225BatonRouge.com

Although there is a chance the state will administer Prescott Middle and the other schools it takes over, the state’s top school official is counting on outside help.

State Superintendent Paul Pastorek has requested proposals from charter schools to run the daily operations of the schools under the state’s care. Charter schools are independent, privately run organizations free to employ innovative teaching methods, and they’re not hampered by red tape the way other publicly funded schools are.

“It’s a high-risk strategy,” Pastorek concedes.

Because of their students’ low test scores, the principals at Prescott Middle, Glen Oaks Middle, Capitol Pre-College Academy for Boys and Capitol Pre-College Academy for Girls will be removed from office July 1. At that point Pastorek and the state Department of Education will take over from the East Baton Rouge Parish School Board to oversee their operations.

The schools will be placed, along with Pointe Coupee Central High School, into the Recovery School District Louisiana, a catchall district for poor-performing schools. There are nearly 100 schools under state supervision in RSD New Orleans.

A national firm will review proposals from charter schools interested in running the Baton Rouge schools. Pastorek will analyze the firm’s findings and make official recommendations to the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education. It is BESE that will have the final vote on which charter school, or schools, will get the contracts to operate the RSD schools.

Paul Pastorek, the state’s education chief, hopes to get some help with the state takeover of four Baton Rouge schools.

Ideally, Pastorek says he’d like to contract with one large charter school that has the capacity to run all four of the East Baton Rouge schools, but he remains open to multiple organizations signing up. Once these charter schools are selected and contracted for a five-year term, operating the schools will be largely up to them. Pastorek says his agency will not micromanage the achievement of incremental goals.

The nation’s charter school movement dates to the late 1980s, when independent operators began stepping in to take over certain struggling inner-city schools. Some high-profile successes helped the charter movement gain momentum, and today there are more than 3,000 charter schools operating nationally, according to the National Education Association.

“There is no surefire recipe for success,” says Kenneth Campbell, director of Charter Schools for the Louisiana Department of Education. “If we had one we wouldn’t have any failing schools. We’ve seen that incremental change has not been a successful method of reform in the past. We need bold changes across the board from curriculum to day-to-day operations. Charter schools are playing a very important role in breathing life back into our failing schools, and they will continue to play an important role as we look to the future.”

Charter school critics insist many simply fail to produce better results and don’t uphold their end of the bargain for their autonomy.

Public opinion may differ on charter schools, but the business community continues to press state officials to take drastic measures now to fix Baton Rouge’s failing schools.

“It’s way past the time for this,” says Brigitte Nieland, director of the Education Council for Louisiana Association of Business and Industry. “It’s not blaming the local people who work to improve the schools, but the schools have been given additional resources and for whatever reason it hasn’t worked. When something doesn’t work, you try something new.”

Nieland is also a board member of the Louisiana Charter School Association. She hopes the Legislature will pass a new bill allowing the BESE board to decide if a Recovery School District charter school should revert to the parish system instead of automatically returning after five years, an aspect she says discourages charter schools from signing on.

Though the current principals will be relieved of duty July 1, they are eligible to reapply like any other candidate for the job. Pastorek says it’s not impossible for at least one of these to be rehired, though the department has recently developed its own “bull pen” of potential principals.

And if no charter schools qualify for the job?

The department’s bull pen will step in for one academic year before another call for charter school proposals is sent out next spring.

Either way, Pastorek acknowledges his agency’s task is daunting. Taking over the Baton Rouge schools “increases my workload by a factor of one, but it feels like a factor of 10,” he says. “It’s like doing three jobs: leading the state and dealing with the Legislature, the RSD New Orleans and RSD Louisiana.”

Whatever happens to the Baton Rouge schools in Pastorek’s care may loom large not only for students and faculty, but for his future as well. Last month the state’s Joint Legislative Budget Committee flinched at Pastorek’s proposed $355,000 compensation package. As of press time, BESE was trying to develop performance standards to be included in his employment contract.

“I’ve been working on this problem every day,” Pastorek says, “and I really don’t want to fail.”