The St. Tammany Parish School Board is weighing two new charter school proposals in Mandeville and Slidell against a recent precedent: the state approved a St. Tammany charter application after the local board rejected it. At a public hearing ahead of its monthly meeting, board members questioned the proposals’ traffic effects, transparency and what would happen to the land if either school closed. Representatives of the organizations behind the proposals did not attend.
According to NOLA.com, the St. Tammany Charter Foundation wants to open two campuses modeled on its existing Academy of Classical Education school in Covington. The proposed Mandeville campus would sit off LA 59 between Interstate 12 and LA 1088, while the Slidell location would be near Fremaux Town Center. At the Nov. 12 hearing at the CJ Schoen Administrative Complex in Covington, 12 of the board’s 15 members spoke for a combined 45 minutes.
Traffic, Transparency and a Land Question Nobody Could Answer
In the hearing, board members questioned whether the proposals would add curricula not already available in the district and raised concerns about traffic near both sites. They also asked who would own the land if either school later failed and criticized what they described as a lack of transparency. These concerns were reported by NOLA.com.
Board member Gia Baker said conditional approval seemed at odds with how little information the board had, NOLA.com reported. Members also questioned Ian Tyson, a consultant whose firm reviewed the charter proposal, after PFM Group Consulting issued a preliminary, non-binding recommendation to approve it with conditions.
Charter Representatives Stayed Home
NOLA.com reported that representatives of the St. Tammany Charter Foundation and Charter Schools USA did not attend the hearing. Board member Lonnie Luce linked their absence to the board’s unanimous rejection of ACE Covington at the last meeting attended by charter representatives, before the state later approved that school. Luce said representatives would attend when the board takes an actual vote.
Board member Brandon Harrell suggested the board could approve the new request with conditions requiring the charter schools to match or exceed the district's salary schedule, contribute to retirement, and provide insurance. Luce pushed back, telling the board that charter schools already provide their own health insurance and a retirement plan through a matching 401k system, and that Charter USA would not agree to the board's stipulations because charters exist to cut red tape, not take on more of it.
Why Some Members Would Rather Approve Than Deny
Some board members argued that approving the proposals with restrictions could be preferable to rejecting them outright, because a rejection could be appealed to the state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education, or BESE, which has authority to approve a charter after a local board turns it down. NOLA.com has reported a St. Tammany precedent: the board rejected Charter USA’s ACE Covington application in 2023, and BESE later granted it.
What the precedent and budget records show
In a separate 2023 decision, the St. Tammany school board unanimously denied Charter USA’s application for ACE Covington; after Charter USA took the matter to BESE, the state board granted the application, according to NOLA.com. That case shows how a local rejection can be followed by a BESE approval, the possibility board members cited in discussing the current proposals. The St. Tammany Parish School Board’s FY 2026-27 budget message projects an approximately $24.8 million decrease in Minimum Foundation Program funding and attributes $8.6 million of the change to a new K-8 charter school opening in the parish. The budget message documents that parish-level impact but does not explain the MFP allocation formula or provide a per-student figure for the proposed schools.
Board member Michael Peterson raised a broader financial worry, arguing that charter schools pull funding away from services like school resource officers and special-needs programs while the traditional district continues to accept every student who applies. NOLA.com reports that each charter school opening in the parish redirects about $9,500 per resident student from the district's Minimum Foundation Program funding to the charter school; a separate NOLA.com report on ACE Covington's opening put the per-student loss at $9,900. The two figures have not been reconciled in available reporting.
ACE's Growth Adds Pressure to the Budget Fight
The stakes are rising alongside demand for ACE itself. WDSU reports that 2,500 students applied to attend ACE for the 2026-27 school year, with 700 still sitting on the waiting list, and the school's principal said it has broken ground on a high school slated to open for the 2027-28 school year. NOLA.com's report on ACE's opening put enrollment at 1,000 students from four parishes after its first full week of K-8 classes last August, while the more recent report on the Mandeville and Slidell proposals cites the Covington campus at about 900 students; neither report explains the discrepancy.
The district’s budget pressures extend beyond the charter proposals. NOLA.com reported that the board approved using $19.8 million in disaster-relief funds in August to help close a budget gap. The St. Tammany Parish School Board also approved a budget of just over $500 million for the 2026-27 fiscal year.
The St. Tammany Parish School Board is scheduled to vote on the Mandeville and Slidell proposals at its Dec. 10 meeting. The board’s 2023 rejection of ACE Covington, followed by BESE’s approval, is a precedent as members consider whether to oppose the new applications or seek conditions that charter representatives have indicated they may not accept.
