Algiers community assembles to talk education

By Zoe Sullivan
Contributing Writer

The Edna Karr payday loan hanford ca marching band filled the chapel with its well-tuned sound, welcoming a small crowd to an education summit Thursday evening. The event was sponsored by the Algiers Eco­nomic Development Foun­dation and held at Our Lady of Holy Cross College. Tables blanketed with banners bearing school names and colors lined the sides of the chapel while representatives for the respective schools chatted with the attendees and offered a personal connection and information. The event also featured a panel discussion on education-related issues, such as the management structures for public schools in New Orleans. The schools included Edna Karr High School, O. Perry Walker College and Career Preparatory High School, The International School of Louisiana, and Harriet Tubman Elementary.

Elegantly dressed in a dark suit and black, ruffled shirt, Leslie Ellison, Chair of the Algiers Economic Development Foun­dation’s education committee, told The Louisiana Weekly that the aim of the summit was to provide parents cash loans townsville with information.

“There’s a lot of changes going on within the Algiers education community,” Ellison remarked. “And I think parents…perhaps they need more information about which management company is going to oversee the school that perhaps they may select for their child.”

Although parents with children were part of the crowd, others also came to learn about the schools. Jon Cerruti, commercial realtor, said that he came to the event because local education is a consideration for some of his clients. “The bigger companies want to know what kind of pool of students that they’ll be pulling from,” Cerruti said. “When they bring their company down here, will they be able to hire well-educated…people for their companies.”

“We’re a turnaround school,” Allison Padilla-Goodman said of Harriet Tubman Elementary, which is in its first year serving kindergarten through eighth-graders. The banner draped over the school’s table bore the motto: “We make the path Twin Lakes LV cash advance by walking,” which Padilla-Goodman noted reflects the belief in the school that “every child, no matter who they are, where they are, can achieve academically.”

“We have two schools that probably need some help,” Paul Richard, a board member of the Algiers Economic Development Foun­dation, told The Louisiana Weekly when asked about the overall quality of schools in Algiers. “But generally speaking, we’re probably in the top 10 to 15 percent of all schools in Orleans Parish.”

In spite of Richard’s rosy view of the area’s schools, the New Orleans Parents’ Guide to Public Schools presents a different picture. The Guide, which is published by the New Orleans Parent Organizing Network, offers a quick overview of all the public schools in New Orleans, including a review of academic performance. Dwight Eisenhower Elementary, William J. Fischer Accelerated Academy, Paul B. Habans Elementary and Murray Henderson Elementary all received a D+ or lower in their 2010-2011 academic performance review.

Halima Narcisse-Smith, an attorney, was one of the parents who came to the event to learn more about school options for her children. Both her sons are enrolled at Martin Behrman Charter School, which falls under the Recovery School District’s supervision. Behrman earned a B+ ranking last academic year according to the Parents’ Guide.

“My oldest son loves it. He was in private school before he went to Martin Behrman, and he just doesn’t ever want to go back to private school,” Narcisse-Smith raved. Asked what about the school her son found so engaging, Narcisse-Smith unhesitatingly replied: “The biggest thing he said is the enthusiasm of the teachers, in particular, his English teacher, Mr. Razem.”

This article was originally published in the March 12, 2012 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper