An A-rated charter school in Slaughter is poised to open a new elementary school in the town, but only if it agrees to cut its planned enrollment in half.
Slaughter Community Charter School’s for a new campus earned preliminary approval Tuesday. The h Board of Elementary and Secondary Education, or BESE, is expected to ratify that action when it meets again on Wednesday for its regular meeting.
The new elementary campus would compete directly with Slaughter Elementary, which has historically served as a feeder to the charter school. It would also draw students from three public schools in Clinton and one in Jackson.
The East Feliciana Parish School Board rejected the proposed school in January, prompting Slaughter Community Charter to appeal to BESE. More than a dozen district employees drove to Baton Rouge Tuesday to oppose the charter.
“Why change what isn’t broken?” asked Sarah Moreland Guidry, who works in human resources.
Guidry called it an “unnecessary school” that would undermine Slaughter Elementary.
“It would be nothing more than a measure to divide our community,” she said.
Stephanie Goudeau, the director of the charter school, said the new school is responding to parent demand for more options.
“We don’t want to harm anyone. We just want to offer choice,” she said.
BESE voted 9-2 in favor of the new school with members Conrad Appel and Lance Harris voting no.
, which opened in 2011, has close to 400 students in grades seven to 12. It has similar racial demographics to — about 60% of the students are White and 30% are Black.
For years, the two schools had comparable academic performance. But since COVID, Slaughter Elementary has slipped to a C letter grade, while the charter has improved.
East Feliciana Parish Superintendent Keisha Netterville said the school district just suffered a $2 million cut in state funding and would lose another $2 million over time if the new school opens. She said the school district has shown ample academic growth.
“We should strengthen that momentum, not jeopardize it,” Netterville said.
Kimberly Glascock, a supervisor of curriculum and instruction and a former principal of Slaughter Elementary, said creating the new school makes no sense and will damage an already successful elementary school.
“Slaughter Elementary has always been a shining light,” she said. “Please do not dim that light and divide our community even more.”
The new elementary school in Slaughter is set to open in fall 2027. In an unusual move, it plans to start with sixth grade and add grades over time until reaching capacity in fall 2032.
Unlike the current school, the new school would have a Type 2 charter that would allow it to enroll students from outside East Feliciana Parish. Students attending the new elementary school who live outside East Feliciana would not be able to enroll in the secondary school since that school is open only to parish residents.
Charter schools are public schools run privately via charters, or contracts.
Cutting its enrollment in half is the price exacted by the h Department of Education before the state agency was . Now, the new school would shoot for a total of 203 students once at capacity versus 420 students.
German Gilson, assistant superintendent for school choice for the state agency, noted that East Feliciana has a limited number of school-age children, making it hard to justify a new elementary school that enrolled “400-some odd students in a very small rural parish.”
Massachusetts-based SchoolWorks evaluated Slaughter Community’s charter proposal and , saying it met all 124 applicable standards.
State Schools Superintendent Cade Brumley said he’d hoped that the East Feliciana School Board and Slaughter Charter could have reached an agreement rather than seeking a state charter.
“It is certainly a school that is worth expansion,” Brumley said.
Toby Daspit, an education professor at the University of h at Lafayette, disputed that idea. Daspit conducted a third-party evaluation for East Feliciana leaders urging them to reject Slaughter Community’s charter application.
Testifying Tuesday, Daspit said the charter group offered nothing innovative in its proposal and it lacked expertise in educating younger children.
“Yes, they operate a successful secondary school, but can they scale it down to an elementary level?” Daspit asked.
The East Feliciana school board, through the years, has resisted efforts to expand Slaughter Community Charter into the lower grades. In 2017, it rejected an application to convert Slaughter Elementary into a charter school run by Slaughter Community Charter.
In 2025, Slaughter Charter sought to amend its contract to add sixth grade. The school district agreed, but would allow only 15 students to enroll — Slaughter Community Charter normally enrolls about 60 students per grade.
The charter school then revived the idea of starting a new charter elementary school. This time, the new school plans to operate initially on the nearby charter school campus. Last year, 22 acres adjacent to the charter school were purchased, land that could serve as a permanent location for the new elementary school.
Slaughter Elementary, with 466 students, is East Feliciana Parish’s largest public school. It educates 30% of the 1,600-plus students in the school district. Slaughter Elementary and the charter school in Slaughter combined educate more than half the students in the district. The almost 800 students in other district schools are about 84% Black and almost all qualify for public assistance programs.