Why Does a “Turnaround” District Need to Purchase Buildings?
When the Recovery School District (RSD) was formed, it was supposed to “turn around” schools and return the schools to the original distircts:
Intended as a mechanism for restructuring and reform, the RSD was never meant to be a permanent part of the public school governance landscape in New Orleans. Instead, the RSD was meant to take control of and turn around chronically failing schools for an initial period of five years. After that time, and assuming adequate school improvement, schools would be released from the jurisdiction of the RSD and returned to their local school board.
Thus, this transaction has “shady” written all over it:
Until recently, few people knew the Recovery School District could even buy property. Stan Smith, interim superintendent of the Orleans Parish school system, was surprised to hear it Wednesday, as was School Board President Ira Thomas.
Recovery School District Superintendent Patrick Dobard himself found out only a few days ago. But from there his team moved quickly to persuade the state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education to set up the necessary shell corporation to handle the purchase. The state board agreed on Wednesday.
A $1.8 billion “deviation from the master plan” thrown together in mere days.