The Orleans Parish School Board (OPSB) will hold a press conference at 11 a.m. Tuesday (Oct. 9) in the boardroom of the school district office at 3520 Gen. DeGaulle Drive in Algiers.
The press conference has been billed as an opportunity to introduce new district leadership. Officials are also expected to provide an update on the district’s first 100 days since public schools in New Orleans were reunified in July, as well as overviews of district performance and current operational structure.
Schools that operated under the Recovery School District-New Orleans after the state’s takeover of public education in Orleans Parish in the wake of Hurricane Katrina were returned to OPSB oversight in July as mandated by Act 91. Still there are many questions about what, if anything, school reunification actually means for public education in New Orleans considering that Act 91 also states that the local school board cannot “impede the operational autonomy of a charter school under its jurisdiction” as it relates to school programming, instruction, curriculum, hiring and firing of personnel, teacher or administrator certification, budgeting, purchasing, procurement, and contracting for services other than capital repairs and facilities construction among a number of other areas.
Of the 78 public schools now under OPSB oversight, 75 are run by charters management operators. The district operates two direct-run schools and a school with two educational programs for students in juvenile detention facilities.
