Lycee Francais' new St. Francis of Assisi campus on State Street. (UptownMessenger.com file photo by Sabree Hill)
Jim Garvey of Metairie, whose District 1 on the state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education also represents the Audubon-area neighborhoods where the French-immersion charter school’s campuses are located, led a brief discussion about the issues Monday morning at a meeting of the board’s School Innovation and Turnaround Committee.
Raphael Gang, director of the Office of Parental Options at the Louisiana Department of Education, said that his office had monitored LFNO’s process for advertising the openings in the second grade. The school received 36 applications, and held an open lottery for the 30 available spaces, according to the report made available prior to the meeting. Some of the advertising was directed to low-income communities, Gang said, and about a third of the incoming class would be considered at-risk students, Gang said.
Jim Garvey
If the application process was not properly publicized, Garvey said, then only select groups might have known about it.
“I’m always trying to look out for low-income students,” Garvey said. “They seem to need extra help watching issues like these.”
Kira Orange Jones, the BESE board member who represents most of Uptown and the rest of New Orleans, is a co-chair of the committee but did not ask any questions about the report.
Lycee Francais board president Jean Montes attended the meeting, but the board did not ask him to speak. Montes said after the meeting that he would continue working to ensure that the school follows state guidelines.
A request to the state Department of Education seeking more specifics on its monitoring of the advertising and results was not answered.
Is advertising to low-risk families helpful? Could an at-risk child with no prior French attend the second grade?
this year they did allow children w/ little or no French experience apply and be accepted to the 2nd grade. I’m not sure if they are going to “allow” again for next year (2013-14) since the 2nd grade will be filled w/ students already enrolled in the 1st grade class this year.
Yes, NOlA HERE, very helpful, as LFNO must now ” allow” ( as JPPSparent puts it) non french speakers in their First and Second grade from here on out. The LFNO board had to change their charter because of federal requirements and start up funds. LFNO must be an open admissions school period to receive federal start up money . The board wanted that second grade and the only way to have it was to change their charter and take out the proficiency requirements. First and now second grade are non open admissions. And you wonder why the parents of LFNO were upsetwith this decision and the French ministry of Ed! As I said earlier, LFNO seems to be in a pickle and again this has nothing to do with closing down the school, but bad decision making.
This is the problem JPPSS Parent. By accepting federal start up funds Lycee has committed to being open admissions for every grade for perpetuity. There will be natural attrition at Lycee..as there has been this year (and I can assure you more than 4 children are leaving). An open lottery will have to be done to fill vacancies and in order for the lottery to be legal it will HAVE to be open. This is the fundamental problem many of us have been complaining about for a year. Yes, it will be very difficult for a non-french speaking child to start school at Lycee. In order to meet the qualificaitons of an open enrollment school Lycee should revise the curriculum to work for kids that come without the language. It is ILLEGAL for Lycee to be anything BUT open enrollment because they have accpeted this huge sum of money from the United States Government. ISL did not get this money because they have selective admissions. ACS did not get this money because they have selective admissions. Lusher did not get this money because they have selective admissions.
Now, there are ways that your Board will attempt to get around this rule and still receive the money that was not intended for a school like Lycee. Creating all of the extra classes at the bottom is one of the ways. As attrition occurs you will just have less classes, and probaby have no lottery. The issue with this is all of the Pre-K’s cost way more money than they are taking in (as Ms. Van Buskirk Pointed out), and all must be on the first floor. So your board has to figure a way to move the funds around…so that they are not spending the federal start up money on those PRIVATE pre-k children. Enter the merry-go-round zoo classes.
I would also bet that your board still hopes to add more grades than just 3rd grade to the agenda next year..(.if they can oust any other truly open admissions schools out of their buildings). If they add additional grades next year, they will have to have an OPEN lottery. This sort of bait and switch with federal money may be okay with you. It is not okay with me and many others.
BESE should be creating inclusive schools that truly work for all of the community. How does this school help parents who want to move here from other cities? How does it help New Orleans on a broad scale. Does it appeal to a wide segment of our population? I would say no. It only works well for families that can afford 4k in tuition for Pre-K, or families that move from other immersion programs. It will not appeal to families with children with special needs, it will not appeal to families that cannot afford a 200 dollar a week summer camp (something needed to maintain french proficiency). Immersion schools are great. The French Curriculum is awesome. But New Orleans does not need any more of this. How about french curriculum IN english? That could be cool..no snob appeal, but accessible.