hmmm—wake up, antonio.

NOTE: THIS IS THE SAME CHARTER SCHOOL PROGRAM THAT OPERATES IN ST. LOUIS AND WAS ISSUED THE CHARTER DIRECTLY BY DR. KENT KING AND THE MISSOURI STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION (DESE)

REPORT FROM WBRZ NEWS 2 IN BATON ROUGE, LA
School Board ends deal
By CHARLES LUSSIER
Advocate staff writer
May 16, 2008 -.
The East Baton Rouge Parish School Board on Thursday formally ended a long troubled partnership with a Texas-based charter school group, which created three related programs to educate hundreds of teenagers who are two years or more behind their peers in school.

Instead, the school system will take over the program. It will house the program at the former home of Baton Rouge Preparatory Academy, educating overage students from grades six to 12. Those students are currently educated at three sites, including Glen Oaks and Prescott Middle schools, which next year will be under private management.

Superintendent Charlotte Placide said she hasn’t decided whether the overage program will continue using the methods pioneered by America CAN!

“We have a decision to make,” Placide said.

The CAN! academies of East Baton Rouge were part of a new autonomous school network that included CAN! as well a small high school, the East Baton Rouge Laboratory Academy, that shares space with Istrouma High School. The small schools were funded in part through a grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

The new school, however, quickly ran into trouble. Two administrators were replaced, teacher turnover was high, some students fled, and budgets were cut midyear.

At the high school academy, students in September even held a protest demanding a better education. One of the school’s sponsor, Advance Baton Rouge, quit working with CAN! academies and removed references to the group from its Web site.

Still, the program carried on. The school system held CAN! to its one-year contract, and even successfully obtained substantial after-the-fact waivers from the state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education.

Richard Marquez and Yolanda Cruz-Wilder, both executives with America CAN!, said the board for their nonprofit is ending its programs outside Texas, namely its schools in Baton Rouge and one in St. Louis.

Marquez handed the East Baton Rouge Parish School Board a resolution to that effect.

“It is what it is, and it says what it says,” Marquez said.

Marquez apologized that the partnership didn’t last long. He urged Placide to continue the expensive model CAN! initiated, namely ample use of mentors and social workers.

“We regret that this day has come, but Ms. Placide, we know how much you care about these children,” Marquez said.

“Yes, we are quite disappointed,” Placide acknowledged. “While we have a model, we didn’t get an opportunity to use it.”

The LSU College of Education is finishing an evaluation of the CAN! academies. Placide said she’s seen an early draft.

“Some of it was good, and some of it was not so good,” Placide said.

Placide apologized to students affected by the early turmoil at the CAN! academies.

“We were disappointed in some ways, and we may have disappointed some students, and that was not our intention,” she said.

evidently, they measure the attendance from January to December, so in a year like 2006-2007, the one in which Bourisaw replaced Williams in July, the 2006 figures include half a year under Williams and half a year with Bourisaw.

2007 includes the last 6 months under the elected board, and the months after June with the sab. Bourisaw was the superintendent for all of 2007.

The attendance figures for the last five years are……. 2003–89.10…..2004- 89.40…..2005 big dip to 81.50…….. 2006–80.30……2007 big improvement to 88.60.

regarding the Texas can school in Houston—they did seem to have less money spent per pupil, larger class sizes, and significantly younger teachers compared to other Texas schools. Whether that pattern is being repeated with dese outsourcing the job to the can academy in st. louis—well—there is not much information available.

Perhaps the sab could save some time and money on the superintendent search and just have one of the state board members call Texas and tell them to send someone up here to replace Dr. Bourisaw. What good is a state takeover—if they don’t take over.