The Leah Chase School is a lone public school in the Orleans Parish, and its fate is once again in question. Mercedes Schneider has the full story. Reposted with permission.
The Leah Chase School (TLC) is the only Orleans Parish public school directly run by NOLA Public Schools under the direction of the Orleans Parish School Board (OPSB). From a 2024 press release:
About NOLA Public Schools: NOLA Public Schools is the public school district for Orleans Parish. It includes the district’s administration and elected school board, known as the Orleans Parish School Board. NOLA Public Schools currently oversees 67 public schools and is led by Superintendent Dr. Avis Williams, the first woman in the District’s 181 years to serve as its permanent superintendent.
In 2018, the numerous charter schools in New Orleans were placed under the local board as the state-run Recovery School District (RSD) was dissolved and some of those autonomous charters needed some investigation (see this 2022 post for details).
The option for a New Orleans charter school to once again be direct-run, operated by OPSB, had always remained a theoretical possibility. However, not until 2023, when Lafayette Academy lost its charter due to “poor performance” and no other charter operator wanted to operate the school of then 500 elementary students did OPSB step up and assume responsibility for the school, renaming it TLC and opening it in 2024-25 as a K-5 school with the ultimate goal being a K-8 school, adding a grade per school year.
That was the plan, or so it seemed. Superintendent Avis Williams resigned in November 2024 and received a “secret settlement,” as Fox News reports:
Williams and the district jointly announced her resignation on Nov. 14, 2024, the same day Williams signed the agreement. The news came amid a multi-million dollar revenue overestimation crisis.
In the agreement, Williams agreed to not sue the district over any potential claims. Both sides agreed to never share the terms, amount or existence of the agreement with the public unless required by law.
Then, in October 2025, TLC principal Crystal LaFrance abruptly resigned. The Lens notes, “It is unclear what prompted LaFrance’s mid-year resignation. She could not be reached for comment.”
Now, in 2025-26, OPSB is considering closing the school. The main reasons appear to be a financial deficit complicated by slower-than-expected enrollment growth.
However, commentary offered during the public comment period of the OPSB’s December 18, 2025, meeting raises a number of questions about the board’s operation of the school and even whether OPSB knows how to (or even wants to, frankly) efficiently oversee a single direct-run school.
The board deferred further action on TLC until its January 08, 2026, board meeting.
The community clearly wants OPSB to support this school, New Orleans’ only district-run public school in eight years.
In the 65 minutes of public comment, the TLC community raised a number of excellent questions. In this post, I transcribe a number of the public comments, all of which are in support of sustaining this direct-run school and honoring the community’s desire for traditional, board-run, public schools. I abbreviated some entries for the sake of space. Also, I had to guess at the spelling of many names since I was only hearing names called (as opposed to reading them).
All-charter New Orleans was something that was done TO the new Orleans community, not IN CONCERT WITH the New Orleans community. Therefore, it is important to amplify the voice of that community by transcribing members’ words in posts like this.
The full video is included at the end of this post. (In this post, each speaker’s words are time-stamped for ease of location on the full video.)
These comments are stellar. They are on the mark for what has been happening literally for decades: The New Orleans community wants its traditional school system back. The community has said so time and again, not because those with means and political leverage included the community in the post-Katrina, all-charter conversion discussion, but because the community has had to fight against the orchestrated theft of their public school system and is trying to regain what is rightfully theirs.
The door is open. They have one direct-run school.
And here we are, in 2026. OPSB is responsible for a single school, and only two years in, OPSB is questioning whether or not to kill it.
As the community members began to speak, I noticed that immediately that many comments focused on the need for stability in the New Orleans schools.
Lauren Jewett, founding staff member (2023) and special education teacher (42:45):
When you close a public school, you’re not just shutting down a building; you are breaking trust. You are telling families that stability is optional, that their children are expendable, and that this disruption is an acceptable policy tool. If enrollment is down, please ask why. If outcomes are uneven, ask whether the instability, turnover, and constant restructuring might be part of the problem. If you believe in public education, prove it by fixing what’s hard and not abandoning it.
Melissa Francis (45:00):
Leah Chase is the only direct-run school in New Orleans, and it actually works. Students are learning; families are engaged; there is a trust between parents, teachers, and teacher leadership, school leadership. Stability really matters, especially in a city where schools are constantly being closed and/or relocated. … We are asking that the board honor the voices of the parents and keep Leah Chase School open as a direct-run school. We are simply just asking for respect for our families to have choice and community stability.
Ramona Aguilar (46:22):
If we keep putting our children in depression, from school to school, what type of children will we have? Where we have no stability for our children? … [To the board] Is this indicative of the education system that you all had, where we don’t know how to run things for our children?
Ann Marie Coviello (53:40) invited the board “to do what you’re actually paid, I believe it’s $800 stipend a month, to actually run a school”:
Let’s call in a vision of stability. Let’s give the principal… a contract that goes beyond one year. Let’s give the teachers a contract that goes beyond one year. What would that look like? [Applause.] They actually knowmthey have stability in their jobs, and they could commit, experienced teachers you’ve already hired– people with credentials. Certified teachers who know what they’re doing.
You don’t need all these charter school bells and whistles, and the PBIS, and the “lunch on the lawn” and the “games on the grass.” What you need is good teachers. … Stabilize this school…. Envision the beauty that this school could be. It’s on you. Put it in your hearts. You can do this. You can direct-run a school.
LaToya Holmes (1:10:11):
Leah Chase is more than a building; it is a community anchor, strengthens the neighborhood, provides stability in a world that too often feels uncertain[] for our kids. When we talk about what’s best for children, we must listen to their experience, not to disrupt them. Keeping the school open… is about choosing commitment over convenience, people over disruption.
One stakeholder, Collette Tippey, filed a public records request on some TLC financials and disclosed the results, leaving the public with questions about whether there really is a financial shortfall for TLC (48:43):
I rise in support of investing in the only school that you are running, and I commend the board members that I see putting in the hard work to invest in this school.
It is disappointing to see the information that’s being presented in this agenda item today. As you are all aware, I asked for budget versus actuals for Leah Chase School on Friday (12/12/25), and I’d like to commend the public records folks for their quick response. The budget versus actuals that I received shows that at the end of the 24-25 fiscal year, there was a total of $1,315,429 which was budgeted for the Leah Chase School but not spent. [Audience applause and surprise reaction. One asked, “Where’s that money?”] This appears to be unrelated to the $3.8M that the board approved for startup costs, and it has been clarified that that money was approved only for the 23-24 school year.
The numbers that have been presented publicly to this board paint a dramatically different picture and have shown a deficit.
Why do these documents not align with public presentations? [More applause.]
If there is a deficit, members of the community are willing to make private donations to sustain the school. TLC parent, Chris Edmunds (59:00), offered a remarkable donation on behalf of his mother, Karen Oser Edmunds, with a letter of intent hand delivered to OPSB members before the meeting:
There was reference to a donation that was made to the, in the name of The Leah Chase School, and, for reasons I don’t understand, that motion failed. That is a donation in, my family has been very blessed, okay? My mother is offering $1.5M to The Leah Chase School. The only restrictions are that you keep the school open for two years and that all the funds are used to fund The Leah Chase School. One and a half million dollars. [Waves letter.] That was sent to the board counsel this afternoon. So, if you’re saying this is about money, we’re calling your bluff. That’s enough to cover the entire deficit for the next year and probably for the next two years, not including– if their even is a deficit.
The district-wide average for homelessness is six percent. At The Leah Chase School, it’s sixteen percent. This isn’t just a school; this is a safe space for those kids. You’re talking about that is dozens and dozens of children dealing with home instability, sleeping in shelters, motels, on someone’s floor. And now, you’re going to give them school instability? … We don’t want to put this off. These teachers need to know if they have a job next year. The families need to know where they’re going to send their kids next year. It makes no sense to put it off. We have the money. Do the right thing and keep us open.
Later in the meeting, the board voted to accept the $1.5M, but without conditions. Based on Edmunds’ offer, the practical outcome of the vote is that the board rejected the money, which comes with the conditions that it be used to fund TLC and that the board agree to keep TLC open for two years.
The December 19, 2025, Verite News describes the board’s waffling and ultimate nonsense vote as follows:
Board members butted heads throughout the meeting in regards to what they should do surrounding fundraising and determining the future of the school. Zervigon said he voted against the motion to consider accepting the donation because it came with specific restrictions, and that he doesn’t consider it to be “an honest contribution.” Later, after becoming the subject of the crowd’s frustration, Zervigon introduced a motion to consider accepting the money without restrictions, which passed unanimously. Board members then voted unanimously to accept the money. But because the offer was contingent on the prospective donor’s restrictions, it does not appear that the vote will amount to anything.
I spoke with Edmunds on January 02, 2026, and asked if he would provide a statement via email regarding the situation. Below is his response:
The Board voted against accepting the money because they did not want to commit to keeping the school open. They later held a sham vote to accept the money without promising to keep the school open.
We do intend on offering the money again, with the same condition that the school be kept open.
Percy Marchand (50:40) listed a number of criticisms about inefficient operation of TLC, including “putting negative stories out every time enrollment opens then complaining that the school isn’t at capacity”; “spending $250,000 to market the school to every [kid or] family outside of the 5,000 families that have school-aged children right in the neighborhood”; “spending $750,000 a year to bus those kids outside the community.”; “slowing down self-led, self-funded recruitment efforts of the community leaders by promising signs, promising fliers, promising community meetings for weeks and never delivering.”
Marchand also commented on the time of meetings set for the community: “Disrespecting and dismissing the community leaders who give up their time, their energy, their resources to represent the families who can’t afford to fight rush-hour traffic to attend your 5:30PM meetings on the bank (the West Bank) that fewer than an eighth of your students live.”
Marchand concludes:
This isn’t about Leah Chase School and a deficit. This is assurance to the public that our future does not lie in the decisions of some unaccountable charter operators, but that our board is capable and able to do its job, and that the next time a charter is pulled and no charter operators steps up, that you will be able to do your job.
Leah Chase is not a failing school. Its letter grade actually increased. The ones that you guys just renewed for three years, some of them have lower scores. Do the job that you were elected to do. Stop telling lies, and start telling the truth.
Mary Ann Muchat (1:32:30) questioned the board about its focus on potentially closing TLC while allowing D or F charters to remain open and there by continue to complicate declining enrollment issues:
While recognizing the shrinking number of students remaining in NOLA due to sundry issues of our city’s quality of life, I ask why the school board won’t consider, if this is a financial deal that we’re talking about, why you don’t consider closing one of the ten charter schools with a multiple-year record of a D or F rating, or the 39 charters with the grade of a C. To be fair, there are eight charter schools with a B and twelve with an A. However, in the ranking of existing schools, from ’24 to ’25, five charter schools went from a grade C to a D; two went from a D to an F; four remained with a D, and one kept its grade of an F.
As reported, The Leah Chase School earned a D in its first year of creating community-based school, and it deserves the promised three years to establish itself as a community anchor.
The Leah Chase School deserves the full backing of the school board, especially in promoting the school to local parents, neighbors, and businesses. To do otherwise is an abandonment of our children to disjointed charter schools, which while paid for by all New Orleaneans, have no oversight by anyone– state, local, or even the school board authorities.
Regarding the need to better advertise the school, parent Najet Valcour (1:30:05), who had eight children attending five different schools and who currently has three children attending TLC, commented:
Leah Chase doesn’t have, to me, the support that they need, advertisement, radio, whether it be billboards, social media.
I got off of the bridge on Carrollton. They had five signs from Carrollton to the front of Leah Chase. (Note: This distance is less than a mile, with only a few signs, and those only right near the school and not elsewhere, like interstate billboards.)
Parents and other stakeholders want the board to continue (and to expand) the option of direct-run schools in New Orleans. Below are comments from Sojourner Gibbs (55:28), a parent who lives on the other side of the Mississippi from Leah Chase but is willing to drive her 5-year-old there to attend a direct-run school as opposed to the charter school “just down the street”:
Good evening, everyone. My name is Dr. Sojourner Gibbs [gives West Bank address]. That means I live down the street. … I was so excited to hear about Leah Chase School opening, not just because of the name, but because Orleans Parish School Board was back to doing the business of its actual founding, which is to run schools. … School choice is more than just private schools and charter schools. It should include city-run schools, and I’m asking you– imploring you– to please keep open Leah Chase School.
The New Orleans community needs board investment in the stability of direct-run schools. In concert with Edmunds’ comments about homelessness faced by 16 percent of TLC students, Erika Lara, an English learner (EL) teacher at TLC, speaks of the extra care some students need regarding basic necessities, and, again, how stability in a school is critical to the health and well being of children, especially those with instability rocking their personal lives (57:23):
I come here to be the voice of the EL students, that most of them couldn’t be here, you know the reasons why. But they have a voice. So… we received funds for the EL students. But also, we received funds for the SPED students. Also, there are EL students that are SPED students. So, if you close The Leah Chase, they are not going to receive a SPED good education, and they are not going to receive the quality that they are receiving right now. Because, we know, our children in The Leah Chase, they were hurt academically. We receive them in an F. They were already academically hurt. And every single [one] of our teachers there, that are caring about them, [points to board] I’m sorry, but I never see any one of you, any one, looking to our children when they don’t have shoes on their feet. I don’t see any one of you putting socks on them. I don’t see any one of you wiping their tears when they don’t have anything to eat at home. But, guess what? Me and my colleagues, we have been driving to their homes when they don’t have food and give them food. And put shoes on their feet. This is not about our salary. It’s about protecting the rights of our children, that they need a public school that is worthy of education.
I noticed that speaker after speaker refers to direct-run schools as “public schools” and charter schools as “charter schools.”
This community does not consider charter schools to be “public schools.”
In her comments, parent Rachel Bose (1:01:50) advocates for more direct-run “public schools”:
There’s been a lot of discussion about whether the money is there or not– sounds like it’s. But even if it was a matter of money, this does feel very much like setting something up to fail on purpose, for what kind of agenda, I don’t know aside from the fact that we know the charter schools clearly make more money than the public schools typically do. They focus more on profit, and, while I understand that schools are supposed to accommodate for things like IEPs (individualized education plans), for things like supports for special needs students, and to make sure that al students have access to equitable learning, it’s my experience with four kids, three of whom are still stuck in the charter school system because Leah Chase doesn’t currently accommodate their grade levels, they do not. They do not. I don’t know why they do not, but they do not accommodate for children who need anything extra who aren’t already excelling. And I’ve heard this from dozens of my kids’ friends. There’s bullying problems in charter schools that we have not experienced at Leah Chase.
Since we switched my daughter to Leah Chase, she has done tremendously well. She loves going to school. … Her grades have improved. Her mental health has improved. … So, while I understand that the rules are supposed to be the same for charters and public schools, clearly there’s not enough accountability for these charter schools [Applause] and clearly enough people want the public school option back– especially those of us who remember what it was like to have that before.
Education advocate, Betty DiMarco (1:04:50) questioned the lack of choice in a system of only charter schools, and she also questioned administrative spending that seems out of place given that autonomous charters buget for their own services:
I see this photo of Dr. [Everett] Williams. He was superintendent when I got involved I education reform. I never thought in my life after all the work that a bunch of us in this community did to try to look at the governance and moving decision making from Central Office down to the schools is the plan that we had. We had one charter school because of Leslie Jacobs was able to convince the state of Louisiana to let her open a charter middle school. I didn’t have a problem with that. I thought it was a great idea for us to have a little competition and maybe some help for the children who were not receiving what my kids did.
It’s really interesting because now, we are, you guys are saying to us, “this charter school plan is wonderful, and we’re not ever going to let anybody change that.” Because that’s where we are right now, and if you guys shut down this school, I don’t think everybody in this audience is going to walk away because everybody understands there really is no choice. We need something else.
Working on this Leah Chase project led me to pull up staffing for Central Office, I will call it, for administration. I have so many questions about where that money is going when we have charters who are autonomous, making their own dad-gum decisions. I actually looked at a budget today of a charter, and I’m wondering why we’ve got all these nutrition people on our, paying for an administrative office when the charter schools already have in their budget for cafeteria. Now, maybe they’re buying the food and we’re supplying the workers; I’m not really sure what’s happening.
Grant writing. Talked to somebody at a charter the other day and they said, “Nobody has ever come to us from the school system to offer grant writing.
I hope you guys will listen and make a better decision tonight.
Former superintendent and principal, Valencia Douglas (1:07:44) spoke of the need for an option to only charters– actual “choice” for parents who are crying for it– and the need for the board to permit TLC “to become stabilized” as the community works to address fiscal needs of the school:
I’ve spent my life in education. It’s very difficult to make decisions, but you make decisions in the best interest of the children. We have parents here tonight that are telling you what they need and what their children need, and they haven’t found it in the charter schools. If you take away Leah Chase, you take away our right to have choice.
Charter schools came in to give choice. Now they’re taking away choice. That can’t be.
Additionally, we have highly trained teachers. And these teachers love the children the way that they need to be loved. They go to the parents’ homes. They make sure their children have what they need. They teach them in joy. It’s not just only about testing. Testing is part of it, but they teach them in joy. And what the board needs to do is listen to that and understand that. We are willing, we are willing to help raise whatever funds are needed. What we need you to do is let us become stabilized so that we’ll have sufficient number of years to get this done, and then you will have the kind of school that everybody wants for all of the children.
We do not want to be part of charter schools. We want to have district-run schools so that we can come and address the board and our superintendent when we have needs. That’s what it’s all about. And we should not be the only city in America with all charter schools.
Please, listen to the parents. We will help to make the school whatever you need financially, but listen to these parents, and listen to these teachers.
In keeping with the community’s desire for direct-run schools, United Teachers of New Orleans (UTNO) president, Dave Cash (1:11:51) also challenged OPSB to become more than just a charter school authorizer:
I come before you today to urge you to invest in The Leah Chase School and to ask this board to make a firm commitment in running schools again. I am president of the United Teachers of New Orleans. We believe it is critical that the district rebuild its capacity to run truly-public schools again. You’ve heard from parents, not only today but all week, about the value of the education that their children are receiving at The Leah Chase School. You’ve heard from teachers about their experiences in this district-run school and that they left schools they were at to help become founding educators at The Leah Chase School. This is a special place, and, unlike every other school in this city, you– a democratically-elected board– are not just authorizers of this school.
You have the opportunity and responsibility to run the school.
As this district has been rettoled to function as an authorized of schools, the muscles of running a school directly have understandably atrophied. But the only way to retrain those muscles is to invest in the School– work out the kinks– include the community– and learn how to do better.
When charter schools were introduced, their intention was to be a way to experiment and learn how to do things better. As a public school district, we should be learning from those outcomes and applying them to running schools across our city.
This is the one school in our city where the people of New Orleans can hold you accountable for the outcomes because they voted for you to sit on this board.
I am asking you to step up to the task of running schools again. If choice is a guiding principle, then give students, families, and educators the choice of direct-run schools. We have seen the playbook for privatization of public services time and time again: First divest, then point to a failure, then get the public to clamor for a supposedly-more-efficient private operator.
We won’t stand by and watch this happen again.
This board typically gets three options: renew a contract, find a new operator, or close a school. We are not limited by those choices here. With this school, you have the opportunity to iron out the kinks, right-size the budget, empower educators to apply world-class instruction, and set an example for the rest of the city schools to follow.
It’s all about choice. What will yours be?
Jefferson Parish teacher, Percy Robinson III (1:24:50), also pointed out the OSPB’s lack of experience with directly overseeing schools as opposed to simply authorizing charters:
Before Leah Chase, Orelans Parish School Board was operating as a governing authority. You all (the current board) had no experience in leading a school. So we shouldn’t have hired a novice principal who had no experience but a principal who did have experience in running a school.
You all recently had a board session. Unfortunately, though, that consultant you brought in sits on the board of directors for the National Charter School Authorization. [Applause.] Why didn’t we conduct, why didn’t we try to find somebody, why didn’t we reach out to JP (Jefferson Parish Schools) or another, you know, neighboring traditional public school district to advise us on what it takes to operate a neighboring school district?
Benjamin Franklin sophomore, Aidan Gibbs (1:133:58) spoke on the disparity between charters having usually five-year contracts and being judged after five years (renewal time) versus direct-run TLC, which is facing judgment only in its second year (for more info, see this Lens article):
I have bounced from charter schools because none of them could accommodate my needs. And, personally, I know– well, I’ve learned– that charter schools get five years to meet the requirements while public schools only get two. … If a charter school gets five years and a public school gets two years, last I checked, two and five don’t equal the same thing.
Retired teacher, Janice Stevenson (1:19:30) focused on the positive impact of direct-run-school stability without even using that particular term. She also asks for the long-overdue return of local, board-run schools from what is the now-defunct state control:
I am a retired school teacher. I have watched my nieces grow from Leah Chase School, when their mother had to move them from school to school to school. I left Orleans Parish schools when they chartered because I saw people coming in who had no educational background working with our students, and they couldn’t understand what was going on. The students– skipped school. I mean, some of them wouldn’t come to school. They wouldn’t even report that the students were absent. They reported that they were there.
I ended up working in JJIC (Juvenilve Justice Intervention Center), and for those of you who don’t know what that is, the juvenile justice system, where those students ended up.
Once they got to us, and they were required to be in class, I had students tell me things like, “I didn’t know I was smart till I came here. Nobody cared about me until I came here.”
Leah Chase is doing for these students what needs to be done so they don’t end up in a JJIC. [Applause.] Leah Chase is providing the type of education that our children need, and not the teachers who come from everywhere to work for three years, put it on their resume and move on. [Applause.] Leah Chase deserves time to continue educating the students in Orleans Parish that we elected the school board to run.
They’re a direct-run school. Charter schools run on their own, making all kind of money and putting our children in harm’s way.
It’s time for Orleans Parish to take their schools back. The state was supposed to have the schools for three years and then give them back.
How many years has it been?
TLC student, Bailey Watson, told the board (1:28:42):
If you close my school down, you’re closing the dream of other kids.
TLC grandmother, Terra Boyd (1:36:00), adds,
Here’s the community. They’ve given you stats. They’ve shown you how much supported that Leah Chase kids are. They’ve shown you how much support the teachers give.
Keep Leah Chase open. Don’t let this be another Katrina episode where y’all just shut the schools down. Even though some of the board is not there, this seems like we’re reliving that. Teachers came back– no jobs. No stability. No knowing what’s what. The parents came back looking for schools.
We came back to a new reality that was forced upon us:
Charter schools.
We didn’t vote on that.
The only choice we had was to send our children to charter schools. Now that we have a direct-run public school, that gives us choice. That gives us community. That gives us a sense of “we are somebody, our kids can go somewhere.”
Don’t take that away. Please don’t take that away. We’ve invested too much in this. You’re saying that there are budget shortfalls? Show us the budget. Let us have input on that budget. We have people in the community who are willing to step up.
Let us help you help our children. That’s out main point:
We want our children to thrive. We want our children to be somebody.
Give us that opportunity. Please give us that opportunity.
I come from a system of charters with my grandson who has special needs, learns differently. Not that he’s not able,but the support was not given there. Leah Chase gives that support. They welcome the community to come in, to give us advice. Don’t take that away.
It’s a new world that we want back. Charters are not that world. We don’t want to go there.
Mother of four children, one of whom graduated post-Katrina, Stephanie Bridges (1:38:30), notes,
This experiment, this charter school experiment, is failing our children, and we want you to open your eyes and see that.
You only have one direct school. One. And you’re going to tell me you cannot keep that one school open?
I know you came to sit on the board because this is something you wanted to do. You wanted to educate our children.
We’re asking you to educate our children and keep Leah Chase School open.
That’s not hard.
You only have one school. One.
Do. Your. Job.
Keep. This. School. Open.
Listen to the parents. Listen to the community.
Keep. This. School. Open.
One job.
One school.
Keep it open.
Step Up Louisiana co-director, Maria Harmon (1:42:19) offers this pointed commentary about the board’s previous willingness to use reserve funds to rescue some charter schools in shaky fiscal straits and challenges them to do the same for TLC:
This school has become a staple in the community. Yes, a sense of nostalgia has reemerged within the community because they’ve seen community ownership reemerge again. Things started to feel like home again, and, we really need to seize the opportunity to really stand on our ten for our children because this is our school.
This is the only direct-run school in the city, but for some reason, it is a stain in the community amongst charters.
We don’t need to fall to their political will right now.
The pressure is high. But you have to remember who voted for you. Not the campaign contributions. Not the, all of the advertisements you got for your campaigns then. You’ve got to think about those votes that you got because though they were influenced by the mailers, the phone calls, those are still everyday people who still want to have stability for their children.
So, let’s think about the voters right now who actually got you all in office, not the campaign drivers. And, if we’re really going to put things in perspective, I’m speaking to the board members who are sitting on this board when you all allowed $1.2 million dollars, $2 million dollars go here and there out of the reserves to help some of those charter schools gain grounding.
That happened. It happened because it was at least three board resolutions that were passed or actions, right? You had to vote to even go into the reserves, and then you had to vote to have the reserves added back to the general fund budget, and then you had to vote on the community agreement between you and the charter school. Rosenwald, for one of them. It’s a few of them, too.
So, why isn’t the same action being made for Leah Chase? [Applause.] Because, it’s a systemwide benefit. And, by default, by law, Leah Chase has to take any child that is kicked out of a charter school in the middle of the school year.
They have to take that child because its the only direct-run, traditional public school in the city.
So, do the right thing and keep this school open. Put the resources where it needs to be.
Edgar Chase, grandson of Louisiana chef, Leah Chase, for whom TLC is named (1:15:23), also addressed the board and the public with a promise to support the New Orleans community:
I want to thank the members of the board for allowing me to talk tonight, but I hope that you appreciate the priority of a community. I hope you understand the values of a foundation of growing our youth, of educating our youth, of seeing our city prosper. And last, I want to let you families know, you teachers know, that we are committed for you, we are committed with you. We will be here not just today, not just January 8th, not just the next month, but we will be here each and every day to see your students, your kids, your teachers and faculty and staff succeed in our community. Because this is just not a school that’s depending on it. This is a city that’s depending on it. [Applause.] This is a country that’s depending on it.
Chase’s restaurant, Dooky Chase, is supporting a fundraiser for The Leah Chase School through the family’s foundation:
Finally, I will close this post with the comments of my friend, education advocate, parent, and community leader, Ashana Bigard (1:33:48), whom I had the honor of interviewing extensively ten years ago, in January 2016, regarding the post-Katrina takeover of New Orleans schools and the blatant omission of the New Orleans community in decisions affecting the future of their schools:
Um, so, struggling with what to say. I feel like I should just record myself and just play it on the Mike because I say the same thing over and over again.
Right now, we sit in a “what should we do” moment, and I’m not going to sit here and ask and plead that you care about the children, because that’s what I’ve been doing for the last 17 years. I’m going to ask that you think about your legacy. That’s what I’m going to ask you to do. Because, we’re looking at a city that has been begging for a traditional school since it became two-thirds charter. We have the scores on the Louisiana Department of Education website, and we know that our charter schools are clearly lying.
We have 45 kids that are being expelled every year for the last seven years, only 45 children, but the Net (online school) just expanded to two other schools? Where are all of these “opportunity youth” (“a term for young people aged 16-24 who are neither working nor enrolled in an educational institution”) coming from?
We have multiple problems with our schools not following state or federal special education laws across the entire city. Most of them don’t know what the laws are, and I know because I advocate inside those schools.
We only have one traditional school that the community begged and fought for, and I know because I was one of those people.
There was just a pledge of a donation for the money to keep the school open. The amendment to put it on record was just shut down. So, we have the money, and, going by the actual budget, we already had the money, so this is about political will. And I want you all to remember the Diddy documentary: Yes, someone may have nice parties and nice things and promise you the world, but at the end of the day, you have a legacy– you have to do right by these children– and also, New Orleans remembers. So, think about that.
Think about that, indeed.
The next meeting regarding the fate of TLC is scheduled for Thursday, January 08, 2026.
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