As principal at Brownfields Elementary School in Baton Rouge, Jo “Beth” Cox logs about 16,000 steps a day. These days, though, her travels are strictly indoors and inside a brand new building. It’s a much nicer walk.
“Everything works, and we have air-conditioning. Woohoo!” Cox said with a laugh.
The new $29 million Brownfields Elementary, located just north of the Metro Airport, opened its doors on Aug. 8 with the start of the 2023-24 school year. It replaces the neighborhood elementary school that was built in 1956 and demolished to make way for a modern campus at 11615 Ellen Drive.
In this case, Brownfields and White Hills Elementary, located three miles north near the city limits of Baker were combined. Last year, the new McKinley Elementary, built at the former home of University Terrace Elementary, fused together University Terrace with nearby Buchanan Elementary.
The aim is to consolidate schools at a slow but steady clip, but also tamp down potential public opposition that typically accompanies school closures by simultaneously giving families a new, modern educational home.
The East Baton Rouge Parish School Board, however, is expected soon to consider a much quicker round of school consolidations as early as fall 2025, in response to an acceleration of declines in student enrollment during and after the pandemic.
Long time coming
The plan to merge Brownfields and White Hills has been years in the making. White Hills, which had barely 100 students on its rolls last year, was almost closed in 2015 after it lost a lot of students to a handful of new charter schools that had opened.
In 2017, school leaders devised a plan to merge Brownfields and White Hills at a new facility. Voters approved the idea the following April when they renewed a 1-cent sales earmarked for education.
More than 500 people attended the new Brownfields’ first open house, held Thursday night. That’s the biggest crowd in recent memory the school has seen at an event. Attendees filled up the newly poured parking lot as well as most of the spacious new cafetorium, a combination cafeteria and auditorium.
“It’s an amazing place. We are loving it,” Cox told parents. “We are learning how to respect it and take care of it and have pride.”
Erin Coleman and her friend Mariah Metoyer, former Brownfields students who are now tenth-graders, came back to see their new, old alma mater.
“This is very different,” said Coleman. “We didn’t even have a gym. We just had a cafeteria and a (basketball) court.”
“It’s very colorful,” Metoyer said. “I was amazed. So many colors. It’s so vibrant here.”
At the same time, the two have fond memories of the old campus. There was ample outdoor green space. There was a special wing just for the fifth-graders. But they don’t miss getting wet when it rained, or learning in the heat with less than ideal air-conditioning.
“Brownfields, back then it was a good school," Coleman said. “But I’m glad (the students) get to experience a better … a new building.”
New school in operation
Construction began last fall, pursuant to a joint partnership between Milton J. Womack Construction company and NRK Construction. It was completed with little time to spare. Cox and her team were not able to start moving their stuff until four days before school started, prompting a mad rush to get the place ready for operation.
Contractors still have punch list items to complete, but progress continues, including the recent installation of outdoor canopies to protect children from the rain.
The new Brownfields has a futuristic flavor, similar to other newer public elementaries in Baton Rouge. For instance, the new school is dotted with flexible learning spaces, filled with specially designed furniture for children, that are meant to complement the more traditional classrooms. The school has exploratory labs meant for the arts.
“You’re going to find this building is very different from (the old) Brownfields and different from many buildings you’ve been in,” Cox told parents Thursday.
Not all the new furnishings have arrived. The window-filled library, located near the school’s main entrance, is awaiting more bookshelves, which has prevented the school’s librarian from unboxing all her books.
“We have two playgrounds here as well as a huge basketball court in the back, plus greenspace (that) we’re going to work on getting some more equipment for,” Cox said.
The hot temperatures this August have limited the opportunities for students to play outside. Consequently, physical education classes have largely been indoors.
With pride, Cox pointed parents to the cafeteria side of the room and its two serving lines.
“We probably have the best kitchen in the whole entire state,” Cox said. “If I could take you on a tour of that kitchen, you would never cook at your house again.”
The new school currently has 357 students, from preschool to fifth-grade. That’s 60 more students than school leaders had predicted. Consequently, Cox is preparing to hire two more faculty members to meet demand.
Gloria Matthews attended Thursday’s open house with her grandson, Jayden, a new student at the school. It was her first chance to look around.
“This school looks great from the outside so I know it’s going to be awesome on the inside,” Matthews said.
Jayden, who is starting third grade, said he already likes Brownfields better than where he was before.
“I like all the details and all the colors,” he said.
Consolidations coming
Despite recent enrollment growth, Brownfields is not that big a school — 51 Baton Rouge public schools are bigger. A decade ago, Brownfields enrolled more than 400 students.
Brownfields, though, is in a better position than most schools in the parish school system. Two-thirds of those schools have lost students compared with before the pandemic. Overall enrollment has declined by almost 5% over that time period and has fallen under 40,000 students for the first time in decades. If you take out charter schools, overall enrollment is just 32,700 students, about 12% down from prior to the pandemic.
Consequently, the number of schools below half their functional capacity has nearly doubled and such schools currently make up a third of the traditional public schools. At least three — Claiborne, Progress and Winbourne elementary schools — are schools that were torn down and rebuilt to accommodate more students, but have seen their enrollment dwindle over time.
Former Supt. Sito Narcisse commissioned a facility assessment in 2021 as a precursor to a round of school consolidations that never occurred.
As part of his employment contract, newly hired Supt. LaMont Cole is tasked with quickly hiring a vendor to develop a master facilities plan with a year’s time that will, among other things, consolidate school facilities to “best meet current/projected student enrollment and the instructional needs of the district.”
Board Vice President Patrick Martin V said consolidations are long overdue and he expects movement on that effort in the near future.
“Some schools have far fewer students than they were designed to have, while others are bursting at the seams,” Martin said. “Some schools have enrollments so low that it is difficult to provide the comprehensive array of services needed by many of our students.”
As a new facility, Brownfields is in little danger of being closed. But it may be asked to add students.
The 2021 facilities assessment suggested the possibility of merging a third small school, Sharon Hills Elementary, at the new Brownfields school, but the idea was set aside. Sharon Hills, located two miles south of Brownfields, has about 220 students currently, 100 fewer than before the pandemic.
The new Brownfields, though, would have trouble accommodating that many more students. Its functional capacity is about 500 students, though that could increase to 580 students with some operational changes.