Ashley Morris: the blog: Lusher School geographic district

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Lusher School geographic district

...or lack thereof.

Quick history lesson: Lusher is supposed to be one of the best schools in the city. Parents love it, the students love it. Historically, Lusher drew about half of their students from a geographic district (gif map here, kml map here), and about half tested in. The racial makeup of the school mirrored the racial makeup of New Orleans.

Enter Katrina and the Federal Flood. Scott Cowen, President of Tulane, rightfully thought that to bring Tulane employees back, they would need the incentive of a good school for their children. So he got Tulane to ~~blackmail~~ donate a vast amount of money to Lusher.

In return, all Tulane employees can send their kids to Lusher, regardless of test scores, race, or where they live.

Problem: now, too many Tulane employees are taking advantage of ~~Cowen's blackmail~~ the Tulane Lusher benefit.

What does this mean? Too few slots, too many kids that want to go there.

What happens now?

The Tulane parents still can get their kids in there, no problem.

The geographic district pays the price. And God help you if you have to test in.

The rules may change, but this year, 7, count 'em, 7 slots are available for grades 1-5. For kindergarten, it isn't as big of a deal since they turn over every year, but once again, too many kids want to go. Tulane kids get in first, period. Then siblings of already enrolled students go, then there is a lottery for the in-district students.

If you're out of district, you're out of luck.

Several parents who live in-district had in the past talked of a class-action suit against Lusher/Tulane/Cowen if the geographic district went away. Suddenly, thanks to Cowen, that house is worth 20% less. I don't know if this will be revived now, but if the geographic district goes away for good, expect the lawyers to get involved.

Once again, as with Newcomb, as with Tulane Engineering, Scott Cowen takes a silk purse and turns it into sows' ears.

04 March 2008 at 11:03 AM | Permalink

Comments

This is wrong on so many levels. If Tulane professors need a school so badly, why not just ante up and create an academy at Tulane? Oh, wait a minute. They have a pirate leader who will just take one for them.

Posted by: saintseester | 04 March 2008 at 04:23 PM

Ash, you may have access to different facts on this than I do, but your post here is not consistent with what I have heard from other parents, and for the all-important Kindergarden entry, the numbers just don't seem to add up.

Last I heard there were three K classes at Lusher...how many 5 year old Tulane affiliates can there be in a given year? Enough to squeeze out ALL of the community slots AND dig into the district slots? That seems kind of hard to believe.

Were you told that your in-district kids had to lottery in to K, or do you get info from some other source? If so, please update your post with a ref as that would be important news to many parents and certainly agitate some to the cause.

Posted by: Will | 04 March 2008 at 04:52 PM

Will, you may have misinterpreted. Here's what I know: for K classes, it's not that big of a deal. For K, it's 1) Tulane children, 2) in district siblings, 3) in district, 4) out of district.

For non-K, it's the same pecking order, but there just aren't any slots. That's where they have to go to a lottery for in-district students, which is new as of this year.

The Cowen crunch occurs not for K students that live in-district, but for students that live in-district and attempt to go to Lusher after they've gone to K somewhere else. That's where there are no slots.

Posted by: ashley | 04 March 2008 at 04:59 PM

BTW, these people living in-district who are having a hard time getting their kids in are people that have recently moved into the district. Long timers, who start their kids there in Kindergarten, do not have this problem.

Posted by: ashley | 04 March 2008 at 08:11 PM

"how many 5 year old Tulane affiliates can there be in a given year?"

It's the largest employer in the city -- used to be largest private employer, but since the city layoffs, it's now the largest employer. I don't know about faculty and upper level staff, but for most staff, TU pay isn't very competitive -- that benefit and the TU tuition waiver are big factors in staff retention. At least, that's the impression I get. So yeah, I'd say there'd could be quite a few.

I believe that the deal between Lusher and TU was finalized on the very day that people were allowed back into my neighborhood and I first heard about it on this blog. Anything that affects magnet schools affects the ability of middle class families to raise their kids in Orleans Parish. It's criminal that such a deal could be finalized while most of the city was still evacuated.

Posted by: bayoustjohndavid | 04 March 2008 at 11:22 PM

I did misinterpret, tho if you look at the post you can perhaps see why...you talk about the in-district lottery right after you say "too many kids want to go" for K.

Above K, I guess I am surprised that there hasn't always been an in-district lottery. I had always heard that there was essentially zero chance of getting in after K for the obvious reason that very few families choose to leave once they are in.

So long as district residents are still guaranteed a spot for K entry, I don't think it's going to affect home prices that much. It's a very small district, and enough demand from families with pre-K kids to keep pressure on the relatively few properties for sale in district in any given year.

It would have been nicer for Tulane to use that lump sum to fund development of a NEW school, rather than sucking up all of the avaialble slots in an existing one, but having recently beat my head against the wall anyone will encounter in trying to create educational opportunities in this city, I can easily believe that just wasn't possible.

Posted by: Will | 05 March 2008 at 01:03 AM

Come on, Will, how could it not be possible given Tulane/Cowen's seemingly limitless financial resources for things not named "engineering" or "Newcomb"?

Like Seester said, he could have created "Tulane Prep", instead, he commandeered Lusher.

Posted by: ashley | 05 March 2008 at 01:08 AM

From my point of view, you all are too worried about the district. I should say, you shouldn't worry exclusively about the district. Now there's just about zero chance of anybody outside of district getting in, even for K, unless he has a parent who works for TU. Unless I'm mistaken, Lusher still gets tax money from the entire city. So do other district schools, as they should. But if my tax money is supporting the school (as a renter I probably pay more than most homeowners, BTW) my neighbor has as mush right to get in out-of-district as my coworker.

Posted by: bayoustjohndavid | 05 March 2008 at 07:06 AM

Ash - as noted above, I believe that would have been a better choice. But in order to build a T.U. elementary, they would have needed to either (a) take over an existing school, or (b) find land to build. Neither is impossible, but it's not trivial.

I was also under the impression that the T.U. cash was critical to opening Lusher High - isn't that the case? If so, Tulane essentially did build "Tulane Prep," they just started at a different grade level.

BSJ David: can you please provide some reference for your claim that "there's just about zero chance of anybody outside of district getting in, even for K?" That is not at all consistent with what I have heard from other parents.

Posted by: Will | 05 March 2008 at 09:17 AM

I was under the same impression about Lusher high. Keep in mind that for the HS, EVERYBODY tests in -- even -- I think -- the Tulane kids.

BTW, this post was written based upon info gleaned THIS WEEK...things were indeed a bit different before; it's becoming more crowded now.

Posted by: ashley | 05 March 2008 at 09:29 AM

I want my home value to go up 20% by being in a great school district!

Posted by: Amy | 05 March 2008 at 09:42 AM

Ash, I know your kids have to be wicked smaht, apply for the scholarship spots at Newman. My Franklin class was made up of a quarter McMain kids, half Lusher kids and most of the rest from Newman, a lot on scholarships. It's nice to have a solid backup plan any way you look at it.

http://www.newmanschool.org/admission/aid/

Posted by: Aaron | 05 March 2008 at 09:46 AM

I haven't talked to any prospective parents since the city lost population. I know that there never were enough slots before the federal flood and I assume that we're planning on the city regaining its pre-flood population. Unless there are plans to greatly increase enrollment, it's a zero sum game. I know both from what I've heard as an employee and from what I've read in the paper that Tulane uses Lusher as a recruiting tool, so you can bank on a large percentage of those employees sending their kids to Lusher. It was unfair for Tulane to arrange that deal while most of were locked out of the city, but it will be equally unfair to try alter the deal in a few years after employees have already planned on it.

If there's a way that guaranteeing slots to Tulane parent and neighborhood parents won't make it just about impossible for anybody else to get when the city regains its population, I don't know what it is.

Posted by: bayoustjohndavid | 05 March 2008 at 10:02 PM

BSJD, I'll take your response to mean "no, I can't provide a reference."

Posted by: Will | 06 March 2008 at 01:08 AM

No I can't. Any reference would be anecdotal, so I could lie. Any survey would be meaningless under the circumstances.

"If there's a way that guaranteeing slots to Tulane parent and neighborhood parents won't make it just about impossible for anybody else to get when the city regains its population, I don't know what it is."

I'll take your nonresponse, to mean, "of course you're right."

Posted by: bayoustjohndavid | 06 March 2008 at 06:40 AM

BTW, I can provide references on pre-flood admissions.

Posted by: bayoustjohndavid | 06 March 2008 at 06:42 AM

BSJD, my non-response means: "The whole Lusher admissions process is notoriously non-transparent and constantly surrounded by rumor and conjecture; it is important for interested families to be able to distinguish facts from comments from those who enjoy propagating inflammatory speculation and conjecture.

Although your earlier comment stated 'Now there's just about zero chance of anybody outside of district getting in, even for K, unless he has a parent who works for TU,' as if it were fact, in reality it is pure conjecture.

I wanted to know if you were providing facts or just theorizing. That type of theorizing is totally appropriate for a blog, but further discussion of your unsubstantiated theories on Lusher admissions isn't something I'm interested in."

Posted by: Will | 06 March 2008 at 10:12 AM

BTW, Will, what you "have heard from other parents" may have been true in the past, but this information update that I posted came from speaking with someone in the Lusher admin office on Tuesday.

Posted by: ashley | 06 March 2008 at 02:04 PM

Ash, I have misunderstood once already so let me make sure I have it right:

The info update from Lusher that you're referring to is the in-district lottery for grades 1 and up?

That's totally in line with everything I have heard, i.e., if you don't get in at K then you are not getting in.

Did you also hear from them that there are no longer community slots for K? That would be very interesting news.

Posted by: Will | 06 March 2008 at 04:23 PM

'BSJD, I'll take your response to mean "no, I can't provide a reference."'

"I wanted to know if you were providing facts or just theorizing. That type of theorizing is totally appropriate for a blog, but further discussion of your unsubstantiated theories on Lusher admissions isn't something I'm interested in."

O.K. Will, I'll admit it, I should have said, "now there will be." But I detect an uncalled tone of condescension over a verb tense, especially as it was in a comment, and comments tend to written hurriedly. Especially from somebody who implicitly acknowledges that all the evidence we have to judge by is anecdotal -- "heard from other parents."

I apologize if I misread your tone and reacted angrily without cause. Beyond that, we are talking apples and oranges. You seem to be talking about what works for parents whose kids are pre-K right now. I'm talking about a policy change that was approved in an appalling manner and its near-certain consequences.

Before Katrina, there weren't enough Kindergarten slots for out-of-district applicants -- that I can document. When I first read about a policy change that was approved on the very same day that people were allowed back into Mid-City , I was mortified. My initial reaction was that the odds of me ever being able to afford to raise a family in New Orleans had just decreased drastically.

Maybe it's an unsubstantiated theory that your not interested in, but a long term decision that affects people throughout the city -- that's why it's called a magnet school -- was made while most of the city was locked out. If getting into Lusher was iffy for out-of-district kids, even getting into K, before the Tulane deal, how it will it not become nearly impossible as the city regains population?

Posted by: bayoustjohndavid | 06 March 2008 at 09:42 PM