More than a decade after it was taken over by the state, Crestworth Middle School is set to reopen as a neighborhood middle school serving the Scotlandville area.
The East Baton Rouge Parish School Board on Thursday gave preliminary approval to $4 million in renovations to the old middle school, which has sat empty for the past 17 months, so that it’s ready to reopen this coming August.
The board is expected to give final approval to the renovations at its Nov. 19 meeting.
Board member Evelyn Ware-Jackson said she’s been “hounded” through years by Scotlandville residents interested in restoring the 10650 Ave F campus to a neighborhood school.
“So for all those folks in Scotlandville, it’s coming,” Ware-Jackson said.
It won’t be a very big school to start. The plan is to reopen the school with only about 200 students who have for years been sent across town to Park Forest Middle, a 20-minute drive.
Associate Superintendent Ben Necaise said one option to fill out enrollment is to borrow upper grades from nearby Crestworth Elementary School. He also noted that the Scotlandville area has a history of staying closer to home.
“The least amount of students leave Scotlandville to go to any other area,” Necaise said.
Board member Tramelle Howard, who represents the area, said he thinks the reopened school will catch on with locals. He remembers when he attended Crestworth Elementary that he and his fellow students all planned to go on to the middle school. He thinks that will become the case again.
“I think there will be a buzz and interest in the community once this school is rolled out,” he said.
The plan is for bids to go out in March, with the work to occur in the summer. That work includes repairs to the air-conditioning/heating system, renovations to the administration office area, repainting, as well as replacing ceilings, lights, floors and millwork. There will also be new furniture and new desks purchased.
A charter school group is giving up its charter to run a school at the former Crestworth Middle School campus, setting the stage for the poten…
Crestworth Middle last operated as a neighborhood middle school in May 2009. It was then taken over by the state-run Recovery School District and immediately converted to a charter school. Management changed four times over the next 11 years. Celerity Schools, the final operator, converted Crestworth to K-8 school and then converted it back to a middle school.
Enrollment dwindled over time from more than 600 students before it was taken over to only about 100 students. In 2019, Celerity surrendered the school’s charter and RSD agreed to give control of the building back to the parish school system.
The return of the middle school was the fruit of long-running negotiations with RSD leaders to reunite a bunch of Baton Rouge schools with the parish school system. It’s similar to the school reunification process in New Orleans that began in 2016.
The $4 million for renovations was one of many construction projects approved by voters in April 2018 as part of the renewal of a 1-cent sales tax earmarked for education. That vote, however, occurred before Crestworth Middle returned to the control of the school system, and it wasn’t clear until recently that the $4 million would be spent there.
But, after some research, school officials decided it was the best place for a new middle school program in the area.
In other action Thursday, the School Board gave preliminary approval to soliciting proposals from firms that can help to develop a new strategic plan for the school system. It would replace the current strategic plan, which was adopted in 2013.
Revising the strategic plan has been a longtime goal of several School Board members, but has been delayed repeatedly in recent years, starting with the 2016 floods and then again after Warren Drake announced in late 2018 that he would be retiring. His replacement, Leslie Brown, unexpectedly resigned for health reasons in October after two months on the job, prompting a renewed search for a new superintendent that recently got underway.
Interim Superintendent Adam Smith said he plans to talk with the board more at its Nov. 19 meeting about what it wants to see in any requests for proposals.
Board member David Tatman said he would like board members to review a final version of the document before it’s issued.
“We need to watch this closely and make sure that it aligns closely with what we’re trying to do,” Tatman said.
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Crestworth Middle set to reopen in August as neighborhood schools after renovations - The Advocate
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