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Long-awaited high school campus completed in Compton, California
The Compton (California) district has staged a ribbon-cutting ceremony to mark construction of a long-awaited $225 million, 31-acre high school campus.
The Los Angeles Times reports that the new Compton High School replaces a 1930s-era facility. Classes will begin at the new facility later this year after students were displaced for six years in temporary quarters at a former middle school.
The school includes a performing arts center supported by a $10 million donation from musician and Compton native Andre “Dr. Dre” Young. The library has no books; it’s all digital. Classrooms feature an expanse of windows and sliding glass doors.
Prince George's County (Md.) superintendent is out after less than 2 years
Less than two years after assuming the job, Prince George's County (Maryland) Schools Superintendent Millard House II is leaving the district after reaching a separation agreement with the school board.
The Washington Post reports that House's resignation comes after the district's teachers union issued a vote of no confidence in his leadership last week.
Shawn Joseph, a former deputy superintendent in Prince George's County and Director of Schools in the Nashville (Tennessee) district from 2016 to 2019, has been named interim superintendent in Prince George's County.
House became superintendent in 2023. He was previously superintendent of the Houston Independent School District, but was ousted from the job after the state's education agency took over management of the system.
Supreme Court deadlock halts plans for Catholic charter school in Oklahoma
A deadlock in the U.S Supreme Court has effectively ended plans for a publicly funded Catholic charter school in Oklahoma.
The Associated Press reports that the justices' 4-4 vote keeps in place an Oklahoma court decision that invalidated a state charter school board's vote that authorized creation of the St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School.
The school would have been the nation’s first religious charter school.
The Catholic Church in Oklahoma had wanted state funding to operate an online charter school “faithful to the teachings of Jesus Christ.” Opponents argued that allowing it would blur the separation between church and state and take money that would have gone to traditional public schools.
Only eight of the nine justices took part in the case because Justice Amy Coney Barrett recused herself.
St. Isidore had planned to start classes online last year, but was blocked from doing so after the Oklahoma Supreme Court ruled that a relgious charter school was unconstitutional.
With enrollment dropping, Orange County (Florida) district puts brakes on school construction
The Orange County (Florida) district says it is halting new school construction for four years in the face of declining enrollment.
The Orlando Sentinel reports that the pause on construction is a surprise for a district that has opened 28 new campuses in the last 10 years. But after it opens one new school in August and two others in 2026, Orange County is planning no other new schools until 2031.
Orange County expects enrollment for the next school year to drop by about 3,100. The district's 10-year construction plan assumed enrollment would increase this year, but revised projections have prompted officials to delay most new campuses by a year or two.
The district blamed declining enrollment in large part on the expansion of Florida’s school voucher program and homeschooling services, which have lured many students away from public schools.