St. Helena Central Middle School To Stay Under State Control

GREENBURG, La. (AP) — A federal district judge says he has the authority to transfer the state-run St. Helena Central Middle School back into local school board control but he's not going to do so right now.

The Advocate reports St. Helena Parish school system officials argued that the district's dramatic improvement in state test scores, coupled with a financial turnaround from the brink of insolvency, proved that local officials know best how to improve parish schools and should be given a chance to do the same for the middle school.

But U.S. District Judge James J. Brady, who oversees the parish's 60-year-old desegregation case, said Monday he wants to see a longer track record of success before he considers removing the middle school from the Louisiana Department of Education's Recovery School District.