The East Baton Rouge Parish School Board on Monday, without opposition, approved sweeping changes recommended by Supt. LaMont Cole that will affect 28 Baton Rouge schools, more than 10,000 students and about 1,400 district employees.
Cole's long-in-the-making “realignment†plan, which goes into effect in August for the start of the 2025-26 school year, closes nine schools, relocates four, gives seven new grade configurations and redraws attendance zones for 12. The changes are a long time coming for the school system built for 60,000-plus students but that’s now educating fewer than 40,000.
Here are the nine schools, including three previously announced, that are being closed:
- Bernard Terrace Elementary, 241 Edison St. Its students are being reassigned to The Dufrocq School. EBR Virtual Academy is moving into Bernard Terrace.
- Capitol Middle, 5100 Greenwell Springs Road. Seventh and eighth-graders, about 270 of its 440 students will become part of a Capitol High. Those students and 180 high school students will form a 7-12 school. About 170 sixth-graders are moving to Capitol Elementary. As part of the merger, Capitol High is giving up its historic 1000 N. 23rd Street campus, whose future is to be determined.
- Eva Legard Learning Center, 408 E. Polk St. The 70 students in that specialized environmental education program are relocating to Glasgow Middle and McKinley High. The formerly Polk Elementary campus would become office space.
- J.K. Haynes Teacher Prep and Leadership Academy, 8600 Elm Grove Garden Drive. Its 105 students in January were placed under the management of Ryan Elementary. Ryan, however, is closing so J.K. Haynes students in August will move to Progress Elementary.
- IDEA Bridge, 1500 N. Airway Drive. Pursuant to action taken in January, has been placed under a new charter management group, Third Futures Schools. In August, it shifts from a K-12 to a K-8 school, meaning it can educate at most about 800 of its current students.
- IDEA Innovation, 7800 Innovation Park Drive. Pursuant to action taken in January, has been placed under a new management group, New Orleans-based Audubon Schools. In August, it shifts from a K-12 to a K-5 school, meaning it can educate only about 300 of its current 775 students.
- Ryan Elementary, 10337 Elm Grove Garden Drive. Its 200 students are being reassigned to Progress Elementary. EBR Readiness Middle School is taking over the Ryan campus; the future of EBR Readiness' current home at the former Beechwood Elementary is to be determined.
- Westminster Elementary, 8935 Westminster Drive. Its 200-plus students are being reassigned to Wedgewood and Highland elementary schools. One idea is to turn the Westminster campus into housing for teachers.
- Winbourne Elementary, 4503 Winbourne Ave. Its 290 students are being reassigned to Capitol and Melrose elementary schools. It will become the new home of Belfair Montessori School, which is giving up its campus at 4451 Fairfields Ave.
Here are other notable changes :
- Melrose and Merrydale elementary schools are shifting from traditional elementary schools to grades K-2 schools, becoming “foundational learning centers†with two teacher in every classroom.
- Capitol and Glen Oaks Park elementary schools are shifting from traditional elementary schools to upper grade schools, grades 3-6 in the case of Capitol and grades 3-5 in the case of Glen Oaks Park. Capitol Elementary is adding a specialized medical program aligned with similar programs at Park Elementary and Capitol High.
- Scotlandville Middle, 9147 Elm Grove Garden Drive, will expand from 200 to almost 400 students, taking in middle-school aged students from nearby Crestworth Elementary, 10650 Avenue F. The expansion means that Scotlandville will no longer be a “dedicated,†or schoolwide, magnet program focused on engineering, but will have a mix of magnet and traditional students.
- Crestworth and Progress elementary schools are programs in STEM — science, technology, engineering and math — aligned with similar programs at Scotlandville middle and high schools.
