recent story on New Orleans charter schools

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(http://www.nola.com/search/index.ssf?/base/news-2/1149343501103260.xml?nola) 
Nonprofit eases schools' burdens

Fledgling group aids  new charters in N.O.


Saturday, June 03, 2006By Steve  Ritea

Staff writer 
When Principal Barbara McPhee's New Orleans  Science and Math High School 
chartered late last year, its newly realized  independence created as many 
headaches as it did freedoms.   
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True, McPhee had already run a school that performed well academically, but  
suddenly there was accounting work to be done, teachers to hire and  
transportation to provide -- all things she had relied on New Orleans public  schools' 
central office to take care of during the school's previous life.  

"It was like waking up one morning and finding that you're not just the  
instructional leader, you're also the business person," she said. "It was like,  
'Who's going to mow the lawn?' " 

Lucky for McPhee, help arrived several  months ago in the form of a startup 
group called New Schools for New Orleans.  The group reminded her to apply for 
important grants. It offered training to her  nascent board members, many 
still confused about what a charter board is  supposed to do. And, as more 
charters prepare to open this fall, the group will  help those schools find qualified 
teachers and coordinate cafeteria,  transportation and accounting services -- 
and that's just the beginning.  

"Being the first generation of charters after this hurricane made it  
especially difficult," McPhee said. "I think the next generation just now  getting 
their charters are going to find it much easier, in large part because  of New 
Schools for New Orleans." 

With half a dozen employees working out  of donated office space, the 
fledgling organization was conceived early this  year during a meeting of local 
charter school leaders who were trying to figure  out how to support so many newly 
chartered campuses. The group included Green  Charter School director Tony 
Recasner and Sarah Usdin, then a partner in the New  Teacher Project, a national 
nonprofit teacher training and recruiting  organization. Usdin ultimately 
volunteered to take on the project. 

The  group immediately found intense interest in its services. 

Katrina had  unleashed chaos upon the city's public school system. Widespread 
destruction and  a state takeover of most district campuses led to thousands 
of firings in the  system. The Orleans Parish School Board, which had voted to 
charter all but four  of the schools that remained in its care, was left with 
a tiny central office  and a shoestring staff. 

"We realized every school was going to need  services that were no longer 
available because the school system shrunk," said  Recasner, who now serves on 
New Schools' board. 

Today, in the absence of  a central office, New Schools for New Orleans is 
becoming a resource center as  well as a clearinghouse for information that can 
help charter schools connect,  share ideas and resources. 

So far the group has won a $500,000 grant  from the Greater New Orleans 
Foundation and another $50,000 from Capital One  Bank. 



A three-pronged approach 

Usdin said the  organization is focused on helping charter schools in three 
areas: recruiting  teachers, figuring out the business side of running a school 
and training board  members to govern effectively. 

"Research shows many well-intentioned  educators who are now having to run 
multimillion dollar entities are struggling  because that's not their forte," 
she said. "That's not to say they can't do  that, but they're not trained to do 
that." 

Usdin said New Schools for  New Orleans has hired the New Teacher Project to 
help identify teacher  candidates who can be offered up to charters looking 
for staff. So far, they  have about 100 teachers ready to recommend to local 
charter schools -- each of  whom has already undergone a four-hour interview and 
other screenings.  

New Schools also can help local teachers searching for a job, Usdin  said. 

"While there are numerous New Orleans teachers who want to come  back to 
work, there's no central place for them to go," she said. "This is  designed to 
help folks who don't want to go around knocking on a bunch of  different doors." 

The nonprofit also has started helping charters like  Warren Easton High 
School identify contractors to provide insurance and bus  service. Warren Easton 
is planning to reopen this fall. 

"They can run a  little interference for us by at least getting a little 
start-up list of vendors  and providing us with boilerplates for contracts," said 
Arthur Hardy, vice  president of the Easton Charter Foundation. 

Brian Riedlinger, CEO of the  Algiers Charter Schools Association, said 
schools like Easton might pay less for  bus service if they share a contract and 
routes with other charters -- something  New Schools can help coordinate. 

"If Laidlaw is doing transportation,  they don't want 10 different routes for 
10 different schools," he said. "They  would prefer five routes that each 
stop at two or three schools . . . it really  ends up being a cost-benefit 
decision." 

New Schools for New Orleans is  also helping train charter school board 
members. Last month, the group brought  in a consultant from the National Alliance 
for Public Charter Schools and  trained 37 members of local charter school 
boards, including several from Easton  as well as the Science and Math school. 

"The main reasons charters fail  are because of financial problems or board 
mismanagement," Usdin said.  

Demand for services 

Despite their ambitious agenda, Usdin and  Recasner bristle at the idea that 
they are serving as a de facto central office,  and say their intent is not to 
take any control away from charter schools but to  give them resources they 
need to better run those schools themselves.  

While it's likely that schools chartered by the Orleans Parish School  Board 
will rely most heavily on New Schools for New Orleans, officials from the  
state say they're talking intently with the group as they gear up to open more  
than 30 schools in the fall. Although many of those schools will be chartered,  
they'll have the benefit of a large state agency to help them with a variety 
of  functions. 

Riedlinger said the Algiers Charter Schools Association is  talking to New 
Schools as well, although Algiers already has a central office  coordinating 
transportation, cafeteria services and the like. Still, if they're  able to 
provide services more efficiently through New Schools, he said, they  just might. 

Although New Schools is very much in start-up mode -- Usdin  said they're 
still working on a long-range plan -- there has been a huge demand  for its 
services, especially with up to 22,000 more public school students  expected to 
return to the city this fall. 

About 12,000 students now  either attend or recently finished the school year 
at 25 public schools in New  Orleans. 

McPhee said New Schools' work will help her and her staff focus  more on 
education in ways they were never able to under the previous New Orleans  public 
school system. 

"They're just a very well-organized, highly  professional -- dare I say it -- 
central office," she said. 

. . . . . .  . 

Steve Ritea can be reached at sritea@timespicayune.com or (504)  826-3396.