BAKER — The City of Baker School System shared the second part of its "factual, chronological account of what has occurred in the City of Baker School System," with the most recent part of the account detailing the events that occurred after state education officials contacted the district, leading up to legal action the district took against state officials.

In August 2024, the school system said the state's Recovery School District first contacted the City of Baker School System and requested a meeting to discuss challenges in some of our schools, as detailed in their first account of the events released in mid-September.

The most recent part of the district's recounting of events, released Wednesday, says that, by the start of 2025, the school system submitted a reconstitution plan for Baker Heights and Baker Middle and provided the information requested by the State.

"We continued to ask for a decision and for a meaningful conversation about the plan. As of January 30, 2025, the State had not made a decision. That timing mattered," Baker School System Superintendent JT Stroder wrote.

Stroder said that, because school districts must recruit and hire staff well before a new school year begins, they did not want to lose the opportunity to build a strong turnaround team for Baker students while waiting for an answer.

"One local option under consideration was to close Baker Heights and Baker Middle, merge their students into Park Ridge, and make Park Ridge available to all affected students," Stroder said, adding that this would create a stronger K-8 environment, consolidate resources and give students a fresh start with new leadership and staff.

Stroder added that there was evidence of Baker students making meaningful academic progress on multiple metrics. 

On Feb. 10, Stroder and the school system notified the state Recovery School District that the Baker School Board would consider reconstitution options at a meeting two days later, asking whether the state had input before the meeting. 

"The State responded in writing. It asked the Board not to make grade-configuration or substantive structural changes while the district's plan was under review," Stroder's story continued.

The state, according to Stroder, asked the school board to "cease actions to close, merge or alter the structure of Baker Heights and Baker Middle."

The board, at the Feb. 12 meeting, voted to move Baker Heights back to 3750 Harding Street and Baker Middle back to 2550 South Street, leaving Park Ridge assigned to both 5903 and 5905 Groom Road. It was at this meeting that the board also voted to close both Baker Heights and Baker Middle at the end of the 2024–2025 school year.

"This created a serious question about the authority of the locally elected School Board to determine school locations and closures while the State's review remained pending," Stroder said.

In March, it was recommended that the Recovery School District take control of Baker Heights and Baker Middle; this would be approved, with GEO Louisiana taking over as the direct operator of the campuses as charter schools.

"The district's concern was straightforward: we submitted our Action Plan on September 19, 2024, submitted updated information on November 21 at RSD's request, and followed up again in December and January. By the end of January, no decision had been made before the Board had to begin making decisions for the next school year," Stroder said.

The superintendent said that the vote in March "did not end the matter."

In April, the Recovery School District told the Baker School System that it intended to "take unrestricted use of the building at 5903 Groom Road" in late May, but did not identify 5905 Groom Road as a property it would have unrestricted use of in the transfer.

"Because 5903 housed Park Ridge's kindergarten through fifth-grade program—and because Park Ridge was not a school subject to takeover—the School Board filed suit on April 11," Stroder says, detailing the beginning of legal actions the district took against state education officials. 

The lawsuit also sought to protect Park Ridge's operations at both Groom Road facilities, Stroder added.

"The next part will address the court proceedings and what followed," the post concludes.