e e e e e e e e e e
e e e e e e what up H what's up H is present Dr Armstrong here Dr Armstrong is present Mr Burkin Mr Burkin is present m c
Mr casle sorry Mr Castile is present miss shampan here miss champan is present Dr Clark Dr Clark is present Mr Harris Mr Harris is pres Mr Hollis Mr Hollis hear Miss
Holloway Miss Holloway is present Miss meline Miss meline is present and Mr Mars Mr Mars is present you have a quum right thank you uh next item please your first item is on first item is on page one item 2.1 consideration of a report on types two four and five
Charter contracts and requests for amendments the recommendation is to approve as outline updated backup has been distributed I'll note that we have 2.1 a through e u for efficiency sake we have a number of a public comment car so we
can take them in global and then hear the the public comments uh uh Mr superintendent let me you want to comment first orever my motion all right let me get my motion Miss Holloway moves and Mr 12 seconds um Mr superintendent
and uh Mr Cil this is in relation to 2.1 item 2.1 2.1 yes sir okay so I just want to make the board aware that in terms of uh we have a number of amendments so the first one has to do with Ace uh which is in uh our our new Charter up in washal
um they are looking to expand to grades 6 through eight um next we have Geo uh prep Mid City uh needing a second campus here in Baton Rouge to accommodate growth next we have key Academy
requesting to uh no longer serve uh 9 through 12 uh students as well as uh kindergarten students um and then we have um uh uh lay that is wanting to change their physical location um and we
have um Lafayette Renaissance wanting to increase their student population we are Rec recommending approval on all those things those have been requests from these various Charter organizations and and governing boards uh we support those Mr castill I do want to point out on
recommendation five thank you recommendation five uh there is an an unusual uh request here revising the management agreement relative to Charter Schools USA um and uh tax free bonds so
as appropriate um I would like to ask uh Mr Gary moffen uh with that group to come up and simply explain to the board what they're requesting to do on that item um because we just felt like while we support all the the the items that I previously
mentioned this item uh deserved uh the attention of the attorney from CS CSA uh to give an explanation to the board of what they're actually requesting to do all right uh thank you Sarah uh I I'll go to the comment cards and given that
Mr mcgoffin is up front uh we'll take him up first so uh first we'll have Mr gar moffen uh who wishes to speak with respect to item 2.1 e uh next we'll have uh Dr James finny Dr finy if you want to
come on up to save us some time next is uh Cara major with new schools for Louisiana supports the recommendation with respect to 2.1 but does not wish to speak um next we will have uh Joey def uh who supports the recommendation and
wishes to speak and we'll get uh one more uh up and that is um Charisma Lewis opposes the recommendation and wishes to speak and so if you could come to the podium we'll take uh you folks in in that
order Mr mcgoffin please uh state your name and who you repres mcgoffin I represent the Lafayette Charter Foundation the Lafia Charter Foundation contracts with Charter Schools USA for the oper ations of its schools in Lafayette and it also contracts with red
apple development for the sighting development construction and financing of its facilities two separate corporations although they are related by ownership uh the reason for the bond issuance and the reason for this uh
material amendment is in Lafayette since we started the gfia charter foundation in 2012 we now at present and when we complete the middle school which we're constructing uh which will open this August we will have an excess of $260
million in assessed value of facilities that have been constructed in Lafia Parish all of those facilities have been constructed on the basis of a long-term lease with red apple uh it's a lease which over time escalates on a 2% per
year basis uh going on into the future all those leases are 20 years and looking at this we we see in an opportunity for Lafia Charter Foundation to benefit in redoing its Arrangement on the ownership of its
facilities and so we have pursued this it's a very complicated Bond transaction but I will make the bottom line Real Simple by doing this we have Incorporated the friends of Lafia Charter Foundation which is a companion nonprofit it's uh three officers are the
officers of Lafia Charter foundation so it's a controlled entity it will basically be the real estate component of the Lafia Charter School operation we're looking at the bond financing because it does a couple of things for us one is allows the friends
of Lafia Charter Foundation to actually purchase the facilities which have been constructed since 2014 this isn't the land but it's all the facilities and that's the in excess of $260 million in facilities I was talking to you about the benefit of
doing so is we will then the Lafia Charter foundation and its friends companion will own those facilities and do it on a bond basis the difference between the lease basis and the bond basis is bonds basically play pay at a
flat rate over time so of 35-year bonds you're going to start out at about $3.9 million a year for the facilities we have now and it stays pretty close to that over time but over time in the leases that we have right now which are taken out of commercial construction
rates it's a higher rate and it escalates at 2% per year so what's the bottom line on all of this we look at taking out about $260 Million worth of obligations that we have which we're paying to an out of-state Corporation
Red Apple it's headquartered in Florida and we're going to purchase those facilities and we're going to keep that money in the Lafia Charter foundation for use in the classroom for teachers for facilities that need to be improved uh and for programs that they want to
put on so that's the bottom line of what we're doing it's tax free bonds it's a new field for me I've had some minor exposure to this in the past but fortunately there's a good team working on this one of them is a tax attorney out of Denver whose job it is to assure
that these bonds will be tax exempt and to do so we have to comply with IRS regulations this is one I do not understand the benefit of in terms of its application to the Lafia Charter Foundation but in the big picture the
the board is fine with it because we're going to realize a benefit the change in the management agreement that we have now which was negotiated and signed in 2014 was that if in any given year the operation funds for the schools were
insufficient to pay the management fee to Charter Schools USA that those fees would be waved that simple pretty good deal the IRS will not let you do that the IRS requires that you have a fee schedule
when you have tax exempt bonds such as this and so you have specific fees that have to be paid every year and if you do not pay them then they require that you sign a promisory note for that amount that you pay interest on it and that you pay it out within 5 years well from a
business perspective just on the man agement agreement we're backing up we had a hell of a deal right but to come into the safe harbors for the IRS so that we can have tax exempt bonds we have to agree to this taking a step back the only time it comes up or has come up
for us traditionally in the last 10 years that we've had a shortfall in Revenue to be able to pay the management fee to Charter Schools USA has generally been when we open new facilities because in the first year you have startup costs and in the first year you may not fill
all the seats in the facility it may take two or three years to fill all those seats and then get your revenues up to snof uh in the past we've simply paid what we could and had the rest forgiven on this we have
to sign a promisory note if we cannot pay in a certain year and then promise to pay it out within five years we do anticipate this coming up this coming year and that's what's in the projections for the bond financing what it shows is we have a new middle school
for Lafayette Renaissance which is in the northern side of Lafayette and it's about a th000 seats we're going to reconfigure the K through 12 and reapportion the students among those seats we did not anticipate early on getting the remarkable response we've
had to fill all those thousand seats but it looks like we're going to come pretty close so the question is is it worth it to us to realize in excess of $250 million in savings over the life of the bonds but have to take on the short-term
obligation if we have a shortfall in one year as a result of the management fee the board decided yes that's a fair trade and it's beneficial because we receive more of an immediate value so the material Amendment you have before you U and it details the specific
provisions of the original management agreement basically changes it to where we no longer have the opport we no longer have the right to have any shortfall in a management fee for given we've got to sign a note and promise to pay it but in exchange we get the tax
free financing on the bonds and so we're going to be able to acquire those facilities own them locally put that money into the classrooms teachers and kids and benefit everybody that's about as simple as I can make it but I'm really glad to take questions if there
are any thank you Mr mcgoffin only we give five minutes but because the superintendent asked you to explain that we gave you a little bit more uh any questions of Mr moffen okay Mr Morris yeah so what happens if your student enrollment
declines well if the student enrollment declines over time that's something that we have to compete on um the management fee would have to be adjusted as a result of that we'd have to renegotiate that the important thing by uh on the
bond issue is both Charter Schools USA and Rett Apple have subordinated the payments due to them on the obligations to them to pay the bonds first so the bonds are going to get paid if there's a decline in enrollment we've got both the
management company and the facilities company uh very uh incentivized to do good to bring the students in and to keep the program up mhm so you meet the bond requirement assuming the funds are available there
what happens to the uh charge that's due to the other two entities I'm not sorry I didn't follow the question so there there's three parties involved here as I understand you got the bond debt right right and you've got the two other parties that that uh are involved as well so csusa
and and red apple right right right they've subordinated so by contract since they've subordinated that we would not have to pay them back at that point that's what I'm trying to understand corre thank you great uh Dr Ran So I'm just trying to follow
okay clarification so Charter School USA will still be your management oversight yes ma'am but we're not wanting to pay them fees for that is that correct no ma'am okay we want to pay got to pay for what you get okay the deal we have now is if that we would not be able to pay
the full 15% that they're due on any given year that it would be forgiven because of the IRS requirements if we are short on what we owe them in any given year then we have to sign a promisory note due to them and promise
to pay them within 5 years with interest okay so we're still G to pay them yes ma'am otherwise they're going to leave very good thank you any other questions from the board all right thank you Mr mofen um our next speaker Dr
Finny thank you first I strongly strongly object to considering these in globo because these shouldn't be rubber stamp items they are quite different and each deserves your full attention not a rubber
stamp I have no opinion on a appreciate the fact that Louisiana key Academy is shrinking rather than their um unreasonable and inappropriate expansion have no opinion on D and the
one great thing about e is that if the real estate is owned by an arm of the charter management organization when Charter Schools USA gets bored and leaves or you exercise
some oversight and terminate that Charter that the real estate doesn't belong to a Florida company it belongs to the taxpayers of Louisiana in some manner so I actually support that material Amendment but I'm here mostly
to talk about B Geo prep mid city has proposed that you accept a material amendment to add additional instruction space at a state operated Community College building that they don't have an
agreement to rent or buy or anything else and so I think it's premature for you to consider that and even if they did it would be inappropriate for you to accept that material Amendment because the East Baton Rouge school system and
the taxpayers of East Batton Rouge don't need yet another school operated by geoch Charter board um this particular geoch Charter board the one that's been around for 10 years um if any of you read local media
you would remember that at least three of board members have been in hot water with the ethics Administration that's kind of a big deal I don't think you should encourage that by saying here have another school put another dent on the finances of the East Baton
rge school system make it harder for the East bat school system to educate every child so I would strongly encourage you to separate B and deny that material Amendment thank you for your time great
right thank you Dr Finny Mr def St your full name just so that we'll get that for the record hey much better thank you it is a opportunity for us in the French Quarter we live there it's not just bars and businesses which I
actually own some but I also live there it's great to have a school in the vicinity it makes us a real neighborhood if you look around America what creates a neighborhood schools and hospitals so we're looking forward to bringing the uh
French immersion school back to the French Quarter we lost the school about two years ago so this is a great opportunity for the residents I'm also president of the 81y old um Vare patio planers of Vare which we better known
for presenting the Caroling and Jackson Square we have over 550 members 450 are actual residents of the French quarter so we spoke with these folks we told them what we were going to come here to do today and it was overwhelming that
you guys would support this move to have the school come back to the French Quarter and I as I heard earlier you're going to recommend but has been recommended that you approve it so I want to thank you for your time thank you for the opportunity to come here and hopefully this will create a better
environment for our neighborhood all right thank you sir any questions from the board comments all right thank you sir than all right we have a a motion that's uh on the table that's been made and properly seconded any objection to that
motion seeing and hearing no objection that motion passes uh next item your next item is on page 38 item 3.1 consideration of type five Charter applications in response to the requ EST for Charter applications as recommended by the state superintendent of Education
the recommendation is to approve as outlined all right man get a motion please a motion by Mr Harris seconded by Mr Burkin uh Mr superintendent yes sir Mr Castile uh this particular item um is
in relation to an application for a type uh five school just for the board's awareness this particular item uh does not assign this uh Charter operator Andor governing board to a school uh it
simply in in terms that we use in in uh Charter world uh puts them on the Shelf as in terms of a consideration so I just want to make clear that this particular item uh does not assign um Geo to a
particular school it just uh approves their application and uh our superintendent of the D Dr Pam schoer will make this presentation thank you Dr Brumley today we bring you um a type five Charter
application that as you remember in January uh this group came to you with their five minute presentation to present their model this is Geo Academy just to rewind just a minute a type time a type five Charter goes through the
same application process as a type two and type four same rigorous process we'll look at that just a minute in the power point um but just to remind you also that a type five when they're going through the application process they are at that time not assigned a school
because at that time they might not know what a what school they will be assigned to and so as Dr Brumley said this is simply putting them on a shelf so when they are needed later then we will have be able to access them quickly um as you
see in the timeline they go through the same process the letter of intent the eligibility determination and um they've met every deadline leading up to January where they came to you with a presentation and
then it brings us to today we have Goo uh Louisiana gooy Louisiana that we bring to you today um as we said a type we had one type five Charter applicant this is the only one that applied during this RFA
process a type Vibe is a is assigned to a school that Bessie has deemed to be transferred to the RSD at the time and so they are eligible they've been approved to be transferred and at that time if Bessie approves for an operator
then they may assign this operator to that school they have completed the internal evaluation with our ldoe team from various content experts they have also completed the third- party evaluation
which is a very rigorous evaluation process as the type two and type fours do if you notice on this Slide the enrollment and Community need is not there because at that time they do not know which school which area of the
state which Community they will be in um so therefore there will not be an impact study also but they do follow all of the process process and complete with a third party evaluation our third party consultant
was tck they completed it in an expedited uh process but completed all of of the necessary steps and today they are we are bringing you Geo's Louisiana type five this will
be Bessie authorized as our type twos and type fours and we're glad to present that they met all standards through the application process that's 110 standards high quality standards that has been
identified to to um identify a school a um a organization that is a nonprofit that will be qualified to take over and um operate a school that would be into the in the RSD so today I ask our
recommendation is to approve the type five Charter application submitted for geo Louisiana and operated by go academies Louisiana Dr Schooler as a point of clarification before we get into questions I just want to call out something uh that I have heard uh over
the last couple of weeks uh pertaining to this particular application and to clarify that Geo as an operator uh within the state of Louisiana will essentially have two different boards so a board for geo Baton Rouge uh that has
worked uh in the schools that uh have are are presently operating uh but moving into a request for Statewide expansion they have formed uh a Geo Louisiana board which is a separate uh group but the charter model
that go will be using in terms of the operator is similar uh across both of those uh boards absolutely okay that's that's the first uh thing I wanted to clarify and the second point I wanted to clarify is I I think also important and I'm not sure that that it was um
universally caught is that whenever we reference um applicants to operate type five charters in the state of Louisiana the only applicant we received was for from Gio Louisiana and they requested the opportunity to potentially operate five
schools Statewide absolutely so there will be when they applied they applied for typ five Charters and all five Charters have the same model so this is from gooy Louisiana as you spoke that is different than Gio um baton rouin so
they would be put on the shelf for future use thank you so just for clarification with the approval of the five that have been requested um how do they get off the shelf I've heard that expression made a few times that would
be um if we bring it to Bessy say we have a school that we bring to you and you decide to transfer vote to transfer that school into the recovery School District at that time if we choose that operator we will also recommend to you
to assign sign that operator so that in terms would be bringing them off of the Shelf okay so if there is a particular operator Gio in this case there would be an item brought for specific approval by this board for that particular School
absolutely thank you Mr Mars Dr Schooler my understanding is that as we evaluate different uh charter schools for for different needs that uh there are some model as you referenced earlier that provide an Innovative
approach or something that's not offered in the community at that time my understanding is that this particular model uh focuses or or has a a special skill set with turnaround schools is is that right absolutely and that is what we're focused on with the RSD and I
think we have um goo here if you have specific questions about that model yeah I I just wanted to make sure I had the right interpretation that basically their uh primary focuses their models focus on as a turnaround uh organization absolutely and they've had success and
um in EBR school system with our their three Charters they are all B Charter Schools um they have been rated B they've had an increase in their SPS since covid so we've seen that we've watched it carefully we want to be
careful and um very thoughtful in the schools that the organizations that we bring to you and we recommend um they met all of their standards they went through a capacity interview their board went through that capacity interview it's a very rigorous process um and even
with our lde content experts to review that application to review they are an experienced operator which is is great for us to be able to look at their past experience and part of that is they have had success and they've had success as a
turnaround model thank you right other questions from the board all right we have a number of comment cards and I'll kind of the same way I did it just before I'll take a few
at a time uh let's see Dr James finny Dr Finny opposes the recommendation wishes to speak U Mr Cara majori uh supports the recommendation does not wish to speak uh Jonathan
dunnan um supports a recommendation does not wish to uh to speak uh soeta Queen oh I'm sorry come on up all right we'll start with the two of you and then I'll pick up from there since Dr school is still here to answer
questions Dr Finny you want to kick us off sure thank you Dr James Finny 30-year resident of Bon Rouge and supporter of publicly operated public education run by Democratic boards Geo Academy's Louisiana is
absolutely not an experienced operator that Corporation has been in existence since March 8th of 2024 has no Charter arrangements with anyone that I know of certainly does not operate type two charters there is
another board which I ref earlier Geo Academy's EBR that does have I guess three type two charters it's kind of a fuzzy Arrangement because some students seem to be registered one place and attend somewhere else so maybe it's three maybe
it's four type two charters they are an experienced Cher Charter operator that as I was told by one of their board members declined the Indiana company's request that they aggressively expand in Louisiana of beyond what that board's
comfortable with so my understanding is that's why there's another board that exists strictly for the purpose of taking more of our tax money and sending it to Indiana with questionable benefit to the students one question I had and I
realized that it may be rhetorical because I can't force an answer if you're putting I guess Geo acmy Louisiana which has no experience on the Shelf to potentially take over five
schools are there other Charter operators nonprofit boards already on the shelf and and it's an important question that I will get the answer to even if it's not today because third Futures started operating a RSD school without a charter agreement Lynwood in
treport has for at least most of its recent years operated a supposedly directly run Charter School without a charter agreement I don't know if that's been rectified or not and there is another uh legitimate I guess
type five Charter operator that operates two schools in Baton Rouge um can't remember they but they operate lanir and Dalton so you know how big is the threat from the RSD to take public money and send it to people that are not
accountable to taxpayers that list I think is already long enough and if it weren't you should actually find an experienced Charter operator that has ever turned around the school the existing Charter board Geo
Academy's EBR I guess you can say they effectively took over a failing Charter Schools USA school but technically it was a new Charter and they certainly have never taken over an existing Charter operated by a public school district and neither
has the new board so you should not approve this request thank you thank you sir Mr dunnan uh yeah Johnny Dunham I am am a retired police chief and a uh executive director for Capital Region crimes Stoppers so I'm
not an education expert but I have personally uh done presentations and things at uh geoprep acmy uh I have seen uh the kids there um the respect um the
dedication um you know people talk about failing schools but failing schools is one of the leading drivers of crime uh in the community and and uh in Baker uh Baker used to have well performing schools uh but unfortunately now they're
not and I and I think the Geo prep uh model uh has proven successful it was proven successful uh with geoprep Mid City um going from a f performing school to a b performing school um so personally uh
as as somebody who is uh intimately involved in crime and crime in the area of the eight parishes including Baton Rouge and surrounding area um I I think that approving the application for geo Prep Academy will be beneficial uh for
the community of Baker and also uh eventually the long-term crime Outlook in that Community all right thank you Sarah thank you Ste may I may I ask sure yeah so um I know uh Dr fenny you certainly can put in a public record request to get your information you're
aware of that process uh but I just do want to make uh the board aware that there are multiple ways in which an RSD school can be operated uh it can be a direct run meaning we could operated ourself uh it could be through a management agreement as we have several
schools in involved with a management agreement uh it could be through a university partnership uh or it could be through a charter agreement so uh Dr fny does bring up a good point that there are uh other methodologies for which RSD um schools are operating within the state of Louisiana and they do not all
have to be through type five Charter um Mr Dunham that correct we I don't think I've ever met you okay okay but I have your resume and I think it's important to clarify for the board that you are I believe one of the board members of the
newly formed goo Louisiana is that correct no you're not you're not on that board not at the moment okay I did discuss it okay I didn't know all right all right thank you great thank you Dr Brumley uh next
up we'll invite a few more folks uh Miss Sita Queen apologies if I mispronounced your name uh supports to recommendation wishes to speak Elizabeth Porsche GI Gibs uh supports the recommendation
wishes to speak uh Kimberly Baker supports the recommendation wishes to speak oh okay good morning good afternoon Bo how are you my name is Elizabeth Porsche Gibbs I am a proud member of Baker Louisiana I've been a resident of 22
years I do have three kids in the go Baker go prep Baker GI Baker and GI Mid City Academy it has impacted my children life tremendously I was previously in the baker system it didn't I felt like they
failed them I moved to go and it's been amazing the staff the teachers communication is the key when it comes to communication with the school and the teachers and I have had nothing but that I recommend anything dealing with go because I I
believe that they have educated my children in the best of their ability they have amazing staff and I recommend anything that they need to do thank you great thank you Miss Gibs hi my name is z queen I'm a proud mother of a student that goes to ja prep
Baker um I have he has been going to ja prep Baker since he kindergarten and I have seen him flourish tremendously from me trying to teach him at home uh the teachers are wonderful the principals are wonderful the communication is open Andy you can ask
any questions if you need extra help I recommend anything behind G Pro Baker As a parent great thank you Miss Baker all right you may that's Miss Baker I'm Queen no sorry Miss Baker you
come on up Miss uh is it Queen thank you Kimberly Baker good afternoon my name is Kimberly Baker I currently serve as the principal of go prep Baker I have been with Geo acmy for this is my
10th year I started out when we open our plat location as um a kindergarten teacher and I have worked in different capacities as a special ed teacher resource teacher Mentor Master teacher associate principal as well as a
principal I have worked there for those 10 years because I do believe that that model Works um our data show that that model Works um and we do have that experience of working with turnaround schools and growing our kids um we are
data driven everything that we do is about the data of our children it's very intentional um it's a hard job but we gets it done and um that's just about it for me unless you have any other
questions great thank you ma'am all right uh I'll call up four the remaining four cards that I have Miss Linda Johnson um wishes to speak Shirley Clayton I think Norman supports the recommendation
wishes to speak uh Travon Dey supports the recommendation wishes to speak and then India Turner um supports the recommendation wishes to speak Miss Johnson Linda Johnson but I'm not here uh maybe you I'm not here to
support the recommendation I'm here to talk about uh why I think the school should be in the district's hands and the reason why I'm saying that is really you it's maybe 3.2 that you want to speak to as opposed to
3.1 well did I put it down right that's it you've got someone wrote 3.1 and 3.2 so if you want we can take you up afterwards for 3.2 okay all right great thank you all right Miss uh Norman good
great good afternoon my name is Shalon clay Norman I serve as a chief academic officer for go prep I too have been at go prep since 2015 I have had the opportunity to serve in multiple career paths um being at goo has taught me the
true understanding of what lifelong learner is as Miss Baker stated we work long hours but the reward has it has been the experience has been rewarding it has been so rewarding also that we work alongside some dedicated Educators
who share come and go and I'm here to fully support the expansion of Baker Miss uh Dey good afternoon my name is travan duay I am an educator with 25 years of experience I currently serve as the
deputy academic officer for geo acmy and I too fully support the recommendation of go acmy as a type five Charter um the last four years I have worked at goo Academy as a executive Master teacher and now the deputy academic officer and
it has truly been one of the most rewarding experiences and a driver of my own professional growth I believe that we have assembled some of the most dynamic and committed School leaders teacher leaders and leaders and we truly
invest in developing the capacity of our teachers to support um students at all levels and I believe that we are committed to this work and there is nothing that could stop us from moving schools um and serving in the best interest of our
students all right all right those are the last of the public comment cards as it relates to that item uh any questions or comments from the board all right all right we have a motion we have
a second as it relates to this particular item item 3.1 uh seeing no objection from the board uh that motion passes that takes us to item 3.2 next item is on your next item is on page 53 item 3.2
consideration of the transfer of schools from the city of Baker School District to the recovery School District the recommendation is to approve as outlined all right great may I get a motion please moved by Mr moris and seconded by Miss
champagne um is there a presentation yes sir yes sir thank you thank you Mr ch um L this is a very sensitive item uh anytime you are working through uh changes in school configurations
transfers of schools closures of schools they're always rightfully sensitive um and obviously uh different members uh and different members of the community uh have passionate views about what they
believe should happen uh and I don't want to diminish uh anyone's view uh about what should happen today with this particular ular agenda item and in fact Miss Linda we have you here as a respected member of the community and former member of this board and I'm I'm
appreciative to see you again um but on on this particular item um we are uh choosing to uh exercise uh what we are able uh to do according to Louisiana statute uh and
Bessie policy relative to schools that are not performing uh in the manner in which uh Is Us building uh the kind of academic results that children uh need and deserve and so what I'm going to do is walk through a presentation um with
you all today relative to our recommendation um and then I know there'll be a number of public uh comments uh and then we're also willing to answer any questions that you may have and as you all are aware the the the screen continues to go in and out so
just bear with me as we work our way through this so we'll start with a an academic overview of the baker uh school system so the district performance score for the baker school system is a
48.4 f it is an f-rated school system operating uh within East Baton Rouge uh as an independent Lea uh and it is ranked 69 of 69 school systems in the state of Louisiana um that is uh
certainly not where they would like to be um and it's uh not a a shot at any educator a teacher um a policy maker but it is the fact Baker is an f-rated School District in Louisiana and it
ranks last among uh all of the school districts in the state of Louisiana for academic performance if we look at their Progress Index alone which we know that overwhelmingly schools in the state of Louisiana and systems do relatively well on the present accountability systems
Progress Index uh the system of Baker was the second lowest in the state on making academic progress for students if we look at Absolute performance and an achievement index uh Baker City Schools is the third lowest in the state if we
look at service for economically disadvantaged students and students of color the baker school system performed worse than 99% of Louisiana schools if we look at the way in which they're using their dollars they are only pushing about 63%
of their revenue into the classroom so so clearly there are concerns there uh at the district level when we look at Mastery rates let's begin with Ela and let's do a comparison of Louisiana uh versus the baker system bearing in mind
that the Louisiana numbers are nowhere where we need them to be if we look at third grade ELA proficiency the state of Louisiana 45% Baker 20% if we look at fourth grade Louisiana average 41% Baker
7% if we look at fifth grade Louisiana 43% Baker 12% looking at sixth grade Louisiana 40% Baker 14% look at 7eventh grade Louisiana 45% Baker 15% 8th grade
Louisiana 45% Baker 18% and so what you see here is a difference of 25 uh to 34% difference in the performance of uh the city of baker school system relative to districts throughout the state of Louisiana
likewise if we look at math in grades 3 through eight uh in third grade we see the Louisiana average proficiency is 35% while Baker is at 23 when we look at fourth grade uh the Louisiana average is 39% and Baker is is under five the
reason we can't even uh list on this on this um chart uh the the the number is because it it it goes into identifying actual students the number is so low we would be identifying the actual students potentially that are at proficiency
rates Dr Schooler do I think we have something submitted from Baker that tells their proficiency rate in fourth grade do you have that number I do have that number the data that they presented was 2% so 2% so whenever we look at fifth grade the Louisiana average is
33% uh and Baker is at less than five Dr schoer do you have the number for Fifth Grade yes it's 4% 4% um if we look at sixth grade uh Louisiana average is 31% Baker is at 11% if we look at seventh grade 28% for the
state 5% for Baker uh if we look at 8th grade 23% for the state and 7% at at Baker so you see a difference here uh ranging from 12% to 34% uh in differences in third through eight proficiency rates in math so let's
look at the Department's recommendation number one which is to transfer RSD eligible Baker schools to the recovery school district and that's the first recommendation so there are a number of different ways uh in which a school uh
qualifies under Louisiana law to be transferred to the RSD a school with a letter grade of f shall be identified as an academically unacceptable a US school and Bessie May approve the transfer of an a US school if the failed R meets one
or more of the following the Lea fails to submit a reconstitution plan for approval or the Lea's reconstitution plan is unacceptable or the Lea fails to comply with the reconstitution plan or the school is labeled a us for four
consecutive years so regardless of everything about a plan delivered by the city of Baker when we look at bullet 4 bullet 4 alone gives us the ability to transfer uh these two schools into the RSD now let's take a look at those two
schools the first school is Baker Heights Elementary School a prek to five it has an SPS of 34.3 99.7% of elementary schools in the state are performing better than Baker Heights
it's been an academic unacceptable status for 4 years it ranks 910 910th out of 9912 elementary schools in the state of Louisiana for academic performance and has the second lowest Progress Index for an elementary school
in the state you know if if there is a school eligible for RSC Takeover in the state I don't know of one that meets the mark more than the school that's rate 9910 out of 912 in the state of Louisiana next is Baker
Middle School where they have an SPS of 43.4 and 98.36% of school School Statewide are performing better than Baker Middle School and they've been in this status for 9 years they're ranked 897 out of 912 schools in the state of
Louisiana with similar configuration so let's look at recommendation two and let's keep in mind that when we're talking about type fives we had a single applicant apply to operate schools under the type five status this
year so recommendation two is to assign uh Geo acmy Louisiana as an operator of Baker Heights Elementary and Baker Middle so method of operation we spoke to this earlier there are multiple ways in which schools can operate in the RSD
and we have employed a couple of these under this particular case uh we would operate them as a type five Charter School continuing with ldo recommendation number two we would assign Geo acmy Louisiana as an operator
for Baker Heights Elementary uh which has been in a US for four years and Baker Middle School that's been in a US for 9 years and I would remind the board as you've heard earlier from Dr Schooler uh that Geo acmy Louisiana has submitted a type five Charter application uh it
completed a rigorous ldoe review process uh it completed uh the ldoe review team's process as well as the third party evaluation where it met all 110 standards did not miss a single standard in that
process now let's talk about the model and certainly we have individuals from Geo that can speak more to the model but if we look at the model um Geo acmy in in Baton Rouge currently operate four schools Geo Prep Academy Geo prep Mid
City Geo prep Baker and Geo Next Generation High School Is it true that the boards of of these schools are are different than the on that we just approved yes that that is true those are Geo Baton Rouge moving forward because they have an interest in serving
students across the state of Louisiana formed a goo Louisiana board but if we look at the model and look at the schools under Geo's leadership let's look at geoprep Academy First geoprep Academy has an SPS of a 75.4 which is a
b it's rank number 398 out of 912 elementary middle schools in the state of Louisiana if we look at Geo prep Mid City their SPS is a 78.3 a they're ranked 339 out of 912 elementary and middle schools in the state of Louisiana
now you say well uh are they serving a population that that might not be similar are they serving Advanced acmis no let's look at the demographics if we look at Baker Heights the minority percentage in Baker Heights is 98% the economically disadvantaged
percent is 95 their English Learners are seven at Baker Middle minority is 95% economically disadvantaged 94% English learn Learners 11% when we look at Geo prep this is the comparison schools from those two schools that we intend to take into the
RSD and operate under the same model which is which uh the one in which Geo employs in terms of demographics Geo prep is 100% minority 84% economically disadvantaged and 12% English Learners Geo prep Mid City 100 % minority 94%
economically disadvantaged and 0% English Learners so you can see that certainly uh these are similar demographics between uh the schools under consideration let's look at assessment index you know this is absolute performance in terms of proficiency and
the associated points awarded under the president accountability system when we look at the baker Schools they're in Orange you can see from 2018 uh where they where they were and you can see uh the downward Trend all the way to
2024 um opposite of that you can see the present Geo schools in green uh certainly they had a a small decline relative to covid but since then uh they have been on a steady rise I'd note that the Geo uh School Geo uh prep Mid City
actually uh began this uh uh process uh at a lower index than Baker Heights Elementary School in Baker let's look at the change in K12 assessment index since 2018 you can see the two schools under
consideration uh Baker Heights and Baker Middle uh have dropped uh 22 points and seven points while Geo prep academy uh has basically held status whereas Geo prep mid city has grown uh 28.1 points
on the assessment index looking at the Progress Index since 2018 this is this this is growth uh again you see the models compared what's what's presently taking place in in Baker versus what we are seeing in the geom model here within
the city of Baton Rouge you can see the difference so uh Mr Castile that that concludes my my presentation um certainly this is not something that that I enjoy us having to do um I I appreciate that these are often
difficult votes that a board has to take and they're certainly sensitive for our community but you know one of our performance indicators is making sure that we are that we have less students and academically failing schools that's a very quantitative performance
indicator but morally um for me and professionally for me I want to do all that I can to make sure that students are in higher quality seats every single day regardless of a kpi and so that's what this is about here today and I I understand that I am but one person uh
and that everyone on this board will have their own view on this matter as well as the the views of the community members and Educators in the audience today which I very much respect uh but Mr casil that concludes my presentation I know we have public comments and I certainly welcome any questions great thank you sir uh we have questions from
the board Dr Arma so Dr Brumley I know that we do not allow our charter schools and to be a failing school performance score for this length of time why is it taking us six to nine years to step in and support
the children in Baker thanks for the question Dr Armstrong um I think that you're speaking to the aggressiveness of the RSD um I'm really proud of the work that the RSD has done over the last uh few years we've we've used various tools in
the toolbox to essentially work with local school systems to to to encourage them uh to think about their processes and their work and make sure that kids are in higher performance seats you know some of that has been public some of that hasn't been public that's been done in in in private in consultation with
system leadership uh and board um if we are going to take action relative to a school that is RSD eligible you need several things to happen one you have to either have a a charter operator willing to go in you have to have a university
partnership that uh wants to do the work um you have to have an operator willing to do a management agre agement um or uh you have to have a situation where within that particular District they have higher performing schools and so absence of those things it's harder for
us to to be aggressive which is why we've invested more over the last two years in the RSD work uh and are working with various Partners to try to make sure that we have more operators willing to do this work you know I regret that we only have one application this cycle you know it would be great if we had
more applications so we could be more assertive um and unfortunately in Baker there's not an opportunity for us uh to simply request School closure and move those students to a higher performing school because out outside of a magnet selective admission model that they have
that doesn't exist so I I hear your point uh and I appreciate your point and I think it's it's appropriate thank you Mr Appel thank you just a quick question the the four School the four Geo schools that you're comparing to are those all open admission schools yes sir so we're
comparing Apples to Apples yes sir saying thank you any other questions from the board before we go to public comments all right I will'll then go to public comments we have a number of cards uh we have uh Mr uh JT
stroer uh opposes the recommendation wishes to speak Miss Linda Johnson uh wishes to speak with respect to this item uh Miss Caroline RoR and Miss no denosa uh uh to provide information
wishes to speak Mr schroer please identify yourself and you yes can you hear me okay yes uh Board of Education thank you for letting me speak today on behalf of the city of baker school system um I I had some questions
initially which I think were answered uh you know I see that the department chose option number four which was the four consecutive years I'm I'm not quite sure why they asked me to submit an action plan back in August um if that was the
plan but it it appears like maybe the plan was just to buy time until an RSD type five operator could be established um you don't you don't know me and I don't know you but um I came to
Louisiana as fast as I could get here um I'm not from Louisiana but one thing that I learned in Louisiana is there's a there's a difference there's a big difference between crawfish that come from Asia and crawfish that come from
Louisiana yes so to say that this is an Apples to Apples comparison is not correct public schools have to operate from a different set of policies and procedures that charter schools have to
operate from it is not an Apples to Apples comparison Charter Schools do not have to meet the third grade a third grade gate that has been established it is not an Apples to Apples comparison the goo that is within Baker
is an open enrollment Charter School City of Baker is not it is not an Apples to Apples comparison the goo that was opened in Baker is not a turnaround school it's it's not that's not how it
was established let's let's talk about turnaround experience um I have 20 years experience as a superintendent I became superintendent in Baker in January of last year and I have documented turnaround
experience I have a National Blue Ribbon from 2009 from turning around a low performing school and a high poverty Community documented experience I have experience from Ingram Texas a superintendent where we moved two School
out of ayp jail into acceptable status and one school from acceptable into exemplary status that's documented experience I can tell you that the plan that I submitted I don't know why it was requested but the plan that I submitted
is a documented plan that works and it is a much more extensive plan than the plan that was submitted in the the the application that was presented to you by Geo acmis it it Works um I I I hear you say that you
know it's been 9 years I'm wondering the same thing you know why why was there not more help you know given to Baker five years ago when Baker Middle had been an F school for four consecutive years one of the things that I did do this year was partnered with a
Department of Education with their coherence cohort which is a program through the Department of Education that works with cir schools and has documented experience working with those schools to turn those schools around the department did not even wait to see if
that had an effect in Baker they're they're currently working in Baker so I'm I'm curious why the department did not even give their own program a chance to make a difference so it it just appears that the agenda here
was to buy time to give goo time to get an application prep prepared to be a type five Charter School um and to just I don't know for lack of a better term gas light us into buying that time
by not giving us any feedback on our application um after multiple attempts to reach out to the Department of Ed to have a working conversation about this just to be told that we haven't made any decisions yet um we have been open to
the conversation um and I hope that this board takes that into consideration and gives us the chance to have a working conversation other than a last minute attempt at 8:30 on Friday morning to give me 10 hours to decide if I could
try to convene I don't even know what a board meeting um decisions decisions that involve two of my board members and not the whole board which quite frankly is not appropriate um so I really hope that
this board sees beyond the the words that are being presented it's it's not it's not an Apples to Apples comparison you you set up here and saw data on charter school and public school and you need to know that it is not an Apples to Apples
comparison that's all I have to say thank you thank you Mr stroer uh Miss Johnson you Linda Johnson and I'm just here because of a number of reasons one I'm concerned about the children I'm
sorry oh I'm sorry okay after okay me I'm Sorry Miss Johnson please continue I'm concerned about the children let me be perfectly clear the the GE model is a model that works I'm not that's not my issue here
at all my issue is you're going to close two schools so you're bankrupting the system that's the main issue in most parishes including the one I live in the highest employer is the school system I feel certain that that is also true in
Baker now Dr Armstrong you asked a question and you are absolutely right why would anybody take nine years to not see that something is wrong I don't understand that I can tell you this
though 2020 I believe we actually offered to them an opportunity to do something and on a contract and they chose not to so I've been upset about that but I'm more upset about what you all are going to do now to the children
we have all kinds of issues and B Baker is first a small community I don't know how many of you know how small it is but it is very small I'm 81 years old so I know when the community was more white than it is today it has totally turned there is no
industry at back years ago people used to work for uh the chem the chemical industry along airlin highway so that along scenic highway so that no longer exist but they in order to get something done I looked at the plan that the
superintendent sent in I also don't understand the timelines I cannot understand Dr Bramley if I sent you something in December and you chose not to answer it until February I would be upset I'm just be perfectly honest not just you anybody else because I think
there ought to be a timely way to talk to people about anything and in that timely way to get them and to work with them the one thing that I know for a fact is that there are in Baker right now and all of you up here probably know
it too Educators who can turn the place around it's in one of the plans he put a name in it Sandra Douglas we know what she did with Geo schools we know that people follow her allow that system and I say allow I'm saying delay a year cuz
I believe even a year's time you can see some growth and you can see some some things that would happen if you don't allow a a year which I think is going to happen today you are not going to den uh deny you're not going to allow a
year then the children will suffer I'm passionate about education no matter what any of you think I am passionate it is the thing I've got involved with Gio simply because I fell in love with what they were doing sending children to college getting
associate degrees and running An Early Childhood Program prek program that they were paying for out of the money which in 2013 none of us in Louisiana were doing that so that's how come I fell in love with it but I also know that what we're doing here today is not something
that's going to help the people in Baker at all you're taking a in a community of black people there are only two things that are important schools and churches you're taking away the school that's what you're doing here today you're not
giving them an opportunity to even see if then and yeah they've made some har as far as I'm concerned they've made some terrible leadership decisions and some leadership decisions that somebody with common sense would have fired people nine years ago that's the way I
look at it that that's that's the the worst thing that they could have done but they have let this go to this point and now there will be a bankrupt system because you cannot run a school district with one high school and a me and a magnet school up there that you cannot
do it so that's my take on it thank you Miss Johnson uh Miss RoR and dooso can I ask a question uh yes we have questions I guess my concern is I'm I'm I'm from traditional to Charter so
I'm kind of concerned when I hear stuff that it's not Apples to Apples it's not because within two to three years my school would have been closed and a traditional District we keep trying to work with everybody but the part to me and I'm black so I understand the
community and I understand what Miss Johnson is saying because I spoke with you and I truly understand how you feel and um sometimes I sit here thinking until you walk in my black shoes you really don't know how it feels and what it what it sounds like but the part that I have a problem with is is I keep
hearing what we're going to do you guys are taking the school you guys are doing this my question goes back to no you gave the school back to the the state because where is your accountability and the fact that personally it gets to me Miss Johnson it bothers me
professionally I can't sit here and allow students to sit in a failing school anymore professionally I can't sit on this board and say it's okay to go back to a failing school I'm not sure if I agree with Gio I'm not sure if I agree with the RSD all the time because I was in the RSD but I also know the
school I'm I'm in hadn't not gone to Charter and stayed traditional we would continue to fail kids I now have kids that graduate from Notre Dame so I know that there is a difference if you work hard and if you're black right but how can we just say it's still okay for these kids to return back to give you
one more year you had nine where is your accountability and the fact that these kids don't deserve to continue to fail because of adults that's my concern sitting up here just to be fair and being transparent with everybody y'all know I just say it
how I feel it don't have a whole lot of filters but I just I can't sit here and say that that's okay for black blue green white or whatever type child children thank you Dr Clark uh M RoR I think I'm sorry moso good
afternoon can you check your microphone please sorry about that good afternoon I'm Dr noomi dooso Chief Executive Officer of new schools for Baton Rouge thank you Dr Brumley and the Bessie board members for allowing me to speak today about Geo Academy and the
tremendous impact that they have served that they have had serving children and families in Baton Rouge new schools for Baton Rouge is a not for-profit organization that works to ensure all students in Baton Rouge have access to an excellent education with 30 years of
experience as an educator and administrator in some of the most challenging districts in South Central Los Angeles East Harlem New York Denver and Chicago I know firsthand how difficult the decision is to transition failing schools and the faith that must
be placed in new operators over the past decade nsbr has had the pleasure of working with Gio's local and Foundation leaders watching Gio's acmy develop into the second highest Charter School operator in Baton Rouge second only to
basis Mata the only a-rated open enrollment School in the district all three of goo's campuses Geo prep geom Mid City and Geo Next Generation as you saw are b-rated schools it's important to note that these campuses achieve this
success as Dr Brumley pointed out while serving a wide range of students across the city with approximately 90% economically disadvantaged and in the latest SPS data Geon NextGen high school ranked among the top two performing open
enrollment high schools in all of Baton Rouge it also ranked in the top three for academic growth and top three for graduation rates of open enrollment high schools in the district these achievements result from goo's Innovative and educational approach and
its commitment to developing skilled and inspiring local leaders and teachers for their schools early on students are encouraged and empowered to embrace the possibility and opportunities of a Geo education and its impact on their future
Geo's track record speaks for itself they are absolutely committed to Excellence have high expectations deliver on a rigorous academic model and believe that every
single child they serve can achieve greatness finally I would also like to point out order order I'm sorry I'm picking on Mr Harris over there finally I would like to point out
that Gio acmy has direct experience with turnaround schools in Louisiana Gio's Mid City Campus is a turnaround of Charter Schools USA since its transition mid city has made remarkable progress in 2022 the Louisiana Department of
Education recognized it as a comeback campus with an a for student progress in 2024 the school earned an SPS performance grade of a b it was an F when Gio took it over research shows
that three year years in a failing classroom can forever change a child's future trajectory no one wants to close any school however making the hard decision when necessary when necessary
ultimately however not making the hard decision when necessary ultimately does as a disservice to students and families yes turnarounds can be disruptive but when done correctly they can also change a student's life Gio has demonstrated
its ability to affect such a change if given the opportunity I believe Gio Academy can produce the same positive results and success for the students and families in in Baker thank you thank you m RoR good afternoon I'm Caroline
RoR I'm the executive director of the Louisiana Association of public charter schools and I'm here to speak actually about the recovery School District um while we represent charter schools and I certainly support Gio and the work they've been doing in Baton Rouge I
wanted to speak directly to the purpose of the recovery school district and as a reminder somebody once told me that sometimes you come to the table to speak not just to those that are making the decision but to those that are listening so just a reminder maybe a quick history
lesson some of you were probably not old enough to vote in 2003 but in 2003 not only did the legislature and the governor at the at the time support the recovery School District through a law
it went to a vote of the people a vote of the people of Louisiana supported changing our Constitution which is a major lift ask Governor Landry the battle that he's
facing there it's a huge deal to change the Constitution and the people supported the idea that it was not okay to allow students to sit inside a chronically failing school year after
year and a reminder of what that law says the law doesn't say the recovery School District thus the state might take a school could take take a school sometimes takes a school the language
says the state shall take a chronically failing school so I too Dr Armstrong ask why are we not doing this more often and it is because it's very difficult and we haven't always succeeded in the recovery
School District we haven't always gotten it right but to Dr Clark's point when the recovery SCH school district has chosen to use Charter Schools as one of their tools you do have the ultimate
accountability there of when they do not do it well they are asked to move on to do other things so for Baker to sit on a school for nine years that's almost a full generation K to 12 of a student
sitting in classrooms that are not fulfilling their PR promise to those students and those families and I would say to you if the elementary schools are that low performing how in the world is the high school performing better that's a whole other conversation about
accountability but nonetheless I I don't believe you're going from low performing Elementary and then somehow getting to high school and being successful but we changed the recovery School District law a reminder the law initially only
allowed the state to take a single school that was underperforming then after Katrina the law changed to allow the state to take if the ma if the district had a majority of failing schools you could take them
all well that law Sunset it we don't have that action so what I would say is yes there was a time where you could have taken this whole District to speak to the idea of finances and grown-up problems I appre appreciate that and you're faced with that that decision but
this should not be about finances this should not be about who the biggest employer is this is about your duty to do what's right for students and the right thing to do is to
do something different the USTA committee do you'all know the ustas that's not how we used to do it or the status quo committee what do we have to lose what we have have to lose is keep doing it the same way
that's the definition of insanity I would also say it's the definition of irresponsibility whether it's a charter direct operated by The District closed down we have to do something differently
and I Echo what I've heard why is it taking the recovery School District to say this is what's going to happen for someone to wake up and start talking about oh well we're going to do it different now we're going to change that's the whole point of the recovery
school district and I compliment this superintendent and Dr Schooler for actually trying to Leverage The RSD to get districts to do the right thing this one has not done the right thing you have an opportunity to change that and
send a message to districts to families across the state do it well or we'll do it for you thank you great thank you uh next we have uh Miss Cara major who supports the
recommendation but does not wish to speak uh Dr James finny opposes to recommendation wishes to speak um is it Charisma or Charisma Charisma Charisma Lewis uh
opposes to recommendation wishes to speak and Sandra Douglas opposes the recommendation wishes to speak Mr U chairman just one quick M rer we'd love to be able to see more Charters step up like go has
and uh to for us to be able to do the things that you're talking about so just uh hopefully that could take place Dr Finny you may proceed thank you it's mid-march it's too late to do more damage to the baker school system than
you've already done with mismanaging impact you had an outof control irresponsible type 2 Charter running for years and did nothing and now at the last minute you introduced all sorts of uncertainty to the neighborhoods in
Baker by replacing that board which needed to be replaced and leaving a complete void of leadership and apparently doing nothing to correct that as a department if in March you tell the Baker School District
that you're going to take away half the revenue and they will still be expected to educate every single child that the charters won't take that is a recipe for disaster this is absolutely not an Apples to Apples
situation the Baker School District must take every resident of Baker that wishes to go to public school Advantage Charter doesn't have to impact Charter doesn't have to goo Baker doesn't have to and those three Charter Schools would not
exist if were not for the mfp of the East Baton Rouge public school systems that they enroll how in the world do you expect Geo whatever the name Geo academies Louisiana which has never operated a
school to implement the same model using several ,000 less mfp it's not going to happen the people in Indiana will make a lot of money disserving the children of Baker and then as M RoR mentioned if the
charter doesn't succeed then in a few years you'll be back here you'll revoke their Charter and you'll come up with the next best thing meanwhile you're not doing a damn thing to help the children of Baker if you want to help the children of Baker give some support to the superintendent they hired only a
little more than a year ago come up with the extra money that you're no doubt planning on using to subsidize Geo because otherwise it's not going to work and Do no harm it was outrageous that you appli
that you uh gave approval to that fraudulent application I asked Mr Dunham did you know they use your resume in that application he did not what else in that application is nonsense but but apparently it doesn't matter because Dr
Brumley wants to send a message to the community of Baker we're more powerful than you are you screw it up take that and bring down the hammer think whether closing two schools taking over buildings giving it to
people that have never run a school before transferring control to Indiana will that actually help a single child in Baker of course not but you've got that number four as a hammer so you can use it doesn't matter
how good the Improvement plan is doesn't matter how much better off the kids would have been if you let the superintendent continue to do his job once that four years hits you've got that threat that takes away so much Choice causes
uncertainty now nobody that's employed by the baker school system has any job security thanks to Dr Brumley quit interfering with local public education if there's no useful guidance from the state on how to improve from a
30% school performance score when you have a lot of poor kids to something better maybe you're the problem and the problem isn't the Baker City school district and the solution is to help the Baker City School District not to punt
and give control to some folks from Indiana thank you for your Indulgence with the extra time thank you Dr Finley uh finny uh Miss Lewis yes my name is charisma Lewis and I um work for GI foundations from 2017 to
2024 um the last two years I was associate principal in middle school at the mid city location throughout my career I was very instrumental is your microphone on then we had a little difficulty hearing Dr denosa earlier can you hear me yes much better okay thank
you throughout my career um I was very instrumental in the school becoming a be as you all stated earlier and you showed the data um as of June the 12th my position was eliminated and I was told I was no longer um going to be with the
goo Foundation after seven years of hard work and dedications the Teasley did not even call nor send communication as the why was relieved of my duties after playing a major part in moving the school and improving School culture test
scores teaching and learning and um their takeover school what a complete slap in the face no congratulatory um Call of achievement for increasing the scores in fifth through eighth grade um Middle School was really uh difficult task in the past
um if you know anything about middle school is hard to bring those scores up and I was able to do that and you presented the scores here today showing that that alone tells you a lot about the go um um leadership that they
have as of right now I'm currently tutoring in the baker school district from my observation what I've seen through great leadership a solid team and a instructional plan with professional development I truly believe that the
baker system can move their students and also grow their teachers in a traditional way without the go Foundation great thank you thank thank you ma'am Miss Douglas good afternoon my name is Sandra
Douglas I am um an educ I've been an educator for over 40 years I am the former Chief academic officer and founding principal for the go schools um I retired last year around
this time so I've been retired from a year from goo and I'm here basically basally to um support the city of Baker I'm a resident of Baker so I truly truly care about what's going on with the
students in that school in this in that um system or that area I believe that choice I believe in choice I worked for a charter for eight years goo but I also believe that a CH should be the
traditional system and this would definitely bankrupt that system I believe I do not believe and I do not condone the scores that were um presented for Baker they
have failed those kids and it's no if ands what's about it they have so I'm here basically to say that um I've been in the system supporting through
tutoring the kids want to learn so we just have to do a better job of educating them I am been I have been working with uh the district because again it's it's home for me it's my community these kids live next door to
me down the street around the corner and I'm not knocking anything that has happened at goo but it wasn't about the Geo model so-called model that made the difference what made the difference was the team if it was about the model then
the Indi schores would look just like the Louisiana scores and the Indiana scores look like Baker scores so I uh so for that reason it's about a team it's about
building strong leadership developing your teachers having the accountability and the expectations and I am Comm committed to working with the baker schools to make
that happen again I am not excusing anything that has occurred in Baker not what I am a little sorry about is eight years ago when I retired I went to Charter and I wish now that I would have
maybe worked in my community to improve those schools because if that was the case we probably wouldn't be here today so I'm just asking for an opportunity um the superintendent is new he's embraced a lot of the ideas I've
shared and I'm just asking for an opportunity for us to continue that work turn things around not leave it like it is no that is not acceptable for children um in the baker system um but I
think we can do that the commu the community um um and the team the leadership team can do it and we do not have to have a charter to come in so that's my stance on it um I'm here
whether we have two schools or four schools I'm committed to making sure those kids in Baker Thrive and are successful lifelong citizens that's it so uh thank you Miss Douglas uh actually
have a few questions for you um you made a few references in your presentation I need a little clarification so you have been or you were the chief academic officer for Gio for how long since there was a chief academic
officer all right I was the founding principal of the first school which was K K3 school okay and so you're no longer with with Gio and you're now you're retired and you're now working with with the the the baker school system yes
there was a comment made earlier that what makes schools successful or the people um and that and that's incredibly important um and when we looked at the the data of the goo schools um first thing I thought about
was not necessarily the model but the people and you were the chief academic officer when all of those years of success started developing and came about is is that that fair to say it is so the the team that you put together I
understand that of the three Baton Rouge schools the the principles of those schools not only have you left uh Gio but those three principles are no longer with with Gio is that correct that is correct and I read the plan that the
district put together it's it's my understanding that that you have agreed even though you've retired to come back and do the the same thing that put together a team with the same capabilities that help Gio achieve that
success to do the same thing for the city of baker school system is is that also correct that is correct and I and I ask these these questions because it's it really is critically important we could we can
look at names and we can look at organizations but at the end of the day uh the people of those organizations help the organizations become uh successful so I I know there's been lots of talk about boards and names of
organizations but to me that which is most important is when I see these ladies on the front row for example those are are real people and so you and your team those are are real people so your your commitment I don't think there's anyone in this room that would
challenge the fact that the success that Gio has enjoyed not to diminish the work of anyone else but in large part the academic success fell on the shoulders of the academic team is wouldn't you agree with that yes I would yeah so uh I
I know you've uh you've retired but I heard the superintendent superintendent Schroeder speaking earlier what's what's your level of commitment for working with the baker school system what my level yeah okay well I'm not coming
totally out of retirement that's for sure sure but um you know my level of work we so far we have actually started the work uh We've interviewed when he Consolidated the schools we know we need
a good principal you know a good administrator so we have interviewed um administrators uh candidates for that position and actually two have two outstanding um leaders uh potential
leaders for the baker school system so to me that's where it begins you got to have a great leader at the school setting because I don't plan to be there every day so um having that leader there that's the first piece also he has
already informed um employees that they will have to reinie for their positions there so once the leader is in place then those uh the staff members would re uh interview for their positions we've already talked about a aggressive PD
plan that will happen in the summer and um we'll continue throughout the school year with um plc's on a weekly basis we've talked about what the data will look like and on the data meetings will look like all of the things that we have
done to turn Mid City around and um the things that worked in academy and even before I came to goo the things that worked at Clayborn Elementary School we grew 18 points we
came out of being an unacceptable status to a one star sto school at that time back in the day so my commitment is to first of all my community I love my community and like I said kind of look back and say oh I
could have done this a while back but because of circumstances you know some other circumstances you know I needed to make more money than Baker was offering at the time one thing I applaud the superintendent for is he has figured out a way to make those salaries comparable
to the other districts in the area no one would come and work in Baker because they you know the money you know it was like you would be taking a cut basically to work there so the bottom line for me
is um I'm not saying anything negative per se about Gio I worked there for eight years years I left and by retirement I didn't leave because I was angry or what have you but I feel like children should still have the choice of
a traditional system they shouldn't have to bounce around from Charter to Charter to Charter and if this happens to me the system will not exist because like someone said earlier you you're not going to be able to run a system on a
high school and 80 kids in a magnet school but I do believe that it can be turned around I believe it with every fiber in me I've been in there working with these children so I know you know
the potential there because I've been working with them I've been working with them I retired in January I think it was February or March I started doing some tutoring in the school so I've been in there but um again I'm not excusing anything that has happened in Baker
Baker you know I'm not excusing it at all it should not have occurred definitely for nine years we've HT kids but I feel that with my support and the direction that the district is going in
we can turn this around and not take forever to turn it around we know the kids we know the community we can turn it around quickly M Miss Douglas um that that's all uh very helpful one of the things we
didn't talk about is that I understand that in the district's plan that they have taken some action to to close and consolidate to again not to excuse what's happened in the past because we all agree and the
the evidence is compelling that Dr Brumley presented that there's no doubt about that but looking forward it's my understanding that the the school system has converted the three schools into now a K8 model is that that the plan yes is
that a better strategy is that what is it is it a better model having those three schools as a K8 um I think so again you know leadership at the school level is just critical so having that turnaround
principle that we've been interviewing for uh will be essential to making I mean that happened both go schools are Ka schools both of them are yeah and I'm just asking for the opportunity that we
use those same things that we use to move uh the geoc schools to a be we can do those same things I believe that in my heart we can do those same things in Baker one last and in a shorter period of time because now I
have more experience about it yeah and one last question you made a reference to Indiana um and the the the scores um and I I I missed some of that in terms of you were making a comparison between the the the scores in Alabama versus the
scores here I'm sorry in Indiana versus the scores here in in ban Rouge would you explain what you were referring to okay well I'm a data driven person so I did look or really had somebody to look um at the Indiana schools I was just
curious what did they do in 2024 and their schools are very comparable to the baker scores lots of unsatisfactory kids very little growth with their students you could
almost mirror the two if you had it on a PowerPoint you know so that's what I'm saying it it's not necessarily the model it's about the leadership and what's going on in the school and I mean that's you know you can go to the website
that's not made up data I'm a data person so data says a lot to me and um I'm just saying you know I believe that we're capable of turning that District around and being a
model for the state as to how it's done and having it done right there in the city of Baker without having to turn to the charters great yes Dr Clark so tell me what would you do
different now now what's going to be different that you think will be done in that school to turn it around and why now well the first thing that's going to be different is the leadership okay which means a lot that's
yes so like I said we've already interviewed for turnaround principles uh speaking of turnaround I think I'm one of 11 people in the state of Louisiana to have the turnaround endorsement on their teaching certificate so you know I
was trained well at the University of Virginia but the first thing would be having that school leader and then from that school leader getting a good staff you know so asking the like um he's already said that's part of the plan for all of the teachers to have to
reapply and that St School leader would you know select her staff and her team and then once that that's done once you know that's done then we have to train everybody that's exactly what we
did at jao we trained in Mid City when we started that school we had training in the summer we're going to do the same thing we're going to have that training and then we have to get in classrooms that's the big thing for me that's like my pet peeve anybody that
work with me you had to give me um documentation that you have been spending your time in classrooms we so often get bogged down with other stuff but the meat of the educational opportunities for our students happen in
the classroom and if you're not in there supporting teachers making sure that things are uh that you're implementing these tier one curriculums with Fidelity and I mean supporting them because sometimes they just don't know any better so that's why you go in and
coach and you support and you give them and feedback so those are the strategies that we would use to turn it around Dr picky back on Dr Clark's second part why now why not five years
ago seven years ago nine years ago well to be honest I can't answer that question okay you know I mean I'm just I was working first in EBR for 31 years and then I went to Charter but just like I said now as I reflect reflect on it
and think about my community maybe when I left EBR I should have come and helped in Baker but now I have the opportunity to do that I'm in a position where I can do that back then maybe I wasn't you know I had some other things going on I
was still trying to earn a certain income and all of that to be honest now it's not about the money for me it's really just about making a difference for the kids not about the dollar so so Miss Douglas you weren't fired from GI you retired correct I retired from G
okay all right yes um Miss champine thank you thank you Mr chair thank you for your service we do appreciate it and you helping turn around those schools my question is the model that you have just given us was probably a model that you work through
with the goo was that correct um actually it started at Clayborn elementary school so do you think go would take that same model and when they if they would take over the school I'm sure they would because that's I'm you know again it's about leadership right
that's a piece of it but I'm sure they would use um the same types of things that worked I mean I was there for eight years some of these people sitting back here work there with me you know so hopefully when I retired My Hope was that things would continue I don't want
to see Geo fail because we're serving kids so I want the model to keep going you know it's enough room for everybody you know and that was just my question is Gio going to probably use the same model that that you're familiar with and I think the answer is yes yes thank
you great uh Mr moris yeah so I I just echoed my colleague's comments I thank you for your passion for your commitment for the children and for the community um but but you know you did Express so much passion you know with the sincere sincerity you know for those kids and
for the children so if this board did vote uh for for for the go model would would you be opposed to to working with those kids if the go model was implemented where would I be opposed to what right would you be opposed to working with the same kids with a
different operator with Geo M I would not be opposed to working with the students because of course I'm still there're doing tutoring now would I want to go back and work with Gio again that's what you're asking no I'm really interested if you'd be interested in working with the students cuz that's
the road stud the students always mhm okay thank you mhm always all right Dr Clark my next question is so if we leave one school in Baker what happens because I want to be transparent and fair too so we take the two schools and we leave one
school it it will bankrupt it won't make it exactly what what is our plan of action for for that one school that one District yeah great Dr Clark I I was speaking with Mr dqu who said sitting in the back and I won't uh force him to
come up but I ask him the same question because the Takeover of these two schools is really to take over half the district and when you take half the district you take half the the revenue that supports it according to Mr dquan if I misrepresent anything that you said
you effectively bankrupt it almost immediately so when when we make this decision to take away these two particular schools that have frankly the almost the majority of the student students in the in the district which is a tiny Community what we're also saying
is that we endorse the the bankruptcy of of this school district and some of my colleagues might be wondering why I'm asking all these questions obviously Baker is a part of my district and I'm very concerned about the outcome also have perhaps a little more inside because I lived in the city of Baker um
not only do I care about it I have happen have a deep understanding of how operationally these things work but Mr dequ can you wave and let me know if I've accurately captured your assessment of financially what would happen to the district if this war to happen and
without those financial resources because someone's probably saying well no that's just adult issues we're talking about money Miss Douglas let me ask you since you're in front without those resources um what happens to the the the children
if you try to run a district with less than sufficient resources it's almost a rhetorical question because we probably get what we got right over the last 10 years but worse more of the same but worse and again that's my concern I'm I'm here because I believe in the
traditional I came up through the traditional um school system you know and I believe every Community deserves that option as well it's choice if you want to go to a charter that's fine but you should have the option of being in a traditional school system and I really
think that if this happens it's going to bankrupt that system you won't have one they won't have that option yeah um Miss Douglas obviously your your statements today are are compelling it uh you worked very hard
not to uh say anything disparaging against Gio uh which we greatly appreciate uh but we I I will say I certainly appreciate your expertise and the uh and we know the success that you've enjoyed with the team that you
built at multiple institutions so I think it's worthy of fair consideration in terms of what is the plan the alternative plan the one presented by Baker that for me that which captured my attention the most was the fact that you would be playing an integral role um in
the development of of that plan yes superintendent stroer no offense I don't know you uh but I know Miss Douglas fair fair enough um so um that said we do have a couple more public
comment cards uh Miss Aline profet uh who I think is a member of the uh Baker School Board uh wishes to speak on the item U Miss Propet yes good evening my name is Al team Propet I'm a resident of Baker and a
member of Baker School Board District 2 and I would like to say I've been a uh resident of Baker all of my life and the lady at the end that asked that question why they been failing so long I asked
the same question why and then I said Lord I said why now when you have some members on the board trying to make a difference I reach out nine six seven eight years ago they should have got rid of the superintendent we had Educators
on the board lawyers doctor's degrees I don't have a doctor degree but I have common sense they should have been put a stop to this way back Baker was one of the number one schools in the
state and right now I feel we can turn it around with the new superintendent that we have I really believe in them and I'm asking for another chance to give us that chance uh to help turn our
school district around I hate to see us uh have to uh turn know but our system to uh Recovery School District but the Lord Knows Best whichever happened today I trust God for
it but I just keep my faith and I hope you all would just give Mr scer a chance members in the community they said and and I'm not racist but I have to say this why y'all going back to a white superintendent when I was in
school that's basically all I had I was one of the first got integrated to Baker field in third grade with the white principal so all of I knew all of my life was white black I don't I don't look at colors if I did I wouldn't have talk to
my board and some of the members in the community about let's give Mr Scot a chance to make a difference it's not the color of your skin it's working together at this point and uh if I'm not
a politician they asked me to get on the board to run I said this not even me I didn't even want this job but God see fit he just threw it in my lap and now I'm doing the best that I can and I want to make a difference for the kids in my
community in my district and I don't work just for kids in District Two I work for all five District 1 2 3 four and five most of them know me by heart they're going to miss profit they're going to miss profit and to tonight to Bessie board I
would like to say just give us a chance another chance give us another chance for the students give them a chance and also give Mr scro a chance he's been here one year you can't change nothing in one year now he's cleaning house you got to
clean it from the top to the bottom and I told him if we can't clean it you I won't run again thank you Miss profet thank you all right um we have Brenda Jackson and Reverend King both both
oppose their recommendation and wish to speak my name is Reverend William King out of Baker Louisiana and I thank y'all for this kind of meeting this a good setting we need these kind of things but I'm going to be point blank with you coruption is alive in well and
Baker Mr stroer just got here other superintendent been stealing stealing hands in everybody pocket I hav't got a problem with that Dr brma been trying to do what he can I talked to Mr Castile this morning we got some serious issues going on and it's not with the kids it's
with the adults stealing money put in their pocket and misusing people if I speak out I get misused nobody know that but me and a few others Dr stroy is a man that trying to do what's right I don't look at
color my ancestors is another color Dr BR trying to do all he can Mr steel this lady down here gentleman right there I just talked to him he's a real deal I feel your heart you can't feel mine because you don't want to feel mine I'm
not talking about you Baker is corrupt you don't want nobody want to hear that but you got to step on toes these people need to be in jail because they have stole money the last superintendent had for Mr stroer robbed the people Robb them blind nobody say nothing when I
speak out I get in all kind of trouble what kind of game we playing we I supposed to be able to come to my elected officials and get help everybody turn their back on me I got to come down here and try to play bar with Mr steel right here Play
Bar Mr brummer read there this is not right we live in America we live in in America beg have made all kind of slander news 2.5 million 1.5 million what kind of game we
playing this is a street game steal you steal I steal I give you they got a click in Baker a click if you don't know what a click is Click at the bottom click at the top click at the top and click in the middle
this a game they playing here on people I died for my belief they want to hurt me do you think I'm afraid to die I'm not afraid to die I want you to know that you got leaders in B I'm not a politician I'm a street Soldier I'm a street Minister I deal
with kids and horses I'm not a friend this city this state got to come together we just lost a student from Southern University nobody says that much we got a problem here it's a black and white problem it's across the eye problem what
we going to do with each other I can't love my sister because she that D I don't need a suit rings on my finger and a cross on my neck to say something right it's time off a game it's time for this state this city this nation come together and hold each other
Canal don't tell me another about this man tell me something about this man you got thieves in B I say it and I tell them that and I told them that they try to set me up put me in jail steing a l more I don't need Ste a l more a l more
from Big SCH system that's what you do me a man speaking out for what's right you need to come y'all need to come to B and say at the meeting and see how they play the game see how they play games with people I'm the real deal I'm not
scared to speak I don't need a n i don't need a Mercedes what I need is you you you to help us to come together that's all I need come together thank you Reverend thank you M Jackson good evening my name is Brenda G
Jackson and I'm humble and grateful to have the opportunity to speak before you and the reason why I decided to speak is because of my reputation with Miss Sandra Douglas I'm a retired East Bon
Rouge educator I live in Baker Louisiana I served eight consecutive years as District 5 council member hearing what you said Miss Douglas has inspired me because I have the servant heart and the love for children I am willing to
volunteer and to assist you Mr stroer and the baker school system in helping to strive and educate our children cuz I believe in you Miss Douglas I have seen your work you inspired me to become a prek teacher I left kindergarten and
became a prek teacher so I say to each and every one of you SE it here I am more than willing and I hope you are too to give Miss Douglas superintendent stroer the school board and most importantly the
children of Baker the opportunity to at least let this plan come to fruition again thank you for allowing me to speak thank you m Carter all right that that concludes all of the uh Mr Harris uh I'd
be remiss if we didn't uh uh recognize one of my ex- colleagues at the house Mr Roy Daryl Adams who is uh this is your District right Roy okay sure uh open the door yeah I'm sorry
but we might need vote this session we might we might need his vote I we're going to be quick thank y'all thank y'all for letting me speak today I'm State Rep Roy Daryl Adams District 62 which is part of all of East fion and part of East Baton
Rouge I come in Baker I just received Baker this year as my new District uh I had West fle Chana top school in the state got plenty of money we say it's not a money thing they have money I have Zachary Zachary's number two school now if I go to Zachary they say they number
one on or whatever but both of them have money uh we the state failed the people of the state of Louisiana I wasn't in office but we closed uh East Louisiana mental hospital which is in my district now we have homeless people on the street so if we don't step up for our
people who is going to step up for them the kids are our most important thing in my mind that we have that is our future if we don't move our kids forward who is going to move our state forward we're going to take a step back and y'all going say what happened uh Baker dropped
the ball nine years I don't know why we waited nine years I'm asking for one year let them have one year let's see if we can get it going how can we get it going I'm going to go in there and help them I'm going to get the other uh state senators to end that District we're going to go in and read books to them
we're going to have after school program we're going to show them we care about them kids get in school and they get lost they don't know anybody cares about them they there they go home uh they uh poor economics poor living in poverty they go home guess what sometimes mom
and dad's not there so we have to bring them in and put our arms around them Dr Brumley is doing a great job I I think Dr Brumley came in and he's did a lot for East feliciana uh East feliciana is one of my school districts but we have
to show the kids that we are them each and every one of y'all were in school at one time I remember my favorite teacher she put her arm around me she made me feel like I was somebody so we have to do that you go to school you come home my dad drove the bus guess what when I
cut up at school they walked me to that bus my dad came off tore that butt up uh but that's back in the day and you could do it we can't do it now uh but we have to show them we care about them we care uh Baker when I was growing up God they
are the Buffaloes remember that they are the Buffaloes we come through Baker and they there I was jealous of them I'm I was from I'm from Jackson L we had a little school a little little home school but it was home school I I I do not know much about the charter schools
I have one in my district in East fana um since I've been that Charter Slaughter Charter I don't know a lot about the charter schools but I love home I love the community I'm all about the community we have a small grocery
store I'm the third generation I don't shop at Walmart I'm Community my dad brought me up you help somebody you don't just because you work we work seven days a week people said y'all work I said yeah I work seven what do you do I said I'm off the floor sweeping I do
whatever it needs but you help the community you don't forget your community when you forget your community we're losing it because the community is what it's all about you grow up you live there you live in Baker you know what Baker's
about I I I just want y'all to realize give a year we can make it better how can we make it better we're going to work together we're going to ask bie boor to help us we're going to ask y'all to come in please come in give us what you have your knowledge help us make
Baker better thank you h i i i i appreciate each and every one of you and y'all do a great job thank you thank you Mr representative um any other questions Miss
melin I'm sorry I'm sorry I thought I didn't know we were not finished with public oh I'm sorry did you want the numbers I know you generally asked I I I didn't but you're at the table Mr dqu I guess since I've open the floodgates completely go right ahead it's only up
to you because if you um 500 kids will run Baker approximately uh 3.8 million um that would leave about 2.1 million operational budget wise for the high school and Park Ridge um it's currently
carrying about $600 to $800,000 in debt from the repairs to the flooded building I don't know if any of you guys remember in 2016 the flood took out Baker uh including the high school including several of its other buildings which required consolidation something I'm
sure uh Dr uh quter is familiar with with New Orleans and P your microphone a little bit closer and having been flooded but other than that that's that's the numbers if you wanted to know but yes if uh if that is peeled off it probably would impact the district to having to
notify uh both state Bond commission as well as the division with respect to its inability to maintain its uh expenses that would exceed its revenues I.E bankruptcy all right thank you sir problem all right and I think that now
uh concludes our public comments all right I had Miss meln first but Mr moris after hearing the comments today I'm really troubled by what's been going on in Baker schools for 9 years and I think troubled is really a
light way to put it I'm angry I'm angry for the families of the students that this district has been purporting to serve who they have been failing for nine years last week I was able to go on two visits that really frame my thought reference for what
we're to hear for today the first was a school visit at an early learning center within a home shelter what I did not hear from those Educators at that facility was the bigotry of low expectations for their
students those students who were minorities who were homeless who had less than less were held to the standard of Excellence they were expected to perform the Educators were expected to prepare
those students to be ready not just at grade level when they enter kindergarten but to be ready for a school of selective admissions the second School visit I went on was a Kindergarten Roundup I stood around with 88 preschoolers who were getting ready to start their first
year in public school N9 years from now if those kids entered a failing school they' be in eighth grade these students are out of time in Baker Louisiana I am not willing to allow students to fail for one more year year in Baker regardless of the
inconvenience that that may cause the adults in Baker Louisiana I hear about a plan that Baker hopes to implement why it has not been implemented in the last nine years is beyond
me it's a disservice to Baker's students to their families and the distrust that and the trust that the community places in its school systems to educate its students that's all there's just uh I think it's time to move in a New Direction with
Baker schools I regret the impact that may have on the community but one year in a student's education is significant I'm disappointed and I think this is what my conscience tells me to do today is to move forward with ld's
plan and it's what the law law allows this board to do thank you thank you Miss melin Mr Morris anyone else from the board all right uh we have no additional public comments no more comments from the uh
the board um is there any objection to the motion I'll L my one objection for the record uh that me Preston Castile all right that said the motion passes next item
next item is on page 61 item 4.1 consideration of an update report regarding the LA Gator scholarship program the recommendation is to receive um update updated backup has been distributed motion to receive I get a motion to receive Please Mr Harris and
Dr Ran you ready for me yes okay I know it's hard to turn the page uh after such uh emotional conversation um but we do need to finish out today's agenda uh with some very important information relative to the
Louisiana Gator program and its implementation uh as you all aware this was governor Landry's uh signature campaign uh priority for education in the state of Louisiana uh he was able to work with the uh legislature and and push this um program through that
process uh and we have been working for um some time uh to make sure that we could have a successful launch uh we opened up applications um couple of weekends ago um and uh are excited to give you all an update on where we stand
today uh Caleb Moore uh who is Deputy Chief of Staff in our school choice office and has been a priority uh primary point of contact for Gator um both during the day and attending evening functions with various groups and schools to support the roll out uh
is here to uh make this particular presentation and Caleb I think uh that one of the reasons that we held off on some of the backup is because we wanted to get updated numbers as of today absolutely okay go ahead thank you Dr Brumley thank you board members uh today I'm excited to share with you an update
on the implementation of the Louisiana Gator program now that we are uh in the app I believe we have around uh 38 or so days until this application closes uh but I want to share with you some information about the engagement that we've had with Louisiana scholarship program families uh some general public
engagement and communication that's gone out from the Department uh a comparison of participating School versus service providers we know that that's been um a point of information for a lot of people in this program uh some information about the satisfaction with the Odyssey
platform to date uh and then the program participation uh first I'd like to share with you that we had a gator webinar for the Louisiana scholarship program families uh this was recorded and sent to families Monday January 27th uh basic information was
covered uh we helped them with some information about the difference between the program that they're familiar with the LSP program uh and the Louisiana Gator program uh all questions that we were uh that we had received in that presentation we were able to either answer directly uh or we record it and put it on our uh FAQ uh on the website
that you can find at La gator. la.gov um and this webinar information was sent directly to LSP families uh and LSP schools as well uh up here you'll see some of the uh email engagement and Outreach that's gone out to LSP families as you'll see there's over 4,000 email addresses uh we
have a very very good open rate uh 84.6% 58.9% uh very very high open rates we do have uh some newer information on this that we'll share with the non-public school council as well uh but very high open rate some of the highest we've seen for uh similar Outreach uh general
public engagement opportunities we've been able to uh speak at all of the uh the events you'll see above the Louisiana Association of public charter schools conference we did a session on the LA Gator program uh Ed Choice had an LA Gator Summit that a few of us were able to speak at uh we had the family
webinar for LSP families multiple non-public school council meetings uh non-public uh School monthly calls uh we had Communications with lctcs uh the supplemental course Academy course Choice providers uh the Baton Rouge and New Orleans dicese uh support
Zoom meetings with the leaders of the 10 largest LSP schools uh we also did a zoom call with the Board of Regents and their postsecondary providers uh in home school Louisiana uh we also have an LA Gator newsletter with over 4,000 subscribers uh very similar to our LSP family
Communications this goes out uh usually on a weekly basis to update the different stakeholder groups and uh other interested parties in the gator program uh this is an example of what some of our social media uh looks like we have um boosted social media that's going out Statewide that uh informs family of the
application uh directs them to the application process and provides the Odyssey support to families uh wanted to provide a a comparison of the school versus service provider the policy uh delineates between a participating non-public school and then others that can
participate as service providers um I won't go through all of these but some of the uh the key points here uh both would require background checks for anybody uh that is interfacing directly with children um Bessie would need to approve the participating nonpublic schools while not needing to directly
approve uh the service providers um some the schools would definitely have to offer the uh approved assessments service providers depending on um the amount of courses that they're providing to students may have to also administer assessments um and then of course uh some information about diploma weight uh
is also provided uh so support information and timeline as you'll see above uh the ld's website La gator. la.gov is the primary place to go uh for all frequently asked questions eligibility program updates um and all relevant application links uh as well as
the Odyssey support shown above uh through the phone number the email and then the instant chat feature uh available on their website uh the milestones for the program in February we were able to open the service provider application um once open that will remain open and those are approved on a rolling basis
and we also were able to launch a pre- eligibility tool so families uh could go online enter their information and see ahead of the application opening uh if they would be able to be approved for the program uh in March the student family application opened on the 1st um
and parent School selection will run concurrently with uh this process uh this application will close on April 15th and at that point uh students and families uh the verification process will begin for them uh June schools will be confirming enrollments and setting
tuition parents will also in their portal uh confirm these tuition amounts um and then July of course subject to legislative appropriation uh accounts will be funded will rank order all applications and the marketplace that shows the schools and service providers will open to the
public uh very happy to share some very positive Odyssey platform satisfaction to date uh their sead or customer satisfaction score is 97.8 uh this data is as of February 10th I believe it's around 93% now which is still fantastic um great uh great
reactions from uh all different kinds of stakeholders uh very prompt courteous support uh Lots about quick effective customer service that led people exactly where they needed to go um so very happy to share this information um on the odyssey's satisfaction uh so current
numbers for the program uh right now we have uh the num is about 400 higher than this uh as I checked this was updated earlier today but it's still coming in very quickly uh we're at 18,8 total applications of those uh 15680 are eligible uh and then 1527 are
under review uh 3,127 of these applicants are uh LSP schools um but I will note here we're still communicating with L uh LSP schools uh we'll be helping them directly work through their rosters to make sure all interested students make it into the gator program um and many of
them haven't had their LA Gator days yet to actually help with uh enrolling families uh and then 1,239 of these uh have entered Li SIDS to indicate that they intend uh to apply as a student with this abili is under idea uh above I won't go through all
these but you'll be able to see the uh student applications by City these are the top um I believe 15 or so cities for uh LA Gator applicants uh by grade uh you'll see uh kindergarten I think 8th grade around the highest that we have applications
for uh an applicant family income uh the federal poverty level percentage here for 250% or below uh is 84% of the applicants so 13,712 uh of these applicants come from families that are at or below 250% of
the federal poverty level uh then 9% uh come from families that are between 250% and 400% of the federal poverty level uh then of course 7% remaining are 400% and above uh these do also work into the priority that the students get in the program
uh finally I'll share uh some information about uh our amount of approved nonpublic schools uh 249 of those are currently in the LA Gator program uh and we have 103 registered service providers uh with I believe around 90 to 95 of those uh under review
so the number would be closer to 200 for service providers once those are reviewed and uh happy to answer any questions on the implementation of the pr chairman could I ask a question yes um from reading the newspaper I I appreciate that uh of the the
approximately $90 million it's in the executive budget will fund about 11,000 of those applic the approved applicants is that correct uh I'd have to ask uh uh Deputy superintendent Ceno on that but I think that's that's accurate Mr Appel that's that's
generally accurate I'm just B yeah what we don't know is like for instance a special education student would be um you know they would receive more of an allocation so all that comes into effect on total number but ballp part yes and and just so is there a deadline on these
applications or is that number going to grow that we saw the uh April 15th will be the deadline for so we got another month yes sir a little over a month so you may end up with another several thousand and uh I guess it's too late to increase the uh
requested from the governor for more money but plus or minus 11,000 is accurate what's that plus or minus 11,000 is right yeah okay okay thank you all right any other questions
comments the board uh any objections to the uh this was just a report so next item that concludes your agenda agenda we are thank you everyone that's