BASIS, one of the most academically demanding charter programs in the nation, has reached an agreement with Woman’s Hospital to open a K-6 charter school on nearly 10 acres of hospital–owned property across Stumberg Lane from the hospital campus.
Woman’s filed an application with the East Baton Rouge Parish Planning Commission Thursday to develop a 35,000-square-foot school building and parking lot on just under 10 acres of a larger, 100-acre tract located behind the hospital on Airline Highway. According to the application, the school campus will also include green space and connecting roadways.
“This is something we’re very excited about,” says Stan Shelton, senior vice president for planning, development and construction at Woman’s Hospital. “We see it as a good opportunity for the community and for our campus.”
BASIS, which is based in Arizona, first announced plans to come to Baton Rouge in 2015 and eventually hopes to open as many as five schools in the state, including one in north Baton Rouge. New Schools for Baton Rouge helped attract the company, which boasts schools that consistently rank among the top in the nation.
Significantly, the relationship between BASIS and Woman’s Hospital will be the first Business Charter Partnership in the state, according to New Schools for Baton Rouge CEO Chris Meyer.
Business Charter Partnerships were created by law under Gov. Bobby Jindal and allow businesses that provide a significant amount of financial or technical resources to a charter school or donate a significant amount of property to the school to receive a preference for enrollment in the school of up to 50%.
That means the children of Woman’s Hospital employees will get preferential enrollment for half the seats in the new school. The rest of the seats will be open enrollment and filled by a lottery.
“They’re a phenomenal operator,” Meyer says. “And it’s going to be one of the first schools developed in that part of the community in a while.”
BASIS is also beginning to explore potential sites for a K-6th-grade school in north Baton Rouge, according to Meyer, who says the company’s long-term plan is to operate two elementary schools in the north and southeastern portions of the parish that would then feed into a school offering grades 7-12 that would be centrally located to the two.
BASIS’ plans are contingent upon receiving approval for its charter from the East Baton Rouge Parish School Board, which will take up the application at its June meeting. The Planning Commission must also approve the plans from a land-use perspective.
—Stephanie Riegel
