BCS, NCS announce agreement
Published 4:04 am Wednesday, May 2, 2018
There will be no more high school classes at Northshore Charter School, beginning with the 2018-2019 school year.
An agreement was reached between NCS and Bogalusa City Schools that will keep NCS open as a Type I charter school, as long as NCS eliminates its high school grades.
Dee Dee McCullough, CEO and principal at NCS, said she is OK with the agreement.
“I am pleased that an agreement has been reached with the Bogalusa City School Board for the entirety of Northshore Charter School’s four year Type I charter contract,” McCullough said. “I believe that both parties now understand what is expected from one another, and there should be no more fears of school closure. We are encouraged that NCS will still offer an educational choice in Bogalusa for kindergarten through eighth grade, and look forward to continued educational growth and success.”
The agreement was detailed during Thursday’s meeting of the Bogalusa City School Board.
The meeting started off with recognition of students of the year for Bogalusa City Schools. Students of the year were Central Elementary fifth grade student Ja’Kaelyn Moss, Bogalusa High School eighth grade student McKinley Phillips, and BHS 12th grade student Tahj Morris.
Then, the board addressed several new business issues before moving on to the most anticipated vote of the night — the action that the board took concerning the proposed agreement between NCS and BCS.
The board unanimously voted to “approve the proposed charter operating agreement with Northshore Charter Schools, Inc. and to authorize President Curtis Creel to sign the agreement and its exhibits on behalf of the Bogalusa City School Board.”
With another unanimous vote, the board voted to “authorize the Superintendent of Bogalusa City Schools to renegotiate, which may be appropriate periodically, the Shared Services Agreement with Northshore Charter Schools, Inc. as provided for in the terms of the Agreement.”
Additional policies were also adopted by the board concerning charter schools.
BCS Superintendent Lisa Tanner said in a statement that the agreement was the best compromise possible.
“An agreement and contract between BCS and NCS has been reached,” Tanner said. “The inner workings of the contract and operating agreement came from the help of mediation provided in federal court. Both sides had to compromise to come to an agreement.
“However, I would like to say that both boards have agreed to and signed the operating agreement and contract, and now both NCS and BCS can move forward and work together to educate the children of Bogalusa.”