Dr. King Charter School, full name Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Charter School for Science and Technology, is a K–12

charter school A charter school is a school that receives government funding but operates independently of the established state school system in which it is located. It is independent in the sense that it operates according to the basic principle of auto ...

, in the

Lower 9th Ward The Lower Ninth Ward is a neighborhood in the city of New Orleans, Louisiana. As the name implies, it is part of the 9th Ward of New Orleans. The Lower Ninth Ward is often thought of as the entire area within New Orleans downriver of the Industri ...

, in the

9th Ward The Ninth Ward or 9th Ward is a distinctive region of New Orleans, Louisiana, which is located in the easternmost downriver portion of the city. It is geographically the largest of the 17 Wards of New Orleans. On the south, the Ninth Ward is bound ...

New Orleans New Orleans ( , ,New Orleans
Merriam-Webster. ; french: La Nouvelle-Orléans , es, Nuev ...

Louisiana Louisiana , group=pronunciation (French: ''La Louisiane'') is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It is the 20th-smallest by area and the 25th most populous of the 50 U.S. states. Louisiana is borde ...

, United States.

History

The school was named after

Martin Luther King Jr. Martin Luther King Jr. (born Michael King Jr.; January 15, 1929 – April 4, 1968) was an American Baptist minister and activist, one of the most prominent leaders in the civil rights movement from 1955 until his assassination in 1968 ...

Stokes, Stephanie.
MLK school reopens in Lower 9th
." ''

Times Picayune ''The Times-Picayune/The New Orleans Advocate'' is an American newspaper published in New Orleans, Louisiana, since January 25, 1837. The current publication is the result of the 2019 acquisition of ''The Times-Picayune'' (itself a result of th ...

''. Sunday June 10, 2007. Retrieved on August 4, 2012. The elementary school opened in 1995 and the school expanded in 2009 to include a high school. In the 2006–2007 school year, King students attended the former Harney School, as King had been damaged by

Hurricane Katrina Hurricane Katrina was a destructive Category 5 Atlantic hurricane that caused over 1,800 fatalities and $125 billion in damage in late August 2005, especially in the city of New Orleans and the surrounding areas. It was at the time the cost ...

in 2005. At that time, over half of the 450 students attending Harney had attended King pre-Katrina. King, which re-opened in 2007, was the first Lower 9th Ward school to do so after Hurricane Katrina. In 2007, Principal Doris Hicks said that over 600 students registered to attend King in the 2007-2008 school year. In 2009, Darren Simon of the ''

'' said that Dr. King Charter, "one of the city's higher performing schools without admission criteria," "is seen as a symbol of rebirth in the Lower 9th Ward."Simon, Darren.
BESE renews MLK's charter without provision to up special needs population
" ''

''. Wednesday June 17, 2009. Retrieved on August 5, 2012. A February 2009, the State of Louisiana count of the school stated that the school had fewer than 5% special education students, below the 5% number recommended in a state board of education guideline and the 12.3

Recovery School District Recovery School District (RSD) is a special statewide school district administered by the Louisiana Department of Education. Created by legislation passed in 2003, the RSD is designed to take underperforming schools and transform and make them effe ...

average. In June of that year, Hicks said that the most recent figures sent to the state count the special education population at 6% and that the school is conservative in assigning students special education status, giving them after school tutoring and Saturday school to see if they improve, before labeling them as special education students. The State Authorized Oversight Committee recommended that the school's charter be renewed. In June 2009, the charter was renewed without a plan to increase the numbers of special education students. On April 5, 2012, classes were canceled so King Charter teachers could travel to the state capitol in

Baton Rouge Baton Rouge ( ; ) is a city in and the capital of the U.S. state of Louisiana Louisiana , group=pronunciation (French: ''La Louisiane'') is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It is the 20th-sma ...

to protest a package of education bills put forth by then Louisiana Governor,

Bobby Jindal Piyush "Bobby" Jindal (born June 10, 1971) is an American politician who served as the 55th Governor of Louisiana from 2008 to 2016. The only living former Louisiana governor, Jindal also served as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives a ...

. Also in 2012, the school graduated its first senior class. In 2015, the school signed a contract with New Orleans Public Schools, making the school the first to return to the district's authority since Katrina.

Athletics

Dr. King Charter High athletics competes in the LHSAA.

References

External links

Dr. King Charter School website
{{DEFAULTSORT:King Charter School Charter schools in New Orleans Lower 9th Ward, New Orleans Public K-12 schools in Louisiana Public elementary schools in Louisiana Public middle schools in Louisiana Elementary schools in New Orleans Middle schools in New Orleans Public high schools in New Orleans Educational institutions established in 1995 1995 establishments in Louisiana