Lusher Charter School

Advocates for Arts-Based Education Corp.

Celebrating cultural diversity through high academics and the arts.

Friday, February 26, 2016

Dear Lusher Community:
In a vote this past Wednesday, February 24th, a task force created by the Louisiana legislature proposed a
new Orleans Parish only funding formula that could threaten our schools financial stability.
Clearly, we will not sit idle while a task force assigned with a monumental project makes a
recommendation that negatively affects our schools mission and success. We have taken great pride in
providing your child and others from this institution with the best possible education.
Plain and simple, the task force designed to give our students a fair financial playing field proved to be
one-sided and unresponsive to our schools requests. Three of the five task forces meetings were
canceled and much of the discussion occurred in small meetings without the full committee, leaving little
opportunity for our voices to be heard. The temporary 2% annual loss provision included in the formula
being recommended to the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education is so complex that even our
experienced school CFOs cannot verify the accuracy of the formulas projected outcome. Additionally,
the recommendation for BESE approval does not include a source to fund the loss provision leaving
concerns that annual cuts will end up much higher than two percent. Finally, the proposal essentially
defunds the Gifted and Talented programs, putting Lusher Charter School in a difficult financial and legal
position relative to the administration of these programs. Although we have repeatedly asked the task
force to delay any final vote pending clarification on these major issues, our request was ignored.
Until clarification is obtained, we cannot support portions of the task forces recommendation and must
now look to the next steps to protect the funding of the school, our children and their futures. BESE must
either approve or disapprove the formula created by the task force. We urge members to defer any vote
regarding this proposed formula until all of our concerns can be properly addressed.
What can you do? Sign our petition at https://www.change.org/p/louisiana-board-of-elementary-andsecondary-education-tell-bese-to-delay-any-vote-on-the-task-force-s-recommended-funding-formula
asking for BESE to delay any vote on the proposed funding formula. Join us March 3rd at 9:30 AM for
the BESE Administration and Finance Committee meeting where the proposal will be considered. We
will send out further details on this meeting as the date approaches.
There is strength in our collective voices. We need to use our voices now for our children. Lack of open
dialogue throughout the process over a complex formula has left us many questions without answers, and
has jeopardized our schools mission.
Thank you for your support.
Kathy Riedlinger, CEO

Elementary Campus: 7315 Willow Street, New Orleans, Louisiana 70118, Telephone (504) 862-5110, Fax (504) 866-4292
Middle and High School Campus: 5624 Freret Street, New Orleans, Louisiana 70115, Telephone (504) 304-3960, Fax (504) 861-1839
www.lusherschool.org