I share your pain and angst. It’s awful, and we dealt with it with our move. Good luck with whatever is decided.
I find Mr. Yon’s comments very disheartening. He expresses a wish to use the facilities to their full capacity, but fails to mention anything about the ISL families, which should be his first consideration. Further on, he says he doesn’t want to hear one opinion expressed 25 different times. That’s too bad, Mr. Yon, because there are many parents who think this proposed move will force them to leave ISL. You need to listen, and fully contemplate what the proposal entails for kids and parents, and not just buildings.
The statement from ISL Board President, Andrew Yon stating “We don’t need to hear the same opinion expressed 25 different times for three minutes each time. It’s a discussion of alternatives, not a litany of opinions.” is deplorable!!! Mr. Yon is not a parent of an ISL student. If he was, he would want his voice to be heard, even if it is the same voice as other parents who spoke before him. Public comments in any form should not be sensored because some self important Board member doesn’t want to spend the time to hear what his constituants have the right to say. Show up and be heard ISL families!!!!! This is important stuff and the public coments section of an ISL Board meeting are set aside for you to speak your mind and tell your story!
I’m inclined to agree with the other Audubon Parent…I too live in Algiers and drive my child to Audubon Charter’s Gentilly campus everyday. It’s awful. But, you get used to it and if the school is worth it to you, you’ll make it work and you’ll try to find other parents in the same boat and carpool, etc…
I guess if 30% of the students left, then I assume everyone on the waiting list will be admitted. And, there may be additional westbank families who would enroll their middle-school child if the campus moved.
I get it though, if you live near Camp street you wouldn’t want to drive to Algiers. I wouldn’t either. I guess I’m curious as to what other school you would enroll your child? ISL is an awesome school. Good luck to all.
This is not about remediation or renovation of a building and a short-term or temporary move (which I could deal with). It is about not communicating long term goals and not including ISL families in that discussion and then growing too quickly and not planning ahead. It’s about saving money over providing continuity for students, about not being willing to slow down growth for a bit, it’s about ISL Admin and Board not doing their due dilligence to find a building and not looking at modulars as an alternative on Camp St. Unfortunately, whatever happens, the trust of parent and families with ISL administration and the ISL Board of Trustees has been compromised. And the ISL model that everyone loved (including myself) is slowly but surely becoming a thing of the past. Poor communication in a language immersion school, consider the irony of that. You have to laugh and then move on and figure out what is best for your children and family. It’s the best any of us can do.
What we as the ISL family have to accept is that change is inevitable. Whether you are currently an Olivier or Camp St. family, something has to and is going to change in the near future. Olivier is, at present, only a K-5 school. This means, from 6th – 8th grade, those parents were going to have to, at minimum, go to another school, which is not guaranteed to be on the Westbank. As far as Camp street families are concerned, we have been in the loop of imminent campus overcrowding for almost 2 years. Things have to change. Camp street services just under 600 students…lets say that is 500 families. The only decision that will make 500 families happy is no change, and that is not going to happen.
ISL offers a rather unique learning environment. If that environment is important to you…if you love the idea of immersion education and the culturally diverse atmosphere offered at ISL, you will find a way to make it work. ISL is on the borderline to be an A rated school in the New Orleans district, soon joining the ranks of Audubon and Lusher. This is high quality FREE education. Our children will leave this school fluent in another language and that ability has resounding impacts on their potential future income and hireability.
Finally, on Mr. Yon’s comments on not hearing the same comment 25 times: I whole heartily agree. The brown bag breakfast forum last week was plagued with the same complaint about transportation issues over and over and over again. It is a waste of time and Sean Wilson already responded to that specific complaint many times. If those families took the time to fill out the survey that was made available for 2 weeks, their individual situations would be apparent to the board. Furthermore, the decision makers are well away of the number of flight risks. What they need is creative solutions, not redundant, non-constructive complaints.
I understand your point about ISL offering a quality education, but, thankfully, we live in a city that now provides other high-quality opportunities for French-language students (I’m not aware of similar opportunities for Spanish-language) . As for your comment “if you love…you will find a way to make it work” you’re assuming you know each family’s situation, which you don’t. And, no, it is not FREE. We pay for it through our tax dollars, and there’s no reason why public education shouldn’t be high quality. You’re obviously very plugged into the ISL situation, and that’s great, but everyone, not just those who are plugged in, deserves a chance to be heard.
I usually do not respond to articles in a public forum, but this is an issue that would profoundly affect my family and the education my husband and I make huge sacrifices to provide for our children. I am a St. John parish resident not only living it the area, but working there too. My husband does contract work all over the souhern part of the state. Three of my four kids attend schools in New Orleans, the younger two are in kindergarten and 4th grade at the Camp Street location. My oldest attends a Catholic school uptown. I literally spend 4-5 hours a day bringing my children back and forth to school and activities, in part because one began at ISL while I was working nearby in the city. What the article fails to address is that the ISL education, while extraordinary, and worth every bit of my sacrifice as a parent, is not one that is an easily transferrable option for younger students. To switch a young child who has been learning essentially every subject in a foreign language will no doubt cause them to fall behind when they switch to a traditional program. So rather than allow that to happen, my family has arranged our lives so that our schedules fit around getting our children back and forth to school on time each day. To have to bring one child to school on Camp, and another on the Westbank would be IMPOSSIBLE. That is without taking into account our other two children we drop off for high school and daycare. And we do not have the luxury of any nearby familes to carpool with.
ISL is attractive because it is an option to parents who live outside of the greater New Orleans area where school choice is limited and I am certain that we are not the only parents who would be faced with this predicament. And as to the writer who said the school rolls would simply be filled with “wait-listed students,” not many students have the foreign language skills necessary to enroll in higher level grades, which is one reason why the upper grades have traditionally been smaller.
I understand the admintration’s predicament; however, I am praying that the ISL community is able to pull together to find a mutually beneficial solution.
And on a final note, I did not complete the survey in time so I know I am not in the “30% count.” My 4th grader claims that “everyone” in his class said they would have to transfer next year…which I am sure is an inflation but I believe the families would be impacted in far greater numbers than the estimates show.
And so it begins. The taking sides, the he said, the she said, the they did this , they they did not do that. All this would have been lessened if the ISL Admin and Board 1-2 years ago had thought this through before expanding and opening their doors so wide. A little more planning, a little more self-control, a little foresight, a little less ego and greed, a little more empathy, a little more inclusion and interest in current ISL families and a lot of remembering that children are already in a place of learning that they love and are thriving and not wanting to change that at all. I am not against change…..would just have preferred it be more thoughtful.
Why have they waited until the last two weeks to start looking at schools? They have known that this would be a problem for at least a year. Here is my solution. If they want to expand their enrollment, let them do it on the westbank. They can expand to having 3 or 4 kindergarten classes of each language there, and close down 2 classes of kindergarten on the eastbank in order to make room for the older students. We signed on for a K-8 school on the eastbank. If newcomers want the ISL experience, they can get it on the westbank; that way they will know what the are getting into, and where their kids will be going to school.
Why have they only started looking for alternate space in the last 2 weeks? Why not expand on the westbank to 3 or 4 kindergarten classes per language and reduce the eastbank campus by 2 kindergarten classes to accomodate the older students? We signed up for a K-8 immersion school on the eastbank. If newcomers want the ISL immersion experience, they can have it on the westbank. Then they will know from the beginning what to expect, and where their kids will be in school.