MARRERO, La. — Parents, community members and teachers are asking questions about the future of the Jefferson Parish school district, after a recent drop in enrollment.
The Jefferson Parish school district is the biggest in the state, the parish itself is one of the wealthiest, but parents across the district are concerned their child's school may no longer exist.
One parent saying, “If we went back to neighborhood schools, then kids would be allowed to go back to schools nearest to them."
Others say there’s simply too many charter schools.
One said, “I left Orleans because I had to bounce around from school to school because of closures, because of funding cuts.”
Another said, “You see these Charter schools, and it is nice, but they don’t know our culture, so they don’t know our children, so they treat them any kind of way.”
Declining student enrollments has been felt across the district’s 81 schools. According to district numbers, student enrollment across the parish increased every academic year from 2012 to 2019, with enrollment hitting more than 50,000 students.
Enrollment then dropped after the pandemic started in 2020 and then over the next two years.
All this means some schools could close, school buildings get restructured, or resources get shifted around.
Grand Isle Mayor, David Camardelle travelled all the way to John Ehert High School Wednesday. He says fears are growing in his community that one day there could be no schools.
“There’s a good possibility, well that might be great over here there are schools every other mile over here, but the nearest school for me is about 45 miles,” Mayor Camardelle said.
The mayor added: “When you are playing with schools and kids and you’re so far away but it’s ok to collect the money dollars, the tax dollars.”
No solutions are being presented at these town halls.
Input from the public and all recommendations will be presented to the school board later this month.
You can find a list of town hall meeting dates here.