Please plan to join us on October 6 at 10 a.m. for our ribbon cutting ceremony to open Baton Rouge’s newest high school, GEO Next Generation High School of Baton Rouge. Mayor Sharon Weston Broome will be with us to cut the ribbon.
GEO Next Generation High School is a very different high school in that each student is provided the opportunity to take real college courses on the college campus of Baton Rouge Community College. This approach provides students the ability to gain real college experience, understand expectations of college professors, gain self confidence, time management skills, and learn how to work with others. Of course, they earn real college credits, too.
The Next Gen High School model is built off their successful sister school in Gary, Indiana where students outperform many of the state’s richest (and whitest) school districts in terms of college and career readiness ratings.
“If we are serious about achieving equity in education, we must focus 100% of our budgets and our energies on helping our most vulnerable children not only graduate from high school on time, but do so fully prepared to go to college and complete college,” Linda Johnson, former chair of BESE and GEO Next Gen’s board chair, said. “I have been excited about this model ever since I saw it in 2015 and have worked for the past five years to see this school come to reality. This is a great day for the families of Baton Rouge!”
New Schools for Baton Rouge played a major role in constructing the new Next Gen building with support from Schola Building Fund, an organization that supports charter schools in building quality school buildings with loans on preferred terms. GEO Next Gen is the first recipient of a loan from this new loan fund.
GEO Next Gen currently serves more than 200 9th and 10th grade students and more than 25% are already taking college level classes. Several earned more than 16 college credits during their freshman year and have set their sites on earning a full Associate Degree prior to graduating from high school.
We look forward to seeing you on October 6.
Sincerely,
Kevin Teasley
President
GEO Foundation