New Orleans, La. -- As the new school year is about to begin, the Orleans Parish School Board is celebrating some major progress on two fronts.
The school system, which lost control of most of the city's public schools after Hurricane Katrina, now says it is in a position to get some of them back. It is a sign that the school district is getting back on its feet.
Recently, the state Department of Education lifted a dark stain from the school system. No longer does it have the label of being at-risk of financial collapse.
"From the jaws of near bankruptcy nearly six years ago, the OPSB now has a AA+ bond rating, the highest of any governmental agency in the state of Louisiana," said OPSB President Thomas Robichaux.
He said the school board took bold steps to get its financial house in order, including the sale of surplus properties and timely payment of charter school claims.
The school district's chief financial officer, Stan Smith, has been named the interim superintendent following the recent retirement of Darryl Kilbert.
"We have the highest graduation rate in the state with the Orleans Parish School Board. We're number two with academic performance," said Smith.
When the state stepped in to take over the city's failing schools after the storm, the locally-elected school board retained oversight of the better-performing schools. Currently, the school board controls 18 schools, with 12 of them operated by charter organizations. And now the system is poised for more forward movement.
"It opens the final door to return of eligible schools to the OPSB," said Robichaux.
Schools which have had significant academic improvement would be allowed to leave the state-run Recovery School District and return to the control of the OPSB.
"If a school has been over a school performance score of 80 out of 200 for two consecutive years and met other thresholds, then the school is eligible to start the process of going back under a governance of Orleans Parish School Board," said RSD Superintendent Patrick Dobard.
Even though a particular school may meet the criteria to be returned to the control of the Orleans Parish School Board, the school could opt against it. "Last year there were eight schools that were eligible and none opted to do that at the time," said Dobard.
''We're going to do everything that we can to make it a positive environment that the charter schools will want to return to local control," added Smith.
"We would tell schools, if that's where they want to have their governance, so to speak, and authority with Orleans Parish School Board, then they have earned that right," said Dobard.
When the schools' performance scores are released later this year, it is expected that at least 11 schools will be eligible to return to the control of the Orleans Parish school district.
Meanwhile, the RSD is expected to have about 35,000 students for the school year beginning on Monday.
Orleans Parish school officials at press conference.
