New Orleans’ only ‘traditional’ public school wrestling with $500,000 deficit, low enrollment

A ballooning budget deficit, coupled with lower-than-projected enrollment, is forcing New Orleans’ sole “traditional” public school to reconsider its operational model.

“Despite loud public support last year for the Orleans Parish School Board to open the district’s first permanent traditional public school in nearly two decades, enrollment has lagged behind the district’s target, leaving the school with fewer students and a tighter budget than hoped,” writes Georges Media’s NOLA.com.

“With the school projected to spend more than $500,000 over its budget this year, district officials warned this week that the amount is an annual deficit that could triple over the next few years to $1.5 million. The budget crunch has left Orleans Parish School Board members at a crossroads.” 

As previously reported by The Lion, the city revamped its educational system after Hurricane Katrina – converting most of its former public schools into charter schools. 

Today Leah Chase School is the only public institution overseen by the local school board. 

“As a traditional public school, Leah Chase’s operations are funded only through the district,” explains NOLA.com, noting this differs from “nonprofit charter schools which can access national organizations like the Charter School Growth Fund for grants and loans and can accept tax-exempt donations.” 

‘Digging a deeper hole every single year’ 

Leila Jacobs Eames, the board’s vice president, called on the community to help think of solutions to keep the school afloat. 

“Parents, we need you to think this is important to our city that we have at least one district school, so we need your kids enrolled,” she said, noting she had heard many constituent requests for a district-run school. 

“I’m not going to stop fighting for this, but I cannot fight us digging a deeper hole every single year because we do not have warm bodies sitting.” 

Other board members expressed concerns over committing to increased spending, as the school already received $3.8 million in startup funds last year. 

“I won’t let this deficit go on for four years,” said board member KaTrina Chantelle Griffin. 

Meanwhile, Nolan Marshall Jr. – a board member representing District 7 – requested specifics on additional funding, arguing the money would be “well spent” if Leah Chase could become a blueprint for more schools. 

“If we’re just doing the same thing everyone else is doing but spending more money, that is unacceptable,” he said. 

The school defended its current spending, saying it would “increase exponentially” if the district wishes to provide an education “equitable and comparable to other opportunities that we have in the city, or that may be different than something that we offer in the city,” said NOLA Public Schools Superintendent Fateama Fulmore. 

“If we were truly staffing at the level of some of the comparable schools that we have,” Fulmore told the board, “this (deficit) would be deeper than what it is.”