Robert Russa Moton Charter School: A Struggle to Success
The Robert Russa Moton Charter School’s charter was approved in April 2006. The first year of operation was the 2006-2007 school year.
Robert Russa Moton Charter School was the only school under the auspices of the Orleans Parish School Board that remained in leased property 10 years after Hurricane Katrina. Every other school had at least one functional campus.
Moton School was listed in the original School Facilities Master Plan
for Orleans Parishas a Phase I project in 2008. The Revised Amendments in 2011 did not list the Moton School but the OPSB Fiscal Year 2011 Capital Budget did include a Moton School reference. It did not list a school named North Kenilworth Elementary School. A formal request for the North Kenilworth building was made by the operators of Moton Charter School. The Moton School community had never been informed of any long-term plans for their school’s future.
- Moton has moved to leased property four times since Hurricane Katrina devastated their state of the art building and in 2015 was relocated to an OPSB property (the old Bethune School site).
- The students have not had a library, internet capabilities in classrooms or a computer lab available to them for the past ten (10) years.
- The facility deficits have taken a toll on the school’s academic performance and ability to expand enrollment.
The following chronology lists the locations of Moton School through the years:
2006 – 2007 St. Leo the Great ( One year lease) St. Leo had planned and
did re-open in 2007)
2007 – 2008 St. James Major ( Shared building with Hynes Charter School but there was not enough space designated to Moton and as a result, its PreKindergarten and Kindergarten students were in the St. James Major School’s old convent across the street; Hynes was the primary tenant))
2008 – 2009 St. Paul the Apostle
2009 – 2010 St. Paul the Apostle
2010 – 2011 St. Paul the Apostle
2011 – 2012 St. Paul/St. James Major (Hynes’ new facility opened)
The relocation was January 30, 2012.
2012 – 2015 St. James Major Catholic School
2015 – 2016 Bethune Elementary School (old site)
These locations had >>>their own problems.
Our charter was approved in April 2006 but in July of 2006 the Orleans Parish School Board had failed to secure a building for the children of RRMCS, Finally after many conversations we were able to locate a building and our school opened on August 29, 2006. Unfortunately, we were unable to implement our Year Round Program the first year because of the late start date.
Another difficulty encountered was the sharing of a building in 2007. This situation caused>>> our Pre-K and K children to be housed across the street from the main building. As a result, these children had to cross>>> the street daily for breakfast, lunch, and other school activities. Through all of this, we never lost our focus.
Another location caused >>> us to be downsized from fifteen physical classrooms to eight classrooms with the promise of three additional modular buildings. We were forced to double up our classrooms and the last of the modular buildings was not available until after the first quarter. At this location, we had only classrooms, no library, no computer lab, no resource rooms, etc.
In 2012, Moton Charter School returned to the St. James Major Catholic School site and the official start-up date was January 30, 2012. During the 2015-2016 school year, MCS was temporarily housed in the old Bethune Elementary School building. We were there until April 4, 2016. We moved to our permanent location and started our >>>>>> at our new building on April 4, 2016.
In summary by the year 2012, RRMCS had been in existence six years and had four different locations. Numerous requests had been made to secure a permanent home where over 98% of our student population qualified for free and reduced lunch. We wanted our students to have access to all the components of a quality education inclusive of a library, a computer lab, science labs, mathematics labs, resource rooms,
internet capabilities, etc. As evidenced by the above, it is >>>>>>>>> that our children have truthfully had a Struggle to Success.