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City of St. George looking to partner with charter operators for school in city limits
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ST. GEORGE - After a failed vote during the May election, the City of St. George is exploring other options for additional schools in the city.
For over a decade, the City of St. George has been looking to separate from the East Baton Rouge School System.
A constitutional amendment on the May ballot would have allowed the City of St. George to create its own school district. It garnered pushback from some residents and East Baton Rouge Parish school leaders.
"We're on the verge of disrupting a school district that has made, and that is making, tremendous progress," EBR School Board Vice President Cliff Lewis said during an interview with WBRZ in April.
The amendment failed, but St. George Mayor Dustin Yates says that did not stop the city from exploring other avenues.
"That vote didn't kill that spirit. So ever since May, we've been looking at other options of educational choice so we could bring to families and residents of St. George," Yates said.
Now, the city is looking to partner with charter school operators to build a school in the city limits. Yates says St. George will essentially act as the non-profit for the school.
"The non-profit appoints the board of supervisors, those board of supervisors, you know, manages and regulates the operators that are operating within your city limits," he said.
In the past, new charter schools could not operate without first applying to the local school board. But a law passed by the legislature in 2024 would allow St. George to go around the East Baton Rouge School District for approval.
"If we do a type two charter school, it goes directly to BESE, so it goes directly to the state, and the state approves it," Yates said.
Over the next few months, Yates says they will be working with potential operators interested in coming into the city of St. George.
"It will be a pretty stringent vetting process to ensure what we are bringing to the community, what we are bringing to our kids, is the very best," Yates said.
Yates says there is a strong chance the first school in the network will be up and running by fall 2028.
We reached out to East Baton Rouge Parish school leaders to find out how this could impact the district.
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