Treme Waits for a Neighborhood School While Four Stand Vacant

Amidst the flurry of arguments for and against preserving Phillis Wheatley Elementary, the point remains that Tremé has been without a neighborhood school since Hurricane Katrina. Yet the Recovery School District’s (RSD) insistence that the Wheatley site offers the sole solution to this problem sidesteps the fact that it controls no less than three additional school properties within a two block radius, all of which remain vacant and deteriorating. While only one of these is a feasible alternative for renovation as a 21^st century school, each building’s potential is being lost to deferred maintenance and demolition by neglect.

Mondy Junior High, originally William O. Rogers Elementary, is located at St. Philip and N. Tonti. Paul Andry designed this Romanesque Revival style school which opened to much fanfare in April 1898. Though the smallest of the three, it is in the best condition. Mondy’s size and its relatively cramped location on a square occupied by a dozen or so private homes make it undesirable for reuse as a school but a prime candidate for conversion to residential units.

The former St. Joseph’s Academy is bounded by Ursulines, N. Johnson, St. Philip, and N. Galvez. Established on this site in 1858, its five remaining buildings were constructed between 1887 and 1964. The first four, including the imposing Gothic Revival Academy Building (1904-1906) overlooking Ursulines, were commissioned by the Sisters of St. Joseph, while the last was built by the Orleans Parish School Board (OPSB) after it purchased the complex in 1960. OPSB then combined the buildings with the former Benjamin Franklin Elementary to form Andrew J. Bell Junior High. The unsecured complex has suffered five years of severe vandalism, graffiti, and theft. While there is little chance that it could be updated to suite the RSD’s current educational specifications, it would be well-suited to a combination of uses to serve the community.

Franklin Elementary, completed in 1913, stands at the corner of N. Johnson and Dumaine. It is a classic E. A. Christy design with Italianate details. This nearly 35,000 square foot building stands on a mostly open city square shared by only a handful of privately-owned properties. Though the site is, again, unsecured, which has resulted in vandalism and theft, the building’s structure is in excellent shape. If renovated, its site could fully accommodate a sizeable modern addition to house the 450-650 students and desired ancillary facilities which RSD desires.

While any new school in Treme would be subject to the district’s current school choice policy – meaning that a sizeable percentage of its students would necessarily come from outside the neighborhood – the presence of these deteriorating buildings has severe implications for nearby residents. From depressed property values, to crime, to the basic psychological effects of multiple monumentally-scaled vacant structures in such close vicinity, these buildings are doing far more harm to the neighborhood than Wheatley alone. The RSD deflects attention from this negligence by citing the burden of maintaining its 400 plus properties citywide; nonetheless, it and the OPSB, which technically owns these properties, are responsible for all of the effects their actions have upon New Orleans’ neighborhoods.

Each school is included in the Esplanade Ridge National Register District except for Wheatley, which has been deemed eligible for individual National Register listing, meaning that all would be eligible for a host of tax incentives if sold to a private entity. The OPSB, which apparently has no need for three out of four of these vacant properties, could renovate and add to Franklin and sell Mondy, St. Joseph’s, and Wheatley to be adaptively reused. Focusing solely on Wheatley, while blaming it for far more complex issues than are its due, merely wastes opportunities for further rebirth in Tremé.