LAPLACE — The St. John School Board held a special meeting Monday night to approve Louisiana Premier Charter School as a Type 1 charter at the LifeHouse campus in Reserve, the former site of Reserve Christian School.

The charter school is progressing toward an August 2020 opening as a Type 1 to operate under the oversight of St. John the Baptist Parish Public Schools.

Charter school organizers recently went before the Louisiana Board of Elementary and Secondary Education (BESE) to request a Type 2 charter. As a Type 2, the charter would have been overseen by BESE.

However, BESE members ultimately voted to deny the Type 2 request after seeing charter officials and St. John School Board members were willing to reach an agreement for a Type 1.

St. John School Board member Debbie Schum believes a charter system with School Board oversight is best for the people of the parish.

“I think that way, it becomes a community school and not one that crosses district lines,” Schum said. “It makes it another school site that is able to serve the people of this parish. It adds to the array of schools that we have to offer.”

Schum said the School Board has no problem supporting Louisiana Premier Charter in the LifeHouse campus location. The back-and-forth struggle that prevented the Charter from opening this school year was due to Louisiana Premier’s prior preference to operate on the Riverside Academy campus.

There are state laws that prevent a private school from converting to a charter school, according to Schum. There were also concerns over private school students having admissions preference.

Many of these issues are resolved under the new proposed site.

Louisiana Premier Charter Board President Andre Watkins said charter officials are “hopeful and optimistic” about working with the St. John School Board toward an August 2020 opening.

Alison Andrews, who will likely lead the Charter School upon its opening, said the charter board “definitely wants to work with the district.”

Louisiana Premier and the School Board must have a contract in place by Feb. 1 to comply with the agreement made this week. This involves proof of the LifeHouse lease and assurance that the Charter will meet all state guidelines.

Louisiana Premier previously denied the LifeHouse location more than a year ago, citing need for extensive repairs. According to discussion at this week’s BESE meeting, operators of the LifeHouse site have since agreed to complete the necessary repairs and renovations.

The St. John STEM site is no longer under consideration for Louisiana Premier Charter’s campus. The School Board was notified on Dec. 2 that Louisiana Premier rejected the STEM campus in favor of the LifeHouse campus.

Louisiana Premier is expected to serve approximately 525 students in kindergarten through eighth grade. The school will later expand to include ninth through twelfth graders.

In other School Board news, Board members were tasked with naming a new interim superintendent at the Dec. 12 regular meeting.

Heidi Trosclair assumed the role of interim superintendent in June. At the time she was appointed, the School Board hoped to have a permanent superintendent in place by the end of the calendar year. However, the superintendent search process has since been extended, and Trosclair will resign from the position on Dec. 20.

Patricia Triche was the first nominee for the new interim superintendent role. She received a vote of five yeas and four nays, with Board member Phillip Johnson absent and Board member Shawn Wallace abstaining.

The Board then voted on second nominee Cory Butler, who received seven yeas and three nays, with Johnson absent.

Butler was congratulated as the new interim superintendent at the meeting, though that decision appeared to be in flux Friday afternoon. According to School Board member Gerald Keller, the Board was seeking the legal opinion of the District Attorney’s Office to determine whether Triche should have been named interim. The distinction comes down to whether Triche required five or six votes to become interim in light of Wallace abstaining.

No further information was available as of press time. L’OBSERVATEUR will continue to follow this story.

The next interim superintendent will guide the School District forward from Dec. 21 through June 30, 2020, or until a permanent superintendent is named.

Board members voted to restart the search process during the Nov. 20 special meeting after Dr. Quentina Timoll resigned as a candidate.