The opening of a new St. Tammany Parish public school for the 2009-10 school year has some St. Tammany parents upset.
The new school is being built off Highway 1088, just a few miles from Fontainebleau High School.
St. Tammany school leaders promise it'll be state-of-the-art, and that everything, including the athletic facilities, will be first rate.
But many parents have concerns.While many say they are excited about a new school and the fact that it may alleviate some overcrowding at Fontainbleau High, they are concerned that zoning for the new building will cause their children to have to move.
Fontainebleau, which just opened in 1994, is Louisiana's second largest high school.
Superintendent Gayle Sloan says, she'd like Fontainebleau to have around 1,500 or 1,600 students, like Slidell High and Mandeville High. Instead, Fontainebleau has more than 2,200 hundred students.
Still, many parents like Sandy Kohls, love it, "I love the school.I love the administration.You just didn't notice the size of the school because they made it work.Everything worked."
Parents not wanting to move their kids to a new school is a problem, Sloan says, she's seen before.
"We had exactly the same situation with Fontainebleau High School. Then, the students came there from Covington High School and Mandeville High School. Nobody wanted to go to the new school. And now, here we are, 14 years later, and nobody wants to leave Fontainebleau High School."
Many parents are concerned, that the new high school will be inferior to Fontainebleau. Their evidence, they say, is that Fontainebleau Junior High outperforms Monteleone Junior High, a school expected to provide many of the students for the new school. Kohls says, "Fontainebleau Junior, even with the test scores that came out, they proved that, at least test score-wise, yes, they're a stronger school."
Sloan says, that is true, but only by a small amount, and she expects in the larger high schools, that will even out. She says, she understands parents concerns, "But we know, once the decision is made, because of the kind of involved parents we have, and the community we have, people will get behind this new high school, and help to make it just as great as all the others."
Kohls says, she just wants the new school to live up to Fontainebleau's standard, "We'd like both schools to be equal. That's what we're requesting. And that's all we want, we want both schools to be as equal as can be."
Sloan says, she's been through this kind of a zoning fight before, and says, she's confident parents will eventually be happy, "I know this school is going to be a success. And I know that down the road, we're going to have parents telling us, yeah, you were right."
