A Scholarly Masterpiece: William Frantz Public School | tultican #BLM #BLACKLIVESMATTER

A Scholarly Masterpiece: William Frantz Public School | tultican

A Scholarly Masterpiece: William Frantz Public School

By Thomas Ultican 4/18/2021

My wonderful friend from New Orleans, Mercedes Schneider, said of this meticulously researched book, “Intense, captivating, and horrible in its reality, William Frantz Public School is a story overdue for the telling – a must read for those seeking to understand New Orleans’ history and the lingering impact of White racial superiority upon the Black community and city infrastructure.” I concur. It is a captivating read.

At its 1938 founding, speakers proclaimed the new William Frantz Public School (WFPS) a “protection for democracy” and a “fortification against encroachment of those terrible ‘isms.’” (WFPS page 3)

However, racism did not just encroach; it dominated. WFPS was built to be a White students only school. Sitting on the border between the all white Florida neighborhood and the all Black Desire neighborhood, WFPS only served the White families. Worse still; the authors report,

“The Orleans Parish School Board built no schools between 1941 and 1951. As a result, existing neighborhood schools throughout the city faced overcrowding. The problem was particularly acute in Desire. Due to the severe overcrowding, many Black children attended school for only a fraction of the time as their White peers living in the Florida neighborhood.” (WFPS 9)

With the Brown versus the Board of education decision in 1954, the Supreme Court declared racial segregation as a school enrollment policy unconstitutional. Louisiana segregationists quickly coalesced to become leaders of their state’s CONTINUE READING: A Scholarly Masterpiece: William Frantz Public School | tultican

An Important New Book About New Orleans and Its Schools | Diane Ravitch's blog

An Important New Book About New Orleans and Its Schools | Diane Ravitch's blog

An Important New Book About New Orleans and Its Schools

Three scholars have recently published a very informative book about the history of education in New Orleans. The authors tell this story by scrutinizing one very important elementary school in the city, the one that was first to be desegregated with one black student in 1960. The book is titled William Frantz Public School: A Story of Race, Resistance, Resiliency, and Recovery in New Orleans (Peter Lang). The authors are Connie L. Schaffer, Meg White, and Martha Graham Viator.

This is the school that enrolled 6-year-old Ruby Bridges in November 1960. Her entry to the school each day, a tiny little girl accompanied by federal agents, was met with howling, angry white parents. Her admission to an all-white school in New Orleans was a landmark in the fight to implement the Brown v. Board decision of 1954. It was immortalized by Norman Rockwell in a famous painting called The Problem We All Live With.

The authors set the stage for their history by pointing out that the Reconstruction-era constitution of Louisiana forbade racially segregated schools. In the early 1870s, about one-third of the public schools in New Orleans were racially integrated. Some schools had racially CONTINUE READING: An Important New Book About New Orleans and Its Schools | Diane Ravitch's blog

NOLA’s James Singleton Charter School: Academically Unacceptable, Riddled with Scandal, Still Open. | deutsch29: Mercedes Schneider's Blog

NOLA’s James Singleton Charter School: Academically Unacceptable, Riddled with Scandal, Still Open. | deutsch29: Mercedes Schneider's Blog

NOLA’s James Singleton Charter School: Academically Unacceptable, Riddled with Scandal, Still Open

New Orleans-based James Singleton Charter School has been allowed to operate for almost two decades despite its established record as academically unacceptable and being riddled with scandal.

Here we go again, compliments of WWLTV on March 26, 2021:

NEW ORLEANS — The Dryades YMCA board of directors held a tense meeting Friday and had to scramble to deal with the retirement of its longtime president and chief executive officer as state and local police looked into allegations of employees’ falsified background checks.

It was the first time the board had met since a scathing letter earlier this month from New Orleans Public Schools alleged fake employee background checks at James Singleton Charter School, a public K-8 school run by and housed in the historic Y in Central City.

The board members gave the Y’s departing president and CEO, Doug Evans, a standing ovation after he made brief comments. He spent 45 years working for one of the few formerly segregated Black YMCA’s left in the country. Evans touted his team’s work supporting and educating the Central City community, providing youth programs and teaching water safety.

But there was no avoiding the fact that his resignation comes amid scandal.

The organization’s chief financial officer, Catrina Reed, resigned Friday.

It’s unclear what led to her departure, but federal court records show she CONTINUE REAING: NOLA’s James Singleton Charter School: Academically Unacceptable, Riddled with Scandal, Still Open. | deutsch29: Mercedes Schneider's Blog

NOLA Public Schools: Two charter networks violated state law on background checks | The Lens

NOLA Public Schools: Two charter networks violated state law on background checks | The Lens

NOLA Public Schools: Two charter networks violated state law on background checks

James M. Singleton Charter School failed to conduct criminal background checks for some of its employees and employed someone ineligible to work at the school because of a criminal conviction, according to a Wednesday letter to the school from the NOLA Public Schools district warning that the school’s practices on background checks violated state law. The district letter also said that the Louisiana State Police could not confirm the validity of a number of background checks in the school’s files.

The district issued a separate letter on March 10 citing KIPP New Orleans Schools for employing someone ineligible to work in a school because of a past criminal conviction. 

Schools are legally required to complete employee background checks to ensure they do not hire someone who’s been convicted of or pleaded no contest to one or more of a list of crimes outlined in state law. Many of the violations are serious or involve children, such as murder, assault, kidnapping, child desertion and carnal knowledge of a juvenile. Others involve prostitution or manufacture or distribution of drugs.

On Tuesday, a spokesman with the New Orleans Police Department told The Lens that the incidents are related but did not elaborate further.

“We’ve been advised that the principal of James Singleton School was instructed by school CONTINUE READING: NOLA Public Schools: Two charter networks violated state law on background checks | The Lens

Police investigating alleged embezzlement at Warren Easton Charter High School | The Lens

Police investigating alleged embezzlement at Warren Easton Charter High School | The Lens

Police investigating alleged embezzlement at Warren Easton Charter High School

Warren Easton Charter High School’s annual financial audit has revealed a $70,000 discrepancy in the school’s student activity funds, and the New Orleans Police Department is investigating the matter as a theft by a former employee.

The incident, reported to police in December, occurred between March 2019 and July 2020, according to the school’s annual financial audit released Monday. The audit does not reveal the name of the employee accused of stealing the money but says that the person is no longer employed by the school.

“The Business Manager of the School fraudulently absconded with $70,842 of Student Activity Funds,” the audit states.

Asked whether any arrests had been made, an NOPD spokesman wrote, “We have not been made aware of any arrests at this time in this investigation.” CONTINUE READING: Police investigating alleged embezzlement at Warren Easton Charter High School | The Lens

NOLA Public Schools warns Rooted School over grading scale

Rooted School, a charter high school located at Touro Synagogue on St. Charles Avenue, found itself in hot water with the NOLA Public Schools district earlier this month over a grading scale it has used for the last four years and that its founder and CEO says the district was well aware of.

But earlier this month, a top district official issued a warning letter to the school, saying the way it grades is a violation of NOLA Public Schools policy. 

Since opening in 2017, Rooted founder and CEO Jonathan Johnson said the school has used an “ABCF” grading scale — notably absent is the just-passing D. At Rooted, anything that would have fallen into the district’s D on the grading scale is an F. 

“Essentially our philosophy was — and still is — that D does not constitute passing,” Johnson said in an interview on Friday, explaining that grades are a strong indicator of how students perform in college. 

Johnson said the district has known about the grading scale for several years CONTINUE READING: NOLA Public Schools warns Rooted School over grading scale