Copyright Baton Rouge Advocate
Two charter school operators — one from New Orleans, the other from Colorado — struck a deal in January to take over control of two large, F-rated charter schools in Baton Rouge that Texas-based IDEA Public Schools surrendered a year ahead of the end of their contract. The new operators, Audubon Schools and Third Future Schools, though, are not planning to stick with the East Baton Rouge Parish school system when those agreements end in June. Instead, they are trying to jump ship and sign on with a new overseer: the Louisiana Board of Elementary and Secondary Education, or BESE. BESE is planning to consider on Dec. 9 whether to approve the applications of Audubon and Third Future. Charter schools are public schools run privately via charters, or contracts. As a general rule, Louisiana charter schools can’t start operating without first applying for a charter with the local school board, in this case, the East Baton Rouge Parish School Board. Last year, however, the Legislature added an exception. A charter organization can now bypass the local school board and apply directly to BESE if they enlist a “corporate partner.” That is just what Audubon Schools, based in New Orleans, and Third Future Schools, based in Colorado, have done. They are the first charter applicants to take advantage of the new law. And both are turning to the same corporate partner: New Schools for Baton Rouge. New schools, new money Formed in 2011, New Schools for Baton Rouge is a nonprofit corporation that is well known in local education circles as an incubator for new charter schools in the Capital City. The nonprofit recruits, provides financial support, buys real estate and, via an affiliated construction firm, builds facilities for charter schools. It counts 23 of the 30 charter schools currently operating in East Baton Rouge Parish as part of its “portfolio.” It also has a handful of schools it has supported that later closed, including both IDEA schools. New Schools has now added “corporate sponsor” to its roster of services. As part of that commitment, the nonprofit has agreed to give Audubon and Third Future millions of dollars each to help them gain greater control of the school facilities they took over from IDEA. Corporate partners can demand up to 50% of the seats of the schools they support. Two other charter schools in Baton Rouge already have corporate partners. In Audubon’s case, New Schools has given it $5 million to pay for a “purchase and lease arrangement” with a Maryland-based nonprofit charter school facility company called 22Beacon. On Sept. 26, 22Beacon bought the 7800 Innovation Park Drive school, formerly IDEA Innovation, for $12.5 million. And then it immediately entered into a 15-year lease with Audubon Schools. In Third Future’s case, New Schools granted Third Future $5.6 million in July so that a company affiliated with the charter, BR Bridge School Properties, can “purchase and lease” the 1500 North Airway Drive campus, formerly IDEA Bridge Academy. No sale or lease of that property, however, has been entered as yet into East Baton Rouge Parish property records. New Schools comes to the table with a big balance sheet. During the 2023-24 fiscal year, the organization reported to the IRS that it had raised $6.5 million and spent $14.1 million, with $12.2 million in money and assets left over. The most money it has raised in a year was $19.2 million in 2022-23. Pitch to the state Audubon’s school, now named Audubon Baton Rouge, serves about 215 students in kindergarten to fifth grade. It is the charter network’s third school and first outside of New Orleans. Third Future’s latest school, now named Bridge Academy, educates about 550 students in kindergarten to eighth grade. It is Third Future’s second school in Baton Rouge — it opened Prescott Academy in 2023 — and fourth in Louisiana. In addition to applications for Audubon and Third Future, BESE on Dec. 9 is set to consider an appeal brought by Indiana-based GEO Academies. In January, at the insistence of GEO officials, the East Baton Rouge Parish School Board rejected GEO’s proposal to open two schools in north Baton Rouge. All four applicants gave short presentations on their school plans to BESE on Oct. 14. Audubon Schools, starting with its original school in New Orleans, which opened in 1981, is known for its focus on Montessori and French language immersion. Its second New Orleans school, which opened in 2018 in Gentilly, offers its own mix of Montessori and French as well as a strong focus on the arts. Its new Baton Rouge school is modeled on the Gentilly school. “We believe that every child deserves to have an experience in the arts and that gaining confidence through the arts also translates to academic courage in the classroom,” Steve Corbett, CEO of Audubon Schools, told BESE. Third Future Schools specializes in school turnaround, with a longer school year and teachers paid well above the prevailing wage of wherever they locate who “maintain an intense focus on high quality instruction.” The future in the school’s name is not the future that will happen, or a future you can envision, but a third future, one “you can actually create and implement,” explained Shirley Miles, chief of schools for Third Future. Miles said the school is designed to build specific “competencies” that its children will need to thrive in the future, specifically 2035. “Our goal is really to prepare children for the Year 2035,” Miles said.
