schools

International School board to meet at Jefferson Parish campus

By |

The International School of Louisiana will hold its September monthly board meeting at 6:30 p.m. tonight (Wednesday, Sept. 26) at its new Jefferson Parish campus, 822 S. Clearview in Metairie. The full agenda is below:

AGENDA, Board of Trustees Regular Meeting
Wednesday, September 26, 2012
Jefferson Parish Campus, 822 S. Clearview, 6:30 pm

1. Welcome

2. Approval of August 22 regular, and September 19 special, meeting minutes

3.

recovery

Hurricane Isaac plays havoc with school return plans at Audubon, ISL and ENCORE

By |

While most New Orleans schools had planned to reopen Tuesday after Hurricane Isaac, Audubon Charter School received such extensive damage to both of its campuses that it will remain closed for another week; the International School of Louisiana has postponed reopening until Thursday while it finishes cleaning its campuses; and ENCORE Academy students will return Tuesday to their temporary home at Touro, as the storm delayed completion of their Crocker campus yet again, school officials said. The Carrollton campus of Audubon Charter School already had serious roof leaks, allowing Isaac’s wind and rain to cause substantial problems, and the temporary campus in Gentilly was also damaged, according to the school website:

The Carrollton Campus sustained extensive water/roof damage Hurricane Issac. The Gentilly Campus experienced moderate roof leaks in a number of classrooms. Due to the extent of damages and needed repairs both campuses will remain closed until Monday, September 10, 2012. Maintenance crews will continue to work to ready the buildings as quickly as possible. We appreciate your patience and support during this challenging time.

schools

International School leaders have no interest in joining RSD OneApp process this year — if they have a choice

By |

Amid what they see as “massive issues” with placing children with their preferred school in the Recovery School District’s new OneApp enrollment process, the leadership of the International School of Louisiana plans to continue using their own enrollment system this year, officials said Wednesday night. This year, the Recovery School District rolled out its vaunted “OneApp” enrollment system, intended to simplify the labyrinthine process of enrolling in New Orleans public schools that are governed by dozens of independent boards, and which previously each applied a separate application. This year, parents were asked to rank their preference for their child among RSD schools, and a computerized algorithm then placed kids all over the city. In May, the RSD trumpeted the success of the system in a news release that stated that “84.2 percent of entering kindergarten and rising ninth grade applicants were matched to one of their top three school choices,” singling out those two grades as traditional transition points between schools. In June, the Orleans Parish School Board approved a resolution promising to work toward joining that process for its 17 schools, perhaps as early as this year, according to a report by Andrew Vanacore of The Times-Picayune.

city government

International School cancels plans for Mandarin class at Westbank campus, debates space for solar panels and future students at Camp Street

By |

The International School of Louisiana is abandoning its plans to create the region’s first public-school program taught entirely in Mandarin Chinese next year for lack of enough students or a qualified instructor, officials said Wednesday. Meanwhile, the school’s governing board continues to discuss where to put solar panels on its Camp Street campus, and where to find additional space for the overflow of upper-grade students expected there in the 2013-14 school year. Mandarin | The school had only seven confirmed applicants for the Mandarin-immersion kindergarten class it hoped to create next year at the Westbank campus in Algiers, and had not yet located an instructor to teach them, officials said Wednesday night. Given those factors, school officials decided to cancel the program, folding the students signed up for it into Spanish-immersion classes instead, said ISL board president Andrew Yon at a meeting Wednesday night. This is the second year in a row that the school has tried unsuccessfully to create a Mandarin program, he said, so ISL will not pursue the Mandarin track again unless administrators create a comprehensive program to fill the spaces.

schools

International School to discuss solar panels at Eastbank campus, search for more space

By |

The International School of Louisiana will hold its regular monthly board meeting at 6 p.m. tonight (July 25) at its Eastbank campus, 1400 Camp Street, to discuss exploration of a satellite campus for that facility and solar panels on the school grounds, as well as issues relating to the Westbank and Jefferson Parish campuses. For the agenda, see below:

AGENDA, Board of Trustees Regular Meeting
Wednesday, July 25, 2012
Eastbank Campus, 1400 Camp Street, 6:00 pm

1. Welcome
2. Approval of June 27 meeting minutes
3. Board President’s comments
4.

schools

International School of Louisiana approves $13M budget for three campuses

By |

The International School of Louisiana gave tentative approval Wednesday night to a $13 million dollar budget for its three campuses for the coming school year, reorganizing its financial structure to reflect its growth into a system of schools. The school will grow from 546 students on Camp Street and 73 in Algiers this past year to 635 on Camp Street, 179 in Algiers and a projected 310 in Jefferson Parish next year for a total of more than 1,100 students. As it grows, the school is centralizing many of its administrative functions, and this year each of the three campuses will pay a portion of its funding toward the management office. Those allocations are as follows:

Out of a $6.9 million budget, Camp Street will pay $924,000. The Olivier Street campus in Algiers will pay $265,000 out of its $2.4 million budget.

schools

International School pauses expansion plans to focus on Camp Street, Algiers and Metairie campuses

By |

In a shift of direction, the International School of Louisiana will most likely not apply for a fourth charter school in the New Orleans area next year, pausing its expansion plans to concentrate on finding more space at its Camp Street campus, growing its school in Algiers and opening the new campus it has already committed to in Jefferson Parish. The ISL governing board has long been pursuing two parallel goals: expanding its educational offerings to reach as many students around New Orleans as possible, and creating a broad enough population of elementary students to create a high school in the not-too-distant future. This past year, ISL opened a new school on Olivier Street in Algiers Point and also won approval to open a new school in Metairie for immersion students in Jefferson Parish this fall. ISL also applied unsuccessfully last year to become the operator of a failing Recovery School District school, and had intended to apply again this year. Such a rapid pace of expansion began to worry several board members and parents in recent months, however, and Wednesday night’s board meeting was slated for a more robust discussion of that issue.

schools

International School to discuss test scores, expansion plans

By |

The International School of Louisiana governing board will meet at 6 p.m. tonight (Wednesday, May 23) at 1400 Camp Street to discuss the results of its recent state testing, the reconfiguration of the Camp Street campus, and further expansion plans, officials said. The full meeting agenda follows (via email from the board):

1. Welcome

2. Approval of May 2 (regular April) meeting minutes

3. Board President’s comments

4.

good works

International School eighth graders awarded diplomas from French government

By |

Six eighth-grade students at the International School of Louisiana were awarded high-school level diplomas from the French government that certifies their readiness to study at a Francophone university. More details, via email:
The International School of Louisiana is proud to announce that six ISL 8th graders took the B1 DELF (Diplôme d’études en langue française) Diploma test and passed. This test is designed to assess a student’s French level and provide them with with a French as a Second Language Certification that gives them an opportunity to study at a Francophone University . The DELF Diploma, officially awarded by the French Ministry of Education, is significant as it strengthens the students’ individual French curriculum by acquiring an internationally recognized diploma. The B1 level taken by the 8th graders at ISL was a high school level test and the 1st time ISL students have taken the test.

schools

International School parents voice concerns about further expansion

By |

As International School officials plan for growth next year at the Camp Street and Algiers campuses and prepare to open a third school in Jefferson Parish, a small group of parents attended Wednesday night’s school board meeting to voice their concerns about plans for continued expansion. Over the past two years, the International School of Louisiana has transformed from a single campus in the Lower Garden District to a system of what this fall will be three schools, doubling its total enrollment to an anticipated 1,120 students next year. The Algiers campus that opened this year was the first expansion, starting with kindergarten with plans to add a grade level each year. A third school is now planned in Metairie, with as many as eight grades possible absorbing students from language-immersion programs around Jefferson Parish. The ultimate goal of the school board for some time has been to expand in yet another new way, by taking over an existing school designated as failing by the state.