Name:	Francine Stock
City:	New Orleans, LA
Specific property affected:	Wheatley Elementary, Lafon Elementary, Carver High School, Avery Alexander Elementary
Comments:	The School Facilities Master Plan for Orleans Parish more regularly calls for the demolition of existing schools to be replaced with new facilities over renovation. The cost to our historic urban fabric is difficult to measure, as the plan calls for the near annihilation of the modernist schools of the mid-2Oth century. The Orleans Parish School Board is guilty of severe negligence and a failure to maintain these facilities. While they may need a thorough renovation, the cost of that renovation is approximately 2/3 the cost of demolition and new construction. The master plan does not provide equal funding to the schools in the district. Many of those which are slated for the 4th, 5h and 6th phases of the plan will likely never see the funds. The plan recognizes there are no funds for the later phases. Renovating existing structures provides New Orleanians with the following: 1) the preservation of cultural and social identity through the neighborhood school, 2) greater chance that we could actually create more equitable schools for our children. The district could renovate 4 schools at $15 million each or demolish and build 3 schools at $20 million each. Renovation enables more schools which are slated for the later stages of the plan to actually get renovated.