KIPP New Orleans Schools' plan to take up a vote to close Douglass High School at its March 12 board meeting was "decided in executive session," board chair Dominique Willis told Lamplighter this week.
The unannounced item was technically added to the meeting’s agenda in accordance with Louisiana’s Open Meetings Law, Willis maintained. But the discussion to take up the matter later that evening was held during a closed-door session, leaving the public in the dark.
Public meetings attorneys say the KIPP board’s vote to merge Douglass with John F. Kennedy High School skirted state law because it was not on the board’s agenda. Lamplighter asked Willis why the merger was absent.
“It wasn’t originally on there because when we discussed it in executive session we had more information than we thought we would have at that time,” she said in an interview on Tuesday. “It was emphasized that it was truly urgent for us to make this decision timely so we decided that the best time was now.”
The decision to consolidate two of the network’s three high schools comes as the city grapples with enrollment decline. But records obtained by Lamplighter show the KIPP network hired a crisis-communications firm five weeks prior to the closure vote for communications related to “potential change management topics.”
Still, the board agenda published the day prior to the meeting did not include any indication a school consolidation could be considered, let alone voted on.
Even so, a consolidation this late in the year comes after the deadline for families to request a new school. The possible inconvenience of a move across town, adding commute time or prompting changes in childcare, can add additional stressors to families.
Attorney William Most of Most & Associates told Lamplighter last week that boards are allowed to add items to the agenda during a meeting: “But the law is explicit that this power cannot be used ‘as a subterfuge to defeat the purposes’ of the Open Meetings Law.”
NOLA Public Schools officials have openly talked about enrollment decline over the last five years. Because the school system is nearly all-charter, officials have asked charter groups to voluntarily close or consolidate campuses.
“The KIPP board's choice to add a long-known but controversial issue to the agenda mid-meeting raises serious concerns about exactly that kind of subterfuge,” Most said.
Closed Door Sessions
KIPP’s board had an executive session listed on the March 12 agenda — it was described as “Discussion of Legal Matter Affecting Bargaining Power.”
Public bodies are allowed to enter closed door sessions for limited reasons, including receiving legal advice or discussions about personnel matters. On advice of the board attorney, Willis said the board could close its doors for the school consolidation discussion because it was related to “strategic decisions.”
Most, the public meetings law attorney, said the state’s sunshine laws regarding strategic planning are even narrower.
"Under the open meetings law, executive session 'strategy sessions' are limited to collective bargaining and topics related to litigation - neither of which appear to be implicated here," he said.
Yet, according to Willis’ recounting, KIPP’s board discussed the matter in private.
“After executive session we had a unanimous vote to add an agenda item voting on two resolutions — one was to consolidate KIPP Central City Primary and Central City Academy, the other was the merger of JFK and Douglass.”
A Lone Witness
Lorraine Dixon-Williams logged on to watch KIPP’s March 12 meeting from her home in Georgia. The New Orleans native said she was hoping to ask a question about the organization’s governance structure.
In the decentralized school district, charter school boards rarely draw a crowd. With local education decisions spread across the city’s 29-independent charter schools the sheer volume of meetings is overwhelming. When the public is aware school closures are on the table, community members often pack the room. But there was no such notice on KIPP’s bare bones agenda.
“It just so happened I was (attending) that board meeting,” Dixon-Williams told Lamplighter.
KIPP CEO Rhonda Kalifey-Aluise’s report to the board covered schools’ Mardi Gras participation and plans for summer school, Dixon-Williams recounted.
“Nothing on that agenda gave any indication that they were going to vote to merge the schools,” she said.
Last week, after staff and students learned of the closure via social media, the charter group confirmed the board had voted to close Douglass at the March 12 meeting.
But it wasn’t while Dixon-Williams was in attendance, she said. As the board prepared to enter executive session that evening, she asked a KIPP employee who could attend the closed-door discussion and what would happen next.
“She told me that after the executive session that the meeting would conclude,” Dixon-Williams said.
So she logged off.
A Final Vote
On Thursday night, the Orleans Parish School Board will consider KIPP’s resolution to merge Kennedy and Douglass.
NOLA Public Schools Superintendent Fateama Fulmore supports the move.
If approved, Fulmore’s recommendation states the merger will ensure “a clear transition pathway and guaranteed placement for current students while improving operational efficiency and advancing the District’s Five-Year Portfolio Plan.”
District officials are “looking into” the circumstances of KIPP’s vote. But had not issued any compliance notices to the charter group as of Monday. The Orleans Parish School Board is deferring the review to the district.
KIPP’s March vote came two months before the end of the school year and two months after the district’s enrollment lottery deadline, leaving students with little choice but to stay.
Earlier this week, the Orleans Parish School Board’s accountability committee forwarded the merger resolution to the full board, but not without asking that closure decisions be announced earlier in the school year.
At the committee meeting, several board members commended the nine-school charter group’s decision to consolidate two of its high schools amid the city’s enrollment challenges, after upbeat testimony from several Douglass students.
School closures and consolidations aren’t easy decisions, board member Carols Zervigon said. He said it was unfortunate students learned of the decision over social media, but added he was glad to see students taking the decision in stride. He said KIPP leading the consolidation conversation is the way school closure decisions should be made.
“The fact that you all have done this with yourselves, with your community, working with the administration,” he said. “This is really the best practice, the best way it can be done.”
Board member Katie Baudouin said she’s supportive of the decision overall, but questioned KIPP’s timing and the process.
“I would be remiss if I didn’t say that I actually don’t think this was done the best way it could have been done,” she said.
“I commend the KIPP board and leadership for taking such a bold move. However, it is March,” she said, noting the city’s enrollment lottery deadline had passed and families and staff are planning around next school year.
Board members Leila Eames and Gabriela Biro also asked that charter groups announce closures earlier in the school year.
“I want to see more of a long runway when we are making these kinds of decisions,” Biro said.
Board member KaTrina Griffin posed a handful of questions she asked to be answered by Thursday’s meeting.
“Was this action properly noticed and compliant with Open Meetings Law requirement?” Griffin asked. “Were families and communities engaged prior to this decision?”
The committee approved the motion. Board members Griffin and Olin Parker abstained.
The Orleans Parish School Board will consider the resolution at its monthly board meeting Thursday. The meeting begins at 5:30 p.m.
