


NSNO connected with Neil Williams, Director of Facilities and Transportation at FirstLine Schools. Neil reflects on attending a FirstLine School years ago and offers a behind-the-scenes look at what keeps great schools running. He wants students to have what they need to learn, and explains that if there is “any facet of the day, that could potentially disrupt like that positive experience? My focus is on getting it fixed.”

The New Orleans Career Center, where New Orleans public school students can earn credentials for high-demand career paths, held a groundbreaking ceremony for the development of a new $26.9 million state-of-the-art facility. The 143,000 square foot building will give the Career Center space to triple its student capacity and provide additional courses.

In New Orleans CityBusiness, we announce our $1.5 million in grants to New Orleans public schools for their summer learning programs. The 72 schools that received grants are educating roughly 30% of our students this summer, and offer both academics and enrichment opportunities.

In June, NSNO launched the Novice Leader Academy (NLA) to provide formal development and support for new, and soon-to-be, New Orleans school leaders. NSNO announced its first class of NLA Fellows, a talented group of leaders, all of whom are Black women and who average over 14 years in education with proven track records of success.

NSNO highlighted the progress we made in 2020 across all of our strategic priorities – Talent, Curriculum, Policy, Portfolio, and Communications – and announced our 2021 goals for each area.

In our NOLA Knowledge: Summer in the City series, we share updates on our schools’ summer learning opportunities. In Week 3, we discussed who is teaching this summer and in Week 4, we looked at how students are engaging in hands-on learning with community partners.

NSNO CEO Patrick Dobard discusses how the past year’s obstacles – the COVID-19 pandemic, the move to remote learning, and a busy hurricane season, among others – have affected student attendance in New Orleans’ schools. He also discusses some of NSNO’s initiatives aimed at helping students return to the classroom and prepare for success in the fall.

After decades in education, Henderson Lewis, Jr. will leave his post as the New Orleans public school superintendent when his contract expires in June of 2022.