New Orleans board adopts long-range construction plan

The Orleans Parish (La.) School Board has approved a facilities master plan that calls for the largest school construction effort in the city's history. The plan envisions the district spending nearly $700 million on 30 campuses in the first phase, which wraps up about 2013. The blueprint calls for about $1.3 billion more in construction and renovations during the future phases, for which officials still have to find money. In addition, 46 campuses could be "land banked, " which means demolished, sold, redeveloped or reopened as schools in the future. When the plan is completed, the district would have about 87 elementary and high schools instead of 120.