Six public schools under construction in Baton Rouge, La., are set to open in August in time for the start of the 2018-19 school year.
The Baton Rouge Advocate reports that four of the new campuses are charter schools and two are part of the East Baton Rouge Parish school system: Broadmoor Elementary and the EBR Career and Technical Education Center.
Both are set to be ready for faculty and students in early August — the first day of school is Aug. 9.
Superintendent Warren Drake says he expects people will be impressed by Broadmoor.
“They are just going to be blown away when those kids get in school,” he said. “It’s a massive structure. It gets everyone back off the street, including the bus traffic and the car riders.”
The career center, which goes by the acronym EBR CTEC, has a more industrial look, with large work bays, exposed wiring and utilities, and fewer traditional classrooms.
Drake says the facility is designed to be flexible and change as the local workforce demands change. And it can grow as well.
“We built it so you could expand … just add those bays right on down the road,” Drake says.
Broadmoor Elementary's former school facility was a one-story neighborhood school before it was torn down. The school's 500 students have spent the past two years at the former Valley Park Junior High.
Broadmoor's new campus will be big enough for 700 students.
EBR CTEC is a $17 million facility behind Baton Rouge Community College’s automotive training center. It will offer teenagers the chance to take specialized career and skilled trade courses while still in high school, starting in four areas: computer science, medical fields, skilled crafts and manufacturing.
The other four new public schools in Baton Rouge are charter schools.
- BASIS Baton Rouge is a 40,000 square-foot school will start with about 350 students in five grades.
- IDEA Bridge is a 75,000-square-foot 528-student facility, one of two being opened this year by IDEA Public Schools.
- IDEA Innovation is 73,000-square foot facility; in its first year, IDEA Innovation is serving about 450 students in four grades.
- UP Elementary is a 40,000-square-foot facility that will have room for about 600 students. It just finished its fourth school year with 276 students enrolled in grades K-3.
Both BASIS and IDEA have Type 1 charters from the East Baton Rouge Parish school system, meaning they can draw students only from within the boundaries of the parish school system.
UP is independent of the school system, with a Type 2 charter from the state that allows it draw from anywhere in Louisiana.
