School Facilities Assignments: The Devil’s in the Details

The Recovery School District (RSD) recently released its “School Facility Assignments/Recommendations” for its schools.  This long-awaited document is in essence the second half of the School Facilities Master Plan, adopted in late 2008.  The Master Plan focused only on buildings.  The assignment plan details which school programs will occupy the buildings.  Although the assignment plan released last week is only a draft, it is a good first attempt at providing clarity to school operators, teachers, students, and parents about where schools will be located.

Because the assignment plan contains so many details, we thought it would be a good idea to examine it carefully.  There is a lot of information in the plan, and it is difficult to synthesize it all.  It is important to note that the analysis below focuses on the high-level planning for school facilities.  We did not look at the suitability of individual assignments.  While we wish that the RSD had provided more information about how the assignments were made, we believe that individual schools and neighborhoods can respond to the specific assignments best at this point.

After analyzing the assignment plan, we find some issues the two boards in charge of the master plan – the Orleans Parish School Board (OPSB) and the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education (BESE) – should consider.  The master plan calls for periodic review to allow it to be adjusted to meet current conditions.  We believe that this is an appropriate time for such a review and we discuss this at the end of this post.

Analysis of School Facility Assignments/Recommendations

This section includes observations about the information included in the assignment plan.

Some schools that are currently in modular campuses are not included in Phase 1.

The following schools are currently in modular buildings and will remain there for several years under the assignment plan.

Abramson Science and Technology Charter School

2009-2010 enrollment: 491

RSD recommendation:

•Morial campus

•Phase 2 new construction

•Zoning change required

Akili Academy of New Orleans

2009-2010 enrollment: 168

RSD recommendation:

•Abrams campus

•Phase 2 new construction

Lagniappe Academies Charter School

Opening 2010-2011: will serve grades K and 5

RSD recommendation:

•not included in assignment plan

Science and Math Academy

2009-2010 enrollment: 151

RSD recommendation:

•NASA site

•Phase 2 per board adopted plan (see below)

Some campuses are listed in the wrong phase in the assignment plan.

The assignment plan lists the NASA Lab site and the ACRES/Audubon Institute Lab site as Phase 1 schools.  These schools are Phase 2 schools in the master plan unless external funding has been secured.  To date, the RSD has not provided any information about external funding.  Until the source and amount of external funding is presented to OPSB and BESE, these schools should be listed as Phase 2 schools.

One school that is being phased out is in the assignment plan.

Gregory Elementary School is being replaced by Pride College Prep.  At the current rate of transformation, Gregory should close at the end of the 2014-2015 school year.  However, the assignment plan indicates that Gregory will receive a newly constructed school at the Alexander site in Phase 4 of the master plan.  (Pride College Prep is scheduled to occupy a newly constructed building at the Osborne location in Phase 1 of the master plan.)

Several schools that are open this year are not included in the assignment plan.

These schools are open this year but are not assigned facilities in the assignment plan.  Most of them are currently located in buildings are scheduled to be landbanked under the master plan.  Some of these schools may be scheduled to close or to be merged with other schools, but it is not clear which schools are in this category.

Banneker Elementary
Pierre Capdau – UNO Charter Elementary
John Dibert Community School
Green Charter School
Henderson Elementary
Hope Academy at Booker T. Washington
Lagniappe Academies of New Orleans
McDonogh City Park Academy
SciTech Academy at Laurel
O.P. Walker High
Sophie B Wright Charter School

OPSB schools are not addressed in the assignment plan.

The Master Plan covers all schools in the city in one document.  The assignment plan considers only RSD schools.  This leaves the OPSB with few options to address the space needs of its schools.  Specifically, we know that the following OPSB schools face significant space constraints under the master plan.

• Audubon Charter currently occupies two buildings – one that is scheduled to be renovated during Phase 1 and one that is scheduled to be landbanked.

• Ben Franklin Elementary is over capacity at its current location.  The renovation of this building, scheduled for Phase 5, will not result in any increase in capacity.

• Lusher currently occupies two campuses and is renting space at a third location this year.  Both Lusher campuses are scheduled for renovation in Phase 4 – with no increase in capacity.

A city-wide assignment plan would provide more options for locating these schools that have outgrown their current facilities.

What We Recommend

1.  BESE should direct RSD officials to work with OPSB officials to include all school programs and all campuses in the assignment plan.

The master plan implicitly acknowledges that students in New Orleans are best served by thinking about the facilities needs of all schools at once.  There is little justification to change approaches now and begin planning for RSD schools separately from OPSB schools.  At their May board meeting, OPSB officials indicated that they want to work with RSD officials on an assignment plan.  BESE should make sure that this happens.

2.  OPSB and BESE need to develop specific plans to move schools that are currently in modular campuses into permanent facilities.  The plans should consider two issues: funding and timing.

Funding – No funding has been secured for buildings in Phase 2 or later phases.  Officials from both districts are optimistic that additional FEMA funds will be available soon.  The boards should take action to ensure that the first priority when new funds become available is to finally move these schools out of modular campuses.

Timing – Because no funds have been secured to date, the projects for these schools cannot begin.  The boards should consider ways to fast-track these projects once funds become available so that these schools can be moved out of modular campuses as quickly as possible.

Lastly, Lagniappe Academies needs to be incorporated into the assignment plan.

3.  OPSB and BESE should adjust funding priorities and timelines for the following:

Currently occupied buildings that are scheduled to be landbanked – Seven schools that are currently in operation are located in buildings that are scheduled to be landbanked.  RSD officials have stated on several occasions that they will not move schools out of these buildings until new facilities are available.  However, that strategy does not address the issue of the condition of these buildings.  Because these buildings are scheduled to be landbanked in the master plan, there is no money budgeted for repairs or renovations to these buildings.  If it is likely that schools will continue to occupy these buildings over the long run – and based on the information in the assignment plan, that seems likely – then the master plan should be adjusted to ensure that there is funding available to make improvements to the buildings.

Schools scheduled for renovation or new construction that do not have programs assigned to them – The assignment plan lists 12 PK-8 schools scheduled for new construction or renovation in the master plan that do not have school programs assigned to them.  The boards should consider moving these facilities to the later phases of the master plan unless programs are assigned to them.