- Details
- Category: Press Releases
The requirement will start Friday, July 23. This will not affect the start of the new school year.
(New Orleans – Jul 21, 2021) — Today, Mayor LaToya Cantrell and city health officials issued an indoor mask advisory in response to a spike in COVID-19 cases, due to the Delta variant. As a result, NOLA Public Schools (NOLA-PS) will require masks be worn inside all school buildings, regardless of an individual's vaccination status, starting Friday, July 23.
This requirement is designed to protect our youngest students who are the most vulnerable and not yet able to get the vaccine. The indoor mask requirement will stay in place until the city’s health data improves and after further consultation with our local health care leaders and NOLA-PS Medical Advisors.
The full return to in-person learning for our students will remain in effect. As stated by the CDC and the American Academy of Pediatrics, in-person learning is necessary to provide the best quality education to students, and we will strive to preserve it throughout the 2021-2022 school year with heightened safety and health protocols as we continue to navigate the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We trust the recommendations of our health officials, and this requirement will not affect the start of in-person learning for the 2021-2022 school year. We are looking forward to a great school year where our children will, once again, be able to learn alongside their teachers and peers,” said Superintendent Dr. Henderson Lewis, Jr. “Ultimately, we are in this together and we believe by working together - we are stronger together.”
NOLA-PS continues to encourage all eligible students 12 years and older and all school-based staff to continue to get vaccinated against COVID-19 before the start of the school year. Federal, state, and local health officials have consistently expressed that vaccination is the best protection against this virus and the best strategy to end this pandemic.
The health of NOLA Public Schools’ students, teachers, and staff remains our top priority, and the indoor mask requirement will help protect our school community. According to the New Orleans City Health Department, the number of new cases of COVID-19 is 9 times higher than it was 2 weeks ago, and all other data trends have increased on a similar trajectory.
“We need to lower these numbers,” said NOLA-PS Medical Advisor Dr. Ryan H. Pasternak. “After a year of monitoring data, we know the virus does not typically spread inside our schools when masked during educational activities. Therefore, out of an abundance of caution, and following recommendations from the American Academy of Pediatrics to mitigate the spread of the Delta variant, we are requiring everyone inside of a school facility to wear a mask, regardless of vaccination status.”
The NOLA-PS COVID-19 Guidance will be updated online by Friday, July 23. All other guidelines found there remain in place.
The guidance outlines our plans to continue to protect our students, teachers, and staff from COVID-19 and its variants. As the pandemic continues to evolve, NOLA Public Schools will continue to coordinate with our local health care and government leaders to monitor and track our city’s COVID-19 data to ensure we make the most informed decisions for the wellbeing of our students and school staff.
###
- Details
- Category: Press Releases
(New Orleans – July 1, 2021) — NOLA Public Schools (NOLA-PS) continues to offer families placement in available seats through a virtual enrollment process, which is open now. Families looking for a new seat in a public school are invited to participate via https://enrollnola.org/oneline.
Summer Enrollment Forms* submitted on or before Sunday, July 11th (extended from July 5th) will be entered into an abbreviated lottery. Families who submitted their forms in this window are expected to be served on or before July 16th.
From July 11 through Sept. 30, the process will continue and we will serve families in the order their forms are received.
*Summer Enrollment allows families to receive direct placements in available public school seats.
For assistance using our virtual resources, please email oneapp@nolapublicschools.com or, if email is not an option, call 1-877-343-4773 to leave a message. Visit our website for updated information on physical locations for technical support.
Summer Enrollment Forms can be completed on a desktop, on a laptop, or on mobile devices. Public libraries have limited computers available for use (distancing protocols are in place).
###
- Details
- Category: Press Releases
(New Orleans – February 23, 2021) – NOLA Public Schools (NOLA-PS) and LCMC Children’s Hospital of New Orleans (CHNOLA) celebrated another milestone today in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic as public school teachers and support staff who work on-site at K-12 schools received their first round of vaccines.
“We are excited our educators have been prioritized to receive the vaccine because of their important work with our school children,” said NOLA-PS Superintendent Dr. Henderson Lewis, Jr. said “We hope every teacher and support staff who works on-site at one of our schools will take advantage of their place in the current vaccine roll-out. The vaccine is vitally important to help protect them, their students, and their families.”
“As we continue to roll-out the vaccine to our front line workers, such as teachers and staff, and vulnerable populations, it’s a hopeful sign that this is truly the beginning of the end of this pandemic,” said Dr. Leron Finger, Chief Quality Officer at Children’s Hospital New Orleans. “We are proud of the partnerships we’ve built to help protect our school communities as we get through this, together.”
During the first week of eligibility, roughly 1,000 school teachers and support staff are expected to receive the COVID-19 vaccine at Children’s Hospital, Uptown. NOLA-PS and CHNOLA are in the process of providing access to educators and staff who expressed interest in receiving the vaccine.
NOLA-PS used a randomized order of school sites to schedule teachers and staff for vaccinations. Teachers and staff interested in the vaccine are encouraged to contact NOLA-PS and respond to our K-12 School Staff Survey to start the registration process.
NOLA-PS will continue to leverage relationships with our healthcare partners, including the Louisiana Department of Health (LDH), CHNOLA, New Orleans East Hospital, and others, to help our schools schedule vaccinations for the newly eligible employees in the District. We will also work closely with our school leaders to keep them fully apprised of the vaccine options available as these efforts continue.
The vaccination process will take time to execute and be limited by local health care partners’ vaccine supply and capacity. We encourage our NOLA-PS families to contact their own health care providers as another method to gain access to vaccinations.
Meanwhile, NOLA-PS will continue to rely on the safety guidelines in its Roadmap to Reopening that have mitigated spread within our schools and allowed us to be one of the few school districts in the country to maintain in-person learning for much of this school year.
For more information about the COVID-19 vaccine, visit www.lcmchealth.org/coronavirus/.
###
ABOUT NOLA PUBLIC SCHOOLS: NOLA Public Schools is the public school district for Orleans Parish, which includes the district’s elected school board, known as the Orleans Parish School Board and the district’s administration led by NOLA Public Schools Superintendent Dr. Henderson Lewis Jr. NOLA Public Schools currently oversees 77 public schools.
- Details
- Category: Press Releases
WHAT:
NOLA Public Schools (NOLA-PS)’ Facility Renaming Committee will meet virtually to deliberate and take a final vote on the school name recommendations it will send to Superintendent Dr. Henderson Lewis, Jr. for his review and approval.
Public comments will be limited to 1 minute per person to maximize public input. Any comment longer than 1 minute should be submitted via email to community@nolapublicschools.com. Public comment can be accessed by using the raised hand feature in the zoom meeting.
WHEN:
Tuesday, May 25 @ 4:00PM CDT
WHERE:
Renaming Initiative Public Meeting
https://zoom.us/j/94266930005
Or One tap mobile: US: +13126266799,,94266930005# or +16465588656,,94266930005#
Or Telephone: Dial (for higher quality, dial a number based on your current location): US: +1 312 626 6799 or +1 646 558 8656 or +1 301 715 8592 or +1 346 248 7799 or
+1 669 900 9128 or +1 253 215 8782
Webinar ID: 942 6693 0005
International numbers available: https://zoom.us/u/azg3kLjFJ
To view the meeting’s agenda, please visit: https://go.boarddocs.com/la/nops/Board.nsf/Public
WHY:
NOLA-PS is committed to renaming school facilities that have been identified as honoring figures from our painful past and is looking to move forward with the next step in the renaming initiative process.
After the Committee’s vote on its renaming suggestions, Superintendent Lewis will review the list of names and make his recommendations to the Orleans Parish School Board (OPSB) for their consideration and final vote of approval over the summer.
Nearly a year ago, NOLA-PS outlined a plan to rename school facilities in response to recent public requests and in accordance with policy approved by the OPSB. The board believes all schools should be welcoming, inclusive, and inspiring places for all students. Our goal is to ensure the names of these physical school facilities and the people that we honor reflect the values of the school district.
As their policy states, the OPSB is fundamentally opposed to retaining names of school facilities named for persons who were slave owners, confederate officials, or segregation supporters.
The OPSB shall have sole authority to name or rename any school facility (i.e., school campuses, individual buildings, athletic fields, stadiums, gymnasiums, libraries, fields, tracks, and multipurpose rooms) private drive, or street it owns. Public input has been a vital part of this process. The full Naming of Facilities policy can be found here.
It’s important to note NOLA-PS has the authority to change the outward facing name on any of its buildings. However, it cannot change the program name designated by a Charter Management Organization (CMO). CMOs are autonomous and are governed by their own boards and leadership. Therefore, for example, the OPSB could change a school building’s physical name to read Nelson Mandela School. But, if the CMO chooses to keep its program name, the school’s official name would be titled as follows: “McDonogh 7 Charter School at the Nelson Mandela building.” The renaming process is being guided by a Renaming Committee. In accordance with OPSB policy, this committee consists of a school board member appointed by the OPSB president; a representative of the NOLA-PS administration; and community members approved by the superintendent.
For more details about the renaming initiative, visit: https://nolapublicschools.com/renaming
###
About NOLA Public Schools:
NOLA Public Schools is the public school district for Orleans Parish. It includes the district’s administration and elected school board, known as the Orleans Parish School Board. NOLA Public Schools currently oversees 77 public schools and is led by Superintendent Dr. Henderson Lewis, Jr.
.
- Details
- Category: Press Releases
(New Orleans - January 4, 2021) -- Due to a very concerning spike in the prevalence of COVID-19 in New Orleans, NOLA Public Schools (NOLA-PS) will return to distance learning District-wide to best protect the health and safety of our students, their families, and our staff and teachers.
School leaders were instructed Monday to move all Pre-K-12 classes to distance learning no later than Thursday, Jan. 7, to give parents, guardians, and families some time to adjust their schedules. NOLA-PS will continue to monitor COVID-19 data and trends and reevaluate this decision no sooner than Jan. 21, in hopes that the local trend in positivity rates and case counts improves.
The City’s data tracking the pandemic showed a significant jump in the rate of positive cases over the past few days, indicating a worsening trend -- one of several metrics NOLA-PS considered in order to make this grave but necessary decision.
As with every decision NOLA-PS has made since the start of the pandemic, this latest decision was driven by data and the advice of our public health experts.
“All along, we have taken a very measured approach as we respond to the shifting circumstances of this pandemic,” NOLA-PS Superintendent Dr. Henderson Lewis, Jr. said. “Citywide data over the past few days has shown a dramatic uptick in positivity rates, and so, based upon the advice of our health advisors, we felt we had to make the very unfortunate but necessary decision to return to distance learning to keep our students, staff, teachers and community safe. We recognize this will be extremely difficult for our families and hope that everyone takes the necessary precautions to reverse the spread of this terrible virus. I want all of us across NOLA Public Schools to stay close and be in constant communication as we tackle this next challenge. We’re one team, and we’ll get through this together.”
We encourage parents and families to contact their schools regarding their campus-specific, distance-learning transition plans. Likewise, NOLA-PS has compiled several online resources for parents to access during distance learning at https://nolapublicschools.com/covid19/parentresources.
While distance learning will resume, schools will continue to offer critical services and support to families as needed, such as school meals. NOLA Public Schools will continue to provide a list of all schools providing community feeding to any student on our website. Families can access this information here. Schools also will be permitted to accommodate instruction for special populations under reduced class sizes, or provide in-person instruction for younger students, Pre-K-5, in smaller groups of no more than 15. Families should contact their schools for site-specific information.
During transition from in-person to distance learning, NOLA-PS has instructed schools to continue enforcing COVID-19 safety protocols – checking temperatures, using hand sanitizer, wearing masks, practicing social distancing – on their grounds.
In-person learning is the ideal education environment for students because it addresses the whole child, academically, socially, and emotionally. Our goal is to safely reopen schools when the COVID-19 trends we’re tracking improve. But for the immediate future, distance learning will be in place out of an abundance of caution.
###
About NOLA Public Schools: NOLA Public Schools is the public school district for Orleans Parish. It includes the district’s administration and elected school board, known as the Orleans Parish School Board. NOLA Public Schools currently oversees 76 public schools and is led by Superintendent Dr. Henderson Lewis, Jr.
Page 9 of 35
