School Board, NORA invite community feedback on future of Israel Augustine Middle School Building

Read the full article at Verite News

by Safura Syed

September 24, 2025

The New Orleans Redevelopment Authority and the Orleans Parish School Board are seeking the public’s input on the proposed redevelopment of a long-vacant school, Israel Augustine Middle School, a century-old building once identified as one of the city’s most endangered architectural sites. 

On Tuesday (Sept. 23), the school board and NORA, which have partnered to redevelop unused school properties, convened a public meeting to discuss plans for the former middle school. 

The Augustine building, at 425 S. Broad Street, near Tulane Avenue, first opened in 1913 as Samuel J. Peters Junior High School. It was renamed in the 1990s in honor of Israel Meyers Augustine Jr., who in 1969 became Louisiana’s first Black criminal district judge since Reconstruction. It served as a school until Hurricane Katrina, when it was shuttered due to damage. The school, which is notable in part for the Works Progress Administration murals in its auditorium, has sat vacant for the past 20 years and has been allowed to deteriorate, prompting the Louisiana Landmarks Society in 2017 to place it on its annual “New Orleans 9” list of endangered properties. 

The school board still owns the building, along with about a dozen other empty school buildings just like it. Don LeDuff, OPSB’s chief operations officer, said that maintaining those properties comes at a “significant cost” to the school district, which has to secure the property, install alarm systems and maintain its utilities. 

“I have a responsibility to make sure that we’re using our funds to educate children, and maintaining vacant properties is not a good use of those funds,” LeDuff said.

Proposals to revamp historic New Orleans school buildings have led to controversy in the recent past. In 2022, the NOLA Public School District’s move to shutter the former McDonogh 15 building — the last school operating in the French Quarter — led to public outcry from residents and former students, who were fearful that it would be sold to condo developers. The district rescinded the decision, allowing the building’s then-tenant — Homer Plessy Community Schools — to remain on the site. The building was recently taken over by the French immersion charter school Lycée Français de la Nouvelle-Orléans.

In the case of the Augustine building, while OPSB plans to retain ownership of the property, there are no plans to reopen it as a school. Demolition, however, is not on the table, officials said at the meeting. 

“The overall intent from the School Board is that the School Board would ultimately be a long-term landlord,” said NORA executive director Brenda Breaux. “[The site is] not going to be a school.”

Savings on maintenance as well as potential rental revenue could benefit the school districts, which is facing financial difficulties amid decreasing enrollment.

The Israel Augustine site is zoned as a mixed-use district, which means that the building could be converted into residential properties, art studios, early childcare centers, office space or grocery stores, among other things. Breaux said NORA hopes to open solicitation for developers in the fall, and for the official awarding of the property to happen at a school board meeting next February. According to the projected timeline, construction will begin next winter, and will wrap up in 2028. So far the district has only received 33 responses on how to redevelop the building, with conversion to affordable housing being one of the most popular responses. 

Mark Clayton, who attended Tuesday’s meeting, said that he has been watching the property since he bought a house in the neighborhood eight years ago. He said he wasn’t sure what he’d like to see the property become, because all developments have their own pros and cons, but that ultimately, “it should be community focused and community-oriented.”

NORA and OPSB are also working towards redeveloping Valena C. Jones Elementary School in the 7th Ward. Once selected, developers will pay for renovations, and revenue brought to OPSB as landlords of the properties would be reinvested into active school buildings, said board member Olin Parker, one of the two board members who attended Tuesday’s meeting. Parker said he hears about the two properties often from community members and hopes that the partnership with NORA can bring positive effects to the city. 

“We have a lot of properties and we need to be good stewards of those properties, and one way to do that is to get them into commerce by selling them to developers,” Parker said. “Another way to do that, with properties like these, which are near and dear to the community, is to make sure that their reuse benefits everybody.”

NORA officials said they will hold a virtual community meeting in October but haven’t yet announced an exact date for it. A planning meeting for Valena C. Jones is scheduled for Thursday (Sept. 25) at Mary McLeod Bethune Elementary. Officials also encouraged residents to provide their ideas for the reuse of both the Israel Augustine and Valena C. Jones site through an online survey by Nov. 9.