schools

Lycee Francais seeks to add second and third grades, drop French-proficiency requirement for first grade

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Lycée Français de la Nouvelle Orléans will seek permission to add a second and third grade to its new campus next year, and also plans to drop a French proficiency requirement for incoming first-grade students, officials decided Monday. Though its initial plans were only to add a first grade next year, the school has already received 31 applications for second grade and 17 for third grade, board member Jean Montes reported on Monday. “Without even advertising for the upper grades, we have received unsolicited applications for several upper grades with the strongest interest in grades 2 and 3,” he wrote in a draft request to the state Department of Education. Montes’ proposal would also create a tutoring program to prepare the new third grade students for state standardized tests. “I think we have the obligation to respond to the people in this community who are asking us for solutions in terms of options,” Montes said at Monday’s meeting.

business

2011: The year in review

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Editor’s note: We had originally intended to do a listing of “most popular” posts on UptownMessenger.com in 2011, but in the process decided that a focus on the most important stories of the year in Uptown New Orleans would be more substantive. What follows is our assessment of the stories we’ve covered over the past year that continue to matter the most, with some commentary explaining our thinking. And, for anyone curious, those “most popular” posts are included at bottom as well. Thank you to everyone who read us in 2011, and we look forward to another year. 1) Murder
The city’s unyielding — in fact, substantially growing — murder rate is arguably the single most important story of New Orleans in 2011, and Uptown New Orleans was by no means spared in the epidemic.

schools

Lycee Francais considers faster pace for adding upper elementary grades

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Based on what may be a growing interest in language-immersion education among parents, Lycée Français de la Nouvelle Orléans is exploring the possibility of adding more upper-elementary grades sooner than the one-per-year model that officials had originally envisioned, school leaders said Thursday. Currently in its first year, Lycée Français has three grades: pre-kindergarten for 3- and 4-year-olds, and kindergarten for 5-year-olds. The original plan for the school called for the addition of a first grade next year, and moving one grade up each subsequent year. Based on repeated inquiries from families with older children, however, school officials are investigating the feasibility of adding some higher grades ahead of schedule, board member Jean Montes said during a special meeting Thursday. The board’s first step, Montes said, is determining exactly how much demand for opening the higher grades actually exists.

schools

Lycee Francais meets Thursday to discuss enrollment

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The Lycée Français de la Nouvelle Orléans governing board will hold a special meeting Thursday afternoon to discuss enrollment for the coming year, officials said. The meeting will include a “discussion of accelerated growth, enrollment contracts and evaluations,” according to an agenda released Wednesday afternoon. The meeting begins at 3 p.m. at 5401 S. Claiborne Avenue.

schools

New library, environmental curriculum latest projects for Lycee Francais

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The creation of a school library and the possibility of a new environmental and nature curriculum represent two of the latest endeavors by Lycée Français de la Nouvelle Orléans, as the new French-immersion charter school also begins recruiting new students for its second year. School board president Andrew Abrams said at a Monday night board meeting that the library is a personal goal of his. “I’d love to make sure that LF has one of the strongest elementary and secondary libraries in the state of Louisiana,” Abrams said. Abrams has recruited Brent Hightower, a librarian with the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, to assist in the creation of the project. Hightower said he will be relying heavily on the instructors to help with the collection, since he doesn’t speak French, and said his expertise will be in the technical side of creating a catalog.

arts, books and music

French holiday market Saturday at Lycee Francais

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A French book fair, holiday arts, seasonal cuisine, live jazz and children’s activities will all be offered at the inaugural Marché de Noël at Lycée Français de la Nouvelle Orléans on Saturday. Full details from the news release:
Drawing on a long French tradition of holiday markets, Lycée Français de la Nouvelle Orléans will host its first Marché de Noël this Satuday, Dec. 10 from 10 a.m. – 4 p.m. at its campus at 5401 South Claiborne Avenue. The market will feature seasonal food from Bistro Daisy, Cochon, Taco Loceaux and Sentiments Café, beverages, holiday crafts from local artists and artisans and games and craftmaking for children. The Warren Easton Marching Band will entertain the shoppers with holiday tunes as will jazz vocalist Sarah Quintana.

schools

Milestone SABIS Academy criticizes church’s selection of Lycee Francais as new tenant for school

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St. Francis of Assisi Catholic Church’s recent selection of Lycée Français de la Nouvelle-Orléans as the new tenant of its school building drew sharp criticism Monday evening from the board of Milestone SABIS Academy, the school that has been in the building for several years. Lycée Français announced Monday morning that the St. Francis of Assisi school building at State and Patton streets will be its new main campus starting next summer, and that it has space for 500 students, enough to accommodate several years of the school’s growth. After a Monday night board meeting, the leaders of Milestone SABIS Academy issued their own announcement, saying that they only learned of the plans for the building through media reports, saying the church “opted to not negotiate the lease renewal in good faith.”

schools

Lycée Français announces St. Francis of Assisi school at State and Patton as new campus

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Lycée Français de la Nouvelle-Orléans has leased the St. Francis of Assisi school building at State and Patton in Uptown New Orleans as its new location, according to an announcement made early Monday. The French-immersion charter school opened this year with two sections each of 3-year-old pre-kindergarten, 4-year-old pre-kindergarten and 5-year-old kindergarten — with three of those classrooms at Audubon Zoo and three at First Presbyterian Church on South Claiborne. The school plans to add two new sections of kindergarten (with the possibility of more, based on demand) and two sections of first grade next year, and officials predicted last week that the building would accommodate the school’s year-by-year growth for at least five years. The one-year lease for the space at the zoo is likely to end next year, officials have said, but have not yet described how the remaining classes and office space will be spread between the two church buildings.

schools

French-immersion charter schools dispute allegation that their admissions favor the wealthy

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Leaders of two French-immersion public charter schools in Uptown New Orleans, Audubon Charter School and Lycée Français de la Nouvelle Orléans, both made efforts this week to dispute allegations that their admissions procedures favor students from wealthy families. The allegations originate in an October report authored by former Orleans Parish schools superintendent Barbara Ferguson and education advocate Karran Harper Royal entitled “The Deception of the ‘Lottery’ at Lycee Francais and Audubon Schools.” The report argues that because both schools offer fee-based pre-kindergarten programs (costing up to $4,570 per child) that provide a pathway into their free public kindergarten classes, the schools are becoming “instruments for educating only a select group of students” and constitute a “misuse of the charter school concept.” Leaders at both Audubon and Lycée Français responded to the accusations this week, each arguing that the report misconstrues their actual admissions procedures and reaffirming their schools’ commitment to serving students at all income levels. Lycée Français

The response by Lycée Français came in the form of two emails addressed to parents Wednesday and Thursday seeking to dispel “false rumors” about the school.

good works

Hollygrove playground build Saturday, the second Uptown KaBOOM! project in two weeks

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The latest KaBOOM! playground in Uptown New Orleans will be built by volunteers Saturday at Conrad Park on Hamilton Street, only two weeks after the same organization brought new equipment to the Claiborne Avenue campus of Lycée Français de la Nouvelle Orléans. Details of the Hollygrove build, via an emailed news release:

DESIGNED BY KIDS, BUILT BY VOLUNTEERS:
ORGANIZATIONS PARTNER TO SAVE PLAY BY BUILDING NEW PLAYGROUND
IN JUST ONE DAY FOR HOLLYGROVE CHILDREN

WHAT: More than 200 volunteers will join together on Saturday, Nov. 19 to build a new playground at Hollygrove’s Conrad Playground in one day. The new playground’s design is based on drawings created by children who participated in a Design Day event in September.