“Don’t fault the children. When you close the school down, you’re not punishing anybody except for [the] children, and they don’t deserve to be punished just because they did not get what they were supposed to get.” – A Douglass High School Community Member
Most of my research focused on Frederick Douglass High School in New Orleans as it was subject to closure by the RSD and later the Knowledge is Power Program, a CMO.
Frederick Douglass High School was one of the lowest-ranked public high schools in New Orleans before Katrina hit (Dixson, 2015, p. 290). Low test scores and graduation rates, high levels of absence and fights between students plagued the school (Buras, 2015, p. 146). After a closer look at Douglass’s history, it’s clear that Douglass’s shortcomings are the results of years of state neglect and abandonment (Buras, 2015, p. 146).
During the 1960s, a time of white-flight fueled by desegregation– which moved white-students from the public school system into the private school systems– was the start of Douglass’s bedeviled lack of funding (Buras, 2015, p. 147).
By the 1990s, around the time that Nicholls was renamed Frederick Douglass High School, Douglass was in poor condition (Buras, 2015, p. 148). The school didn’t have the financial means to supply the bathrooms with toilet paper nor trash cans (Buras, 2015, p. 148). The financial strain went beyond the material resources or lack thereof of the school; it created deeper rooted issues including consistent leadership turnover (Buras, 2015, p. 148). New Orleans Journalist, Sarah Carr links the lack of funding to the poor performance of the school by explaining, without proper resources and leadership, a school is bound to fail– not at the fault of the community but at the fault of the state (Buras 2015, p. 146). However, shortly after Hurricane Katrina, Frederick Douglass High School was handed over to the RSD. RSD officials including Superintendent, Paul Vallas, and the Facility Master Planners who would utilize the cumulative years of neglect and decay of Douglass to their advantage in order to justify its closure (Buras, 2015, p. 147).
In April 2008, news circulated regarding the possible closure of Douglass High School (Dixson 2015, p. 291). The surrounding community was off-put when an announcement about the happenings of the elementary and high schools made by Paul Vallas didn’t even mention Douglas (Dixson 2015, p. 291). At a meeting regarding the future of Douglass High School, Vallas attempted to reassure the community members that the future of Douglass was in the making with the development of the School Facilities Master Plan which would be open to recommendations from community members “regarding which schools would remain open, be renovated, or be closed, in June (Dixson 2015, p. 291). However, a full three months before the School Facilities Master Plan was reported and open to suggestions, the state-superintendent of education, Paul Pastorek, announced that Douglass would, in fact, be closed and repurposed (Dixson 2015, p. 291).
Douglass was turned over to the CMO, Knowledge is Power Program, after the 2010 school year (Dixson 2015, p. 291).