St James parish is proudly displaying that the Science and Math Academy is part of both Lutcher and St James High Schools

St James parish is proudly displaying that the Science and Math Academy is part of both Lutcher and St James High Schools.  That’s very generous of them, especially considering they are about 20+ miles apart on opposite sides of the Mississippi. Here is the address of their shared non-school.3125 Valcour Aime Street  = Science and Math Academy

http://stjames.sma.schoolfusion.us/?sessionid=70ab494e5cde718cbc26f8ab33b78ce8&t

 

This is not a school. That would mean it would need a sitecode and its own accountability score. It is actually St James High and Lutcher High.

 

But don’t just take my word for it, this information is freely available, in scrolling banner form, from their own website.

 

 

So where are Lutcher and St James High do you ask?

 

1581 Wildcat Street, St James, LA = St James High

Only around 7- 8 miles away for this one

And this is what St James High looks like.

It’s seen better days, at least from this perspective. Lots os outdoor activities and space though.

 

And where is Lutcher High do you ask?  This one is my favorite to-date.

1910 West Main Street, Lutcher

St James Math and Science and Lutcher High School – 15 miles and 30 mins away across the Mississippi river.

And here is a closer look at Lutcher High school.

Quite a commute to class, there.

That seems like an interesting situation to look into since that site doesn’t exist on its own.

 

But does exist on their website.

 

But you know what else I found interesting?  The Career and Technology Center is not listed, but from the website appears to have its own set of students.  And Romeville elementary has disappeared for this year.  St James still has the old website for Romeville  hanging around, but not directly navigable to, and it has a mention of a meeting to discuss the closing of the school and nothing posted for this school year.  I guess we know how that meeting turned out.

http://stjames.res.schoolfusion.us/

This is what “accountability” has done to our state.  Closing of community schools rather than let the state take them over and put horribly disorganized charter operators/profiteers, or hiding of new school buildings so as the spread the scores around.  From what I’ve seen of the these voucher and charter school operators, and the lack of transparency and accountability for those folks, I can’t say I blame them.

My understanding is LDOE knows full well about the existence of these schools (who do you think tipped me off in the first place?) but they are allowing some parishes to do this, and others like Jefferson, EBR and Caddo are being told no.  Those are bigger markets, with more money for charter operators, so I can see why those would be bigger prizes.  LDOE is keeping all the smaller districts quiet by tacitly allowing these schools to operate and avoid most of the sanctions for accountability that then plan to impose on larger districts.  I wish the smaller districts would simply join forces with the larger ones and tell LDOE to shove it, and to tell their local legislators to get some balls and tell Jindal to shove it too.

You smaller guys may have evaded the sanctions for now, but believe me, the time will come when John White and LDOE will yank that rug out from under you, and discredit you in the process.  It would be better to stand united and face them now, than to allow them to divide and conquer you one by one.  Feel free to use my posts as proof that LDOE knows full well what you are doing and is allowing you to do so, in exchange for your silence and cooperation.  Just make sure you do everything they say, as quickly as you can, and never step out of line – or they will punish you.  You’ll be able to live like this for a few more years – perhaps.  When the charters run out of targets and fuel in the cities, rest assured they will come for you, your children and your tax dollars.  But by then, it will be too late to speak up.