FLAIM, a Baton Rouge magnet school, doesn't have key permit — and classes start Wednesday

Baton Rouge Foreign Language Academic Immersion Magnet (BR FLAIM)

Less than a week before classes start, Baton Rouge school leaders approved an $85,000 contract with a day-care center to accommodate three-year-olds after realizing that a local magnet school couldn't take them because it didn't have an important permit.

The East Baton Rouge Parish School Board on Thursday approved the item 8-0, but only after grilling district leaders about why the contract was necessary. Board member Katie Kennison was absent.

School system administrators brought the item to the board at the last minute — Thursday’s special meeting was called just the day before — after learning BR FLAIM, a popular magnet school, has yet to gain clearance from the State Fire Marshal’s Office. That clearance is a prerequisite for obtaining a child care license issued by the Louisiana Department of Education.

That’s a problem since students return to school Wednesday for the 2023-24 school year.

As a backstop, Supt. Sito Narcisse asked the board to contract with Kidz Karousel, a Baton Rouge-based day care, to clear space at two of it sites so that three-year-olds from BR FLAIM and potentially another magnet school, BRCVPA, would have a place to have school. Kidz Karousel has agreed to charge $945 a month per child.

BR FLAIM stands for Baton Rouge Foreign Language Immersion Magnet, while BRCVPA stands for Baton Rouge Center for Visual and Performing Arts. Both schools are adding seats in the early grades this year, including for three-year-olds.

School leaders are more worried about BR FLAIM and its 30 three-year-olds, saying they think they will have a working license for BRCVPA to educate its 15 three-year-olds by Wednesday. Renovations at BR FLAIM, 4510 Bawell Street, were not completed until July 29 and the earliest the fire marshal can come to inspect is Monday.

Parents at both schools have received phone calls earlier this week letting them know their kids may start the school year elsewhere.

BR FLAIM students would go to Kidz Karousel at 7315 Picardy Ave., while BRCVPA student would head to Kidz Karousel's downtown Baton Rouge location at 1020 Main St.

Board members ultimately went along with the proposal, but were clearly not happy that they were just learning of this at the last minute.

“We’ve got school next week and our parents are reaching out to us and wondering what’s going on,” said Board President Dadrius Lanus.

That approval, however, came after a lengthy grilling about why BR FLAIM isn’t ready yet, the cost of the arrangement with Kidz Karousel and whether there are better alternatives

“I think we need to unpack this and find a little better situation,” said board member Cliff Lewis.

Leigh Griffin, executive director for early childhood, fielded most of the questions.

Griffin said that Kidz Karousel is already part of the school system’s Early Childhood Network of public and private child care centers and that it already operates a center for three-year-olds, known as a microcenter, on the campus of Crestworth Elementary. Kidz Karousel also has a necessary Type 3 license from the state, the license for child care programs that accept state and federal funding.

The $945 monthly rate per child includes a $630 monthly fee as well as $315 a month for food, which works out to $15.75 per day. Unlike at Crestworth, it will be school system employees, not Kidz Karousel employees, teaching the three-year-olds at the other two Kidz Karousel sites.

Griffin said the monthly rate is actually less than the rate Kidz Karousel charges the district for its program at Crestworth. But by using Kidz Karousel space, the day care needs to cover the costs of its building, insurance, food and the loss in revenue from other kids it can’t get tuition for since that space will be occupied, she said.

“The classrooms that they are providing us are seats that they cannot provide to others,” Griffin said.

The pricing, however, raised a number of questions.

Fairleigh Jackson, a mother of a BRCVPA child, said she called a Kidz Karousel location to ask the normal price and was told that meals there cost $7.50 a day, not $15.75 a day.

“It still feels like we are overpaying,” Jackson said.

Kidz Karousel owner Tessa Holloway later told board members that she doesn’t know where that $7.50 figure comes from, but did not offer any details on its food prices.

Board member Patrick Martin was partially mollified after receiving assurances that the school system will be paying Kidz Karousel for every day that their services are used and is not on the hook for two months of payouts no matter what.

It’s also possible, school officials said, that licensing will be wrapped up so quickly that the school system won’t need to use Kidz Karousel at all.

Email Charles Lussier at [email protected] and follow him on Twitter, @Charles_Lussier.