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KIPP New Orleans Schools, long the largest charter school operator in New Orleans, is poised to shrink its footprint in the city beginning next fall. On Tuesday (March 17), KIPP officials announced that the operator will close Frederick Douglass High School, located in an historic but decaying building on St. Claude Avenue, and move its student body to another KIPP building — John F. Kennedy High School in Gentilly.
Both schools will remain open through the end of the school year. Douglass School Leader Towana Pierre Floyd will run the high school at Kennedy’s Gentilly campus, according to a letter sent to KIPP families this week. The move brings Douglass High School’s A-rated academic program to Kennedy High School’s newer facility, one of the first high schools built after Hurricane Katrina…