New Orleans schools have chance to become centers of their communities
Published: Sunday, September 05, 2010, 6:35 AM
By Cindy Chang and Michelle Krupa, staff writers
New Orleans Charter Science and Math Academy has moved to modular classrooms on the former Abramson campus in eastern New Orleans.In the three years since it opened, New Orleans Charter Science and Math Academy has been housed in modular classrooms at one eastern New Orleans site, then another.
The move to the former Abramson campus, accomplished a week before school started because the new modular classrooms were not ready until then, has been especially difficult. The cafeteria was declared unsafe by the fire marshal, so students have been making do with sack lunches.
Sci Academy is one of the top-performing high schools in the city and is often touted by Recovery School District officials as a shining example of the academic achievement made possible by post-Katrina school reforms. But while the transformation of many city schools into independently run charter schools has been swift, physical changes have been much slower in coming than intangible ones. Five years after Hurricane Katrina, new buildings are just