Students stage walk-out in bid to stop school closure
3rd April 2023 · 0 Comments
By Christopher Tidmore
Contributing Writer
In a dual experiment in the nature of neighborhood schools, Jefferson Parish School Board may vote on April 5 to give Haynes control of Grace King’s campus, closing the “B” rated school.
Almost two decades ago, Jefferson Parish School Board voted to create a magnet school in the Old Metairie middle school building, and the 6-12 grade Haynes Academy for Advanced Studies was born. Today, it ranks as the No. 3 high school in Louisiana, only slightly bested by the West Bank’s Patrick F. Taylor and Orleans Parish’s Benjamin Franklin. Nevertheless, its campus buildings, built in 1969, are physically falling apart and are far too small to fit its 873 students.
From insufficient parking, which has plagued the surrounding neighborhood for years, to “temporary” expansion space never intended to serve as classrooms for years, few doubt the magnet school has to move to a better campus – or to be rebuilt from the ground up, even as applications for new students to matriculate continue to mount. A 2010 plan to move Haynes Academy to the Riverdale High School campus failed by a 5-4 school board vote, but a consultant’s report issued on March 27 recommending Haynes’ relocation to Grace King’s campus (and those students relocation to Riverdale and Bonnabel high schools next year) was quickly endorsed by Jefferson Parish Schools Superintendent James Gray. It also looked to possess quite a lot of support amongst the members of the Jefferson Parish School Board.
In reaction, by last Wednesday, Grace King’s student body walked out of their first-period classrooms en masse, congregated in the school’s courtyard, and chanted “Save GK.” They hoisted signs reading “Don’t Let the King Disappear” and “The Fighting Irish Family Will Stay.” Grace King 10th grader Patrick Pittman organized the protest with his friends Siania Andrews and Mario Oliney upon learning about the proposed closure. As a “B” rated school, the students cannot understand why their campus is being sacrificed to give the magnet school new life.
At some level, it is a question of numbers. Grace King’s campus has a capacity of 1,857, yet boasts of a smaller student body, whereas even the most conservative estimates put Haynes Academy’s student growth potential at quite close to that number. In point of fact, while no promises have been made by the Gray administration to this effect, a larger Haynes Academy could conceivably absorb higher performing Grace King students next year, keeping them on campus.
The study released last week by third-party consultants Meyer Engineers and MGT Consulting noted that Grace King, Bonnabel and Riverdale have a combined enrollment of 3,488 students, yet they hold a combined capacity to educate 6,139 students. Put another way, the campuses combined utilize only 57 percent of their available space. Combining the three schools is part of a plan to close eight schools in the Jefferson Parish public system, which has seen attendance decline to 47,000 students from 50,000 in 2019 due to demographic changes.
Old Jefferson’s Riverdale is an “A” rated school, but Kenner’s Bonnabel has a “C” rating. The students gathered in the Grace King courtyard vocally wondered why they might be sent to a lower performing school, presenting a statistically interesting question. Emotions aside, more Haynes Academy students currently hail from Kenner than inhabit the West Esplanade neighborhoods around Grace King. Simple numbers suggest Bonnabel should be the proverbial sacrificial lamb.
A Magnet to Rebuild A Neighborhood School
The irony of the debate comes from the fact that this magnet school originally was created in Old Metairie precisely because so few students attended that particular middle school in the neighborhood. By the dawn of 1990s, 51 percent of the students of East Bank Jefferson went to private or parochial schools, and in the elite neighborhood of Old Metairie, public school attendance proved dismal. Metairie Middle School (redubbed Vernon C. Haynes Middle School in 1974 after its long-time principal) stood almost empty, so the decision in October 2004 to create Haynes Middle School for Advanced People seemed to be a suitable use for an empty campus. By May 2006, the addition of one high school grade each following year inaugurated Haynes Academy for Advanced Studies. It hosted its first graduating class in 2010.
In 2004, long-time school board member Martin Marino confessed to The Louisiana Weekly a hope that the magnet school might actually draw local students from the Old Metairie neighborhood. At least, a concept in the creation of the academically exclusive academy was the school board’s hope that families in the wealthy neighborhood might take advantage of the educational opportunity just steps off of Metairie Road.
According to data that was given to this newspaper by Kaela B. Lewis, executive director of communications of Jefferson Parish Schools, that effort was partially successful, as 103 of Haynes’ 873 students come from the surrounding neighborhood in the school’s 70005 ZIP code. From nearby 70001, 128 more students hail, so between 11 percent to 26 percent attend the school closest in relative proximity to their homes.
Of course, Grace King High School sits not that far away on Division St., near the intersection of Severn Avenue and West Esplanade, a key component in the decision to move. Still, only 70 of Haynes students come from GK’s 70002 surrounding zip code. (Arguably, honor students at Grace King might explain the difference.) Nevertheless, the largest contingent of Haynes Academy students, 195 or 22 percent, come from Kenner’s 70065 zip code. That is the neighborhood closest to Bonnabel High School. Another 21 Haynes students live in the nearby Kenner zip code of 70062.
In terms of student residency, therefore, there might be as much argument to moving Haynes Academy to Bonnabel as Grace King. Demographics suggest the possibility of closing a “C” rated rather than a “B” rated school.
Of course, the Haynes Academy relocation is only part of a larger school redesign plan in Jefferson Parish. Meyer Engineers, Ltd. examined the conditions of the school buildings and their capacity based on enrollment. After a two-month study, the firm recommended closing eight schools: Butler, George Cox, Helen Cox, Mildred Harris, Thomas Jefferson, Washington, Woods, as well as Haynes. The firm also proposed converting Janet from pre-K through five to pre-K through eight to use more of its capacity and repurposing Gretna Middle School by re-assigning Thomas Jefferson students to GMS and adjusting boundaries among Livaudais, Marrero, and Gretna Middle.
The debate over these changes will occur at the next Jefferson School Board meeting at 501 Manhattan Blvd., Harvey, La. 70058 on Wednesday, April 5 at 6 p.m. Members of the public may voice their concerns to the board members, but each person is required to submit a topic card before the meeting.
This article originally published in the April 3, 2023 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.
