Crestworth campus reopens

After spending more than two months at another middle school campus, Crestworth Middle School students will return to a much-improved campus at 10650 Avenue F on Monday.

The state-run Recovery School District assumed control of the middle school on July 1 and concluded later that month that it was in need of significant repairs that could not be completed in time for the first day of school. RSD officials also said they inherited thousands off dollars in unpaid bills left behind by the former charter school’s board of directors.

Crestworth’s 166 students, down from 373 last year, have spent the 2012-13 school year as far 4½ miles away at Glen Oaks Middle School.

“We are eager to begin receiving students again as we recognize the desire of the parents, students and the community to reconnect and commence with school activities in the Crestworth building,” Recovery School District Superintendent Patrick Dobard, said in a news release Monday. “We are confident that the work that has been done was necessary and will reduce the risk of hazards to children and lead to a high quality educational experience for all students.”

A fire inspection of the school on July 6 uncovered major problems with the middle school, which had been run for three years previously by a charter school group affiliated with Mt. Pilgrim Baptist church. These included broken exit doors that were chain-linked shut and a combination fire-and-smoke alarm system in disrepair

State Fire Marshal Butch Browning said Friday the problems have been fixed and the school passed its latest fire code inspection.

In addition to fixing code violations, RSD has installed 40 new computers. Other improvements include repainting the school, installing new carpet, improved school furniture and and a new resource room for parent, the news release states.

State Rep. Dalton Honoré, D-Baton Rouge, who lives across Avenue F from the middle school, said in an interview Friday that he learned of the move back on Oct. 8 in a phone call from an RSD official. He said workers have been busy for days trying to finish up the improvements.

“It’s looking better than it’s looked in a long time,” Honoré said.

Parents of students at the middle school learned about the return to Crestworth Middle in letters mailed out Wednesday and through automated phone messages sent out the same day, said Justin Blanchard, external affairs coordinator with RSD.

On the morning of Oct. 27, the RSD has scheduled a “Crestworth Beautification Day: Welcome Back” event and is inviting staff, parents, and community members to join in. For more information, contact at Veronica Sizer at [e-mail] or [phone].

Comments

1) Comment by Noel Hammatt - 16/10/2012

Still waiting for a local group to hold open and honest conversations about the truth. Just some basic truths, for example: 1) The state "accountability system" is totally and irreparable proven to be a total lie. Failing schools? No evidence that letter grades have ANY relationship to the quality of teaching in a school. 2) The charter schools are failing (on measures used by the state to condemn regular public schools), en masse across the state, and NO ONE IS TELLING YOU THE TRUTH ABOUT THEM, but instead we are fed a steady diet of lies about them. Why hasn't anyone told you the truth about Avoyelles Charter... or Delhi Charter? And the stories of many, many others need to be told. The investigation begun over a year ago at Kenilworth? Why hasn't it ever ended, and why is no one talking about it? Why were the "reformers" so bent on the Blitzkrieg" of reforms they pushed through late into the night in the legislature, while attacking teachers who were told at the last minute they had NO TIME to get the truth out about the measures. Why the rush? Mainly? Because lies does hold up well under the scrutiny of transparency. Why do you need lots of "communicators" telling your story. Because it is the story, not the truth. Come on community, let's have some real and open conversation! I'll be there, and so will many others! And I'll back up everything I have argued in these comments. If only the state and the reformers COULD back up anything!

2) Comment by Noel Hammatt - 16/10/2012

Looks like the illustrious (or at least, well illustrated by the "spin" of the high paid "spinners" from the State Department of Education) Recovery School District schools are again showing us just what a mistake the state has made. Empty and half empty schools stand as monuments to the folly of the ideologically driven "school reform" crowd, and leave our local EBR schools overcrowded and hurting for space. What will it take for the citizens of Baton Rouge to wake up and recognize that their schools, paid for out of their hard-earned tax dollars, are being taken over by a state agency (The RSD) with absolutely no accountability) to the taxpayers at all. Insulated by lies and "spin" from highly paid publicists at the Department of Education, BESE, and the lucrative list of local actors vying for money and power, the ones labeled by others as the ABC crowd of profit makers... APEL, ALEC, BRAF, BRAC, and the infamous CABL, always a ready mouthpiece for reforms touted by the Cabal of profit minders at LABI. All on this list are smiling all the way to the bank! Meanwhile, our schools sit empty or nearly so, while the majority of EBR students sit in overcrowded classrooms in order to please the power-makers in this town. Shame on them. Oh, and if you believe that the "Letter Grades" actually say something about the quality of the schools? Well, they are about as accurate a measure as the VAM... that is to say, they are a joke. The DO, however, tell you a lot about the percentage of students in the school living at or near the poverty line. But quality of teaching. Nope, that is not even considered in the "Letter Grades."