Holy Cross picks Gentilly...

I'm not surprised that Holy Cross chose to re-locate their Ninth Ward school to Gentilly rather than to out in Kenner, for several reasons:

They're a New Orleans tradition. Holy Cross' roots are in Da Nint'. The school's board had been considering a move from that neighborhood even before the storm, and the amount it will cost to re-build the existing campus made staying even more untenable.

It's cheaper. The site HC had been considering in Kenner is owned by the Jefferson Parish School Board, who wanted $2.5million for the 20-acre parcel of land. The Gentilly site is the former campus of Redeemer-Seton High School, combined with the site of St. Frances Xavier Cabrini Church/School. Both schools and the church were totalled in the storm, when the London Avenue Canal flooded the area with 10+ feet of water. The Gentilly site is owned by the Archdiocese of New Orleans. While the terms of the deal between HC and the Archdiocese were not made public, it's a sure bet that they're much more advantageous to Holy Cross.

The alumni didn't want Holy Cross to be "Another Rummel." While HC started out as a neighborhood Catholic school for Da Nint', it expanded its base down into Arabi and Chalmette over the years. As white flight sent many of the school's families to Metairie and Kenner, HC was one of the first Catholic high schools to offer school bus service from Jefferson Parish back to the city. While they didn't want to live in the city for a multitude of reasons, they recognized that sending their boys back to Holy Cross had a lot of benefits. Moving the school to Kenner would totally sever that connection and turn their families into total suburbanites. That may fly in Sugar Land, TX, or in Alpharetta, GA, but it's not acceptable to many New Orleanians.

Politics. The money was just one aspect of the deal with the Jefferson Parish School Board. The politics of this deal were dicey as well. The board approved the sale on a 5-4 vote. The west bank members of the JPSB were opposed to the deal, arguing that they should hold onto the property and sell it when it becomes more valuable. Both the public school administration and the teacher's union were adamantly opposed to the sale. In spite of the fact that almost every pol in Kenner supported the deal, HC would have to do business with the school system on this, and that would be an uphill battle every step of the way.

Congrats to Holy Cross and best wishes for the future. I'll save some of my thoughts on the impact of the move on Gentilly and high schools in the city for tomorrow.

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