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Saturday, July 20, 2019

New Orleans: One of City’s Oldest Charter Organizations Closes Down Amid Multiple Scandals | Diane Ravitch's blog

New Orleans: One of City’s Oldest Charter Organizations Closes Down Amid Multiple Scandals | Diane Ravitch's blog

New Orleans: One of City’s Oldest Charter Organizations Closes Down Amid Multiple Scandals

The University of New Orleans was one of the first to jump into chartering after Hurricane Katrina, and it just announced that it is closing down its charter organization,New Beginnings, as a result of a slew of academic problems and malfeasance.
After allegations of grade-fixing and a major fiasco involving class credits that left dozens of students unable to graduate, the public charter board overseeing John F. Kennedy High voted Thursday night to surrender its charters to operate both of its schools.
The surrender of the charters, which will take place at the end of the 2019-20 school year, was approved unanimously by the New Beginnings Schools Foundation board.
The decision stemmed from a lengthy investigation into management problems at the charter network that led earlier to the resignation of its CEO, career educator Michelle Blouin-Williams, and the firing of five high-ranking administrators at Kennedy…
The problems leading to the collapse of one of the city’s oldest charter organizations first surfaced in February, when the organization’s data director, Runell King, alleged that other staff members had improperly changed CONTINUE READING: New Orleans: One of City’s Oldest Charter Organizations Closes Down Amid Multiple Scandals | Diane Ravitch's blog