WWNO skyline header graphic
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations
Local Newscast
Hear the latest from the WWNO/WRKF Newsroom.

2 New Orleans charter schools will close: ‘The way our system is set up’

NOLA Public Schools Interim Superintendent Fateama Fulmore (center), announces this year's charter school renewals at a special board meeting on Dec. 10, 2024.
Aubri Juhasz
/
WWNO
Fateama Fulmore, the district's interim superintendent, announces this year's charter school renewals at a special board meeting on Dec. 10, 2024.

An all-boys charter school in Gentilly will shutter at the end of the month, forcing about 100 students to change schools mid-year.

New Orleans' school board also voted Tuesday to close the only public high school in the Lower 9th Ward at the end of the academic year and allow the school's operator, Friends of King, to keep its K-8 campus open for another three years.

Leaders of The Delores Taylor Arthur School for Young Men agreed to close the school this week after the city's school board scheduled a vote to shut it down.

Rafael Simmons, the district's accountability officer, said the school's CEO was concerned he couldn't make December's payroll, putting students at risk.

At a special meeting, board member Olin Parker spoke directly to the impacted teenagers.

"That is a failure of the adults who are leading your school," Parker said. "It is unfortunate, but it is the reality."

District officials said the high school is in the red financially — because enrollment determines funding, and it is under-enrolled — with a negative fund balance of $2,000.

Enrollment in the city has declined by thousands of students in recent years due to falling birth rates. That's led to a growing number of empty seats, and if a school has too many, it can become impossible to operate without additional funding.

"They love this school, and now you're ripping that from them in the middle of the school year," said Sylvia Johnson, whose son is a junior at the Arthur School.

She was one of several parents and students who asked the board to step in and keep the school running through at least the spring. Johnson said if parents had known about the financial problems, they could have fundraised, but no one told them.

Others pointed to the district's financial fumble in their case to grant the school grace.

The district is facing a deficit of upwards of $36 million due to an accounting error. A recent settlement with the city council should plug part of the hole. But officials said the complete picture still isn't clear. Schools could ultimately lose money, though payments have remained steady for now.

Johnson said students will have to change their whole lives, graduating seniors just for a few months. "That's detrimental to their emotional well-being."

When her son, Jamal Wilson, addressed the board, several of his classmates stood up to show their support.

He repeated the same question several times: "Are you fine with closing a school that is full of young, troubled Black men who are getting a great education?"

Byron Arthur, a longtime New Orleans teacher, opened the school in 2021 to provide families with a public all-boys option. The district celebrated its debate program, and students said they racked up accolades.

But the school's record wasn't spotless. District officials flagged multiple issues in September related to students' credit accumulation, special education, staff credentials, employee background checks and more.

Warren Smith told board members Arthur recruited him to join the school as a freshman. He didn't want to but gave it a try.

With time, he grew to appreciate the small class sizes and one-on-one attention, he said. "I knew all of the teachers, and they knew me … My grades shot through the roof."

No public high school in the Lower 9th

The board also voted on Tuesday to close the only public high school in the Lower 9th Ward for failing to meet the district's academic standards.

Thirteen of the district's nearly 70 schools were up for renewal as part of the district's annual cycle, and all but Martin Luther King Jr. Charter School for Sci Tech, a K-12 school, qualified for an automatic extension.

The district determines renewals by a school's academic performance, not just raw test scores but also how much students improved.

King had an F-letter grade from the state that recently got bumped up to a D. It scored too low for an automatic extension but high enough to qualify for what's known as a "comprehensive evaluation," where officials take a closer look before making a decision.

Fateama Fulmore, the district's interim superintendent, said she was recommending the school's high school for non-renewal since it fared worse than its elementary.

For example, grades K-8 got a B-letter progress grade from the state, while the high school received a C. The program scored at least 13 percentage points beneath the district average across several metrics.

The elementary school also has higher enrollment, at 88% of its all-time high, and a thriving pre-K program, Fulmore said, while the high school is at less than half its previous high, with less than 200 students. The building has a capacity of 800.

Dale Simeon, the high school's counselor, warned against closing the school.

"When children are a part of the community and they are disrupted," she said. "Sometimes they never recover."

She argued King isn't "failing" and that data used to assess the school, including graduation rates and the rigor of classes, isn't accurate. She made the same claims at the school's renewal hearing but didn't present any evidence.

Other community members criticized the fidelity of the renewal process. They said they believed that no matter what the high school did, the board would close it, reflecting a lingering mistrust between some New Orleanians and the school district since Hurricane Katrina.

Parents from King and The Arthur School said they wished the board would intervene to help schools get back on track rather than shut them down.

Parker, the board member, reminded them that's not how a charter model works.

"Unfortunately, or fortunately, depending on how you look at it, the way our system is set up is schools are granted additional autonomy in exchange for accountability," he said.

Two more New Orleans charter schools authorized by the state, not the local school board, will also close at the end of the academic year: The International High School of New Orleans, on Esplanade Avenue, and Noble Minds Institute for Whole Child Learning, a small K-8 school located uptown.

Both schools withdrew their plans to renew before the state board met this week. The high school has about 380 students, while the Noble Minds has less than 20 kids a grade.

Fulmore said that students from all four closing schools will receive priority status through the district’s enrollment process, making them more likely to get a school of their choice.

The main enrollment period is now open through Jan. 24.

Aubri Juhasz covers education, focusing on New Orleans' charter schools, school funding and other statewide issues. She also helps edit the station’s news coverage.

👋 Looks like you could use more news. Sign up for our newsletters.

* indicates required
New Orleans Public Radio News
New Orleans Public Radio Info