Nov. 10, 2011: RSD Announces Community Process for Determining Long-Term School Building Assignments
11/10/2011 12:00:00 AM
Send comments regarding the proposed building assignments to rsd@rsdla.net.
As outlined in Commitment 9 of What Will It Take?, the Recovery School District (RSD) today announced the process being used to make building assignments for schools in temporary space, as well as its specific recommended assignments. Next week, the district will host a series of community meetings to gather feedback on those recommendations. Final assignments will be announced in December.
The RSD began the process in December 2010 with the release of proposed school building assignments. The district also hosted a series of public meetings across the city in January 2011, with plans to make final assignments by Jan. 31. However, in response to community feedback, the district decided to postpone making final assignments until after the School Facilities Master Plan was revised. More community meetings were held this summer to get feedback on the proposed Master Plan revisions, which were approved by the state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education (BESE) and the Orleans Parish School Board (OPSB) last month.
The final school building assignments, now due in December, will reflect prior proposed assignments with modifications based on the revised Master Plan, school program changes and additional community input.
“Now that the revised Master Plan ensures that every New Orleans student will attend school in a new, renovated or refurbished building, we must make sure that all existing schools, especially those in temporary buildings, have a long-term home,” said RSD Superintendent John White. “We look forward to engaging the community again in this process and will announce final long-term building assignments by Dec. 31.”
In addition to community input, the RSD will prioritize the following factors when making final building assignments for existing schools:
1. Previous school assignments made by the RSD to schools and communities
2. Alignment between the capacity needs of the school program and the prospective building (e.g., if a high school operator is able to offer robust career-technical [CTE] offerings in a setting designed to support CTE programs)
3. Geographic distribution of current students based on zip code analysis
4. An operator’s track record in improving student academic performance and its continued ability to operate successfully in a prospective facility.
Long-term building assignments will be contingent on the school program continuing to demonstrate excellence in meeting accountability and governance standards. Click here for the recommended building assignments for existing schools.
To gather community feedback, the RSD has scheduled the following public meetings:
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Monday, Nov. 14, 6:30 p.m., Lake Area High School, 6026 Paris Ave. – Planning Districts 1,6,7,8 (Marigny, Bywater, Gentilly, 9th Ward and French Quarter.)
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Tuesday, Nov. 15, 6:30 p.m., Schaumburg Elementary School , 9501 Grant St. – Planning District 9,10,11 (New Orleans East)
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Wednesday, Nov. 16, 6:30 p.m., Langston Hughes Academy, 3519 Trafalgar St. – Planning Districts 2,3,4,5 (Uptown, Mid-City, Central City and Lakeview)
For charter operators newly approved by BESE in December, the RSD will provide a building assignment in February, based on the following factors:
1. Alignment between the school program and prospective facility capacity
2. Operator’s track record of academic performance and experience, and capacity to operate successfully in a prospective facility
3. Community input on school vision and citywide needs for academic programming
The building assignment process continues the RSD’s efforts to follow through on its 12 commitments to New Orleans listed in What Will It Take? Read the plan on the RSD Web site.