Education Guide 2023: Early childhood education, mental health resources for students a top priority in Orleans Parish

Photo caption: Dr. Avis Williams, superintendent of Nola Public Schools, held 30 “ABC Tours” (Dr. Avis Beignets and Conversations) during her first 100 days on the job in order to engage with the community. Photos courtesy NOLA Public Schools.

While it doesn’t directly run any schools, The Orleans Parish School Board is responsible for the enrollment for all publicly-funded charter school seats in Orleans Parish as well as school accountability.

The New Orleans School Board collects and processes the charter school centralized application, the NOLA-PS Common Application Process (NCAP), and, as a charter school authorizer, holds charter schools accountable to a set of performance expectations.

Dr. Avis Williams

Dr. Avis Williams was named superintendent of NOLA Public Schools last year. Under her first 100-days plan, she engaged in more than 30 “ABC Tours” (Dr. Avis Beignets and Conversations) in order to engage with the community and learn about what’s working and what’s not working with the school system from various stakeholders including families, teachers, students and community members.

From the ABC Tour, she developed two Solution Circles made up of stakeholders to address enrollment and school quality. In 2023-2024, information from the working groups will be identified to help address concerns and come up with solutions.

Declining enrollment at charter schools has been a topic of discussion; there are four New Orleans charter schools closing in the 2023-2024 school year, although several schools are adding grades: Hynes UNO will be adding fourth grade (K-4), Delores Taylor Arthur School will add eleventh grade (8-11), Elan Academy will add eighth grade (PK4-8^th) and Audubon Gentilly will add seventh grade (K-7th).

“NOLA Public Schools significantly expanded marketing efforts to recruit early childhood students for the 2023-2024 school year. This included a broad campaign to ensure families were aware of the existing and expanded seats,” said Taslin Alfonzo, director of media relations for New Orleans Public Schools.

Early childhood education is a priority for Williams and she has been working with New Orleans city leadership and the New Orleans Education Network to help publicize and continue to enroll infants from birth to 4 years old in early childhood programs. Efforts have resulted in 5,000 free early childhood learning seats for low income families in Orleans Parish.

Williams also hosted a Hispanic Town Hall in Spanish to learn from families and the community how Nola Public Schools can continue to help Hispanic children succeed in school and remove language barriers.

Creating quality schools in every community–quality being defined as well-rounded schools that educate the whole child, prepare scholars for college or the workforce and define equity for the community–is another focus.

Williams has rolled out CAREs initiative to address mental health and resource sharing.

CAREs, or Community Access to Resources and Equity, is designed to prioritize mental health, literacy, social justice, workforce development and trauma-informed practices.

“Our focus for NOLA CAREs this (2023-2024) school year will seek to marshal mental health resources, literacy, social justice and career development under a single umbrella and create a federation of support services by creating opportunities for resource sharing for schools and families and establishing CARE Ambassadors to help families,” Alfonzo said. “ The program will also encourage our families, educators and staff to engage in (their own) self-care through CARE Fairs.”

Williams adds, “I am excited to celebrate my one-year anniversary with the state of the schools address (in July) where I will recap the previous year as well as share exciting news for what can be expected in our future. We are working on many projects to help scholars, teachers, and staff and will be happy to announce initiatives as they are finalized.”

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