Linwood Charter awaits BESE board vote transferring school charter to Third Future

SHREVEPORT, La. (KTAL/KMSS) — The Louisiana Department of Education is recommending to the BESE Board that Third Future Schools based in Colorado take over the contract to run Linwood Public Charter School.

Since 2017, Linwood has been under a year-to-year management agreement with the state. Superintendent of Education Dr. Cade Brumley said, “We have the option of recommending to you all to close this school; we’re not making that recommendation.”

However, they recommend that Third Future take over the school starting with the 2025-2026 school year. Linwood’s CEO, Dr. Staughton Jennings, says they have faced challenges, but their scores have risen over the past few years. Jennings said, “If you look at our trend data year over year, we’ve been able to show an increase year over year.”

Jennings also said the year-to-year contract has made it difficult to hire qualified teachers because teachers want stability in their jobs.

Linwood charter has shown gains in school performance, growing from the 2020-2021 simulated index score of 41.4% to a 50% performance score in 2023. However, as questions increase about the future of the U.S. Department of Education, the impact of “school choice” and the LA GATOR program, and the school spending tracker rolled out by the Louisiana State Treasurer, it seems incremental gains will not be enough for schools to maintain good standing with the state.

The BESE board is expected to vote on April 9th on the possible contract change.