Vermilion Parish School District worries about charter school opening in Youngsville

The Vermilion Parish School District is worried that if a charter school is built in Youngsville it may one day pull students from Vermilion Parish.
If that happens, then the parish is going to lose state funding from the students who transferred to the charter school.
Lonnie Richard, supervisor of Career/Tech Education for the school board, made a presentation at Thursday night’s school board meeting about the possibility of a charter school named Career Academy Charter School being built in Youngsville, not too far from the parish lines.
The charter school would be JumpStart Pathway focused, explained Richard. JumpStart Pathway is the direction a high school selects when he or she is a freshman.
Starting last year, freshmen had to select if they were going to take college prep courses in high school or take high school courses that jumped started them on a career after high school. If they were going the college route, they are on the TOPS University Track. It advises high school students what classes to take to get the TOPS scholarship.
If they are on a vocation track (carpentry, welding) then students focus on the Tops Tech JumpStart Career Track. The classes are more industrial art oriented.
The career academy is making its case to BESE that there is a need for the academy to exist. The academy, in its proposal, said that surrounding parishes are not focused on preparing students who are on the JumpStart Career Track.
Richard said he disagreed with the argument made by Kingdom Builder’s Community Development Corporation, the company that wants to build the charter, that local parishes are not teaching enough career track classes.
Richard told the school board that the Vermilion school district has 11 career pathways for students to select from.
A student can go down the education path of wanting to be a carpenter, certified nursing assistant, electrician, oil and gas T2 safety systems, prostart/restaurant, welder, hospitality/tourist/culinary and retail, business management, carpenter’s helper, electrician helper and a welder’s helper.
“As you can see our high schools are well prepared to meet the graduation requirements that is set forth by the department of education,” said Richard.
He told the school board that there is no need to build another charter school in Lafayette Parish because local high schools are providing enough JumpStart Career Track classes. If a charter school does open in Youngsville, it would hurt school districts surrounding Lafayette Parish, he said.
Richard encouraged the school board to adopt a resolution against Kingdom Builder’s Community Development Corporation attempt to build a new charter school.
The school board voted to adopt the resolution against a charter school being built in Youngsville and will send it to BESE who has the final vote on the charter school.