McDonogh 35 alum form partnership with InspireNOLA

By Michael Patrick Welch
Contributing Writer

On January 24, representatives and stakeholders met at McDonogh 35 high school in order to announce a partnership between McDonogh 35’s Alumni Association and InspireNOLA, the company set to take over the school from the Orleans Parish School Board this coming August.

InspireNOLA hopes the school’s recruitment campaign and its slogan “Be a Roneagle and Soar…the Legacy Continues,” will reach those eighth grade students who currently have until February to pick which high school they will attend next year.

“We want them to pick McDonogh 35 as their number one choice,” said the president of the school’s alumni board, Gertrude Ivory.

The first version of McDonogh 35 opened in 1917 as the first public high school in Louisiana for African Americans who wanted to extend their education past the eighth grade. The school has struggled to gain footing ever since Hurricane Katrina. Its performance grade had fallen down to a D.

“The new management will offer stability and leadership,” said Ivory. “McDonogh 35 has had six principals in the last three years. We have not had stability.”

As such, following a controversial vote last December, Orleans Parish School Superintendent Henderson Lewis recommended InspireNOLA to operate a new version of McDonogh 35. Inspire NOLA was chosen partly for its use of the Teachers Retirement System of Louisiana state pension plan. In August, the new McDonogh 35 – with the same traditional maroon and gold school colors, and the same school mascot, the roneagle – will begin with just ninth grade students, before proceeding to add another grade each of the next four years.

Ivory and many others are counting on InspireNOLA to bring the historic high school back to its former glory, and help it join the ranks of other Inspire NOLA schools. InspireNOLA Charter Schools is the only network with one A-graded and two B-graded schools. Founded just five years ago, InspireNOLA currently serves more than 4,500 students in six local schools: Alice Harte Charter School, Edna Karr High School, Andrew Wilson Charter School, 42 Charter School, Eleanor McMain Secondary School, and Dwight D. Eisenhower Charter School.

The prior version of McDonogh 35 is currently being phased out. All current teachers and other employees will be asked to re-apply with InspireNOLA. The company also hopes its recruitment message will reach former McDonogh 35 staff, who may have left the school due to the instability. “We’re trying to get all those teachers and staff to come back home,” said Ivory

Once McDonogh 35’s transition is completed in August, New Orleans will officially be a city with no traditionally run public schools.

Jamar McKneely, chief executive officer of InspireNOLA, who moved to New Orleans to become an educator 18 years ago, said, “Through our methods, we hope to incentivize education for the kids. Students want to be supported – and they are, through our positive behavior system, which is a system or culture designed to build up [students’] self-esteem, so that they will want to learn for themselves, on their own.”

To this end, Inspire will add advanced AP courses to its offerings, as part of a dual college tract where McDonogh 35 students earn college credits while still in high school.

At last Thursday morning’s meeting, InspireNOLA also announced that it would host two town hall meetings at McDonogh 35’s campus at 6 p.m. on February 6, and February 12. The community, alumni, students and parents are invited to the school to discuss and help generate ideas regarding the school’s future. At the town hall on Feb. 12, leaders with InspireNOLA and the McDonogh 35 Alumni Association will also sign a Memorandum of Understanding to underscore InspireNOLA’s commitment to the preservation and legacy of McDonogh 35.

This article originally published in the January 28, 2019 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.