After barely three years in operation, IDEA University Prep charter school on Plank Road is closing soon, citing declining enrollment, and directing its students and staff instead to two other Baton Rouge area schools run by the same charter group.
The closure takes effect when the current school year ends in May. The school currently has about 620 students in grades kindergarten to eight, down about 30 from a year ago, who will need to change schools.
The other schools run by the charter group are IDEA Bridge, with about 1,030 students, and IDEA Innovation, with about 880 students, and they are among the largest charter schools in the Capital City. Both of those schools have suffered declining enrollment as well — 110 and 250 students, respectively.
IDEA Public Schools, which is based in Texas, issued a statement late Wednesday announcing the change.
“This decision was not made lightly and follows a comprehensive evaluation process by leadership to address challenges that have persisted since before the campus was taken over by IDEA in 2021,” according to the statement. “Our commitment to providing a high-quality education for our students remains unwavering and this approach will allow us to better serve the students and families by focusing on delivering academic outcomes at IDEA Bridge and IDEA Innovation in Baton Rouge.”
In 2021, IDEA University Prep opened up its 7701 Plank Road campus, south of Baton Rouge Metro Airport, in a new $17 million facility completed the following January. It has struggled academically, earning low F letter grades from the state after its first year in operation and improving slightly after its second year. IDEA Bridge has a high F, while IDEA Innovation has a low D letter grade.
The school’s name is a nod to Baton Rouge University Prep, or UP Elementary, a charter school IDEA began taking over in 2020, which also had academic troubles. Rechristened as IDEA University Prep, the school added middle school grades, but has fell well short of its original enrollment targets.
Charter schools are public schools run privately via charters or contracts.
All three of IDEA’s schools in town have charters issued by the East Baton Rouge Parish school system. A fourth IDEA school in Louisiana, IDEA Oscar Dunn in New Orleans, was closed in 2022 due in part to low enrollment.
Word of the closure of IDEA University Prep began spreading Wednesday on social media. On Tuesday, the board of directors for the charter group met. According to the agenda, the board was to discuss potentially amending the charter for the school as well as seeking a new arrangement, known as a Type 2 charter, with the Louisiana Board of Elementary and Secondary Education, or BESE.
The dealine to apply for a Type 2 charter this year came and went April 19. A spokesman for the state Department of Education said that IDEA did not submit an application for this approval cycle.
IDEA officials did not respond Thursday to questions about what occurred at Tuesday's meeting.