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HOUSE CALLS Riveroaks Elementary employs Harry Potter-esque system to promote student motivation
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Health insurance cost hikes forecast Without extension, ACA premiums likely to soar for Louisiana residents
BY EMILY WOODRUFF Staff writer
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House Rêveur leader Osman Tabora gets ready to spin the wheel to see the reward that his house will receive for reaching a goal at Riveroaks Elementary on Friday. BY CHARLES LUSSIER Staff writer
It was only her fifth day of school and Zury Murcia found herself standing in front of a strange, multicolored wheel with an auditorium full of her new Riveroaks Elementary classmates cheering her on. “You’re going to spin the wheel, and it’s going to land on a color,” explained music teacher Corey Hill. “Whatever color it is, that’s what house you’re going to be in, all right?” This Baton Rouge elementary school has four houses — Altruismo, Amistad, Isbindi and Reveur — and each has its own signature colors — black, red, green and blue, respectively. These houses compete with each other continuously throughout the year, amassing points when students achieve academically and behaviorally. They include adults as well as children. This Harry Potter-esque “house system,” developed by the Atlantabased Ron Clark Academy, has taken quick root this school year at Riveroaks. And it’s most on display every Friday at the neighborhood school’s weekly “house meeting.”
Victor McQuillen and his wife have relied on an Affordable Care Act marketplace plan for their health insurance for most of the past decade. This past year, it was a Blue Cross and Blue Shield silver policy that cost them about $300 a month. It saw them through health issues and the arrival of their newborn daughter. But when the 40-year-old freelance live audio engineer logged in to renew for 2026, the number on his screen made him stop cold. The plan he’d been paying $300 a month for was now listed at roughly $2,000 a month. “If you qualify for any ACA benefits, then there’s no way you can afford to spend $2,000 a month,” he said. “That’s really a joke. It’s not a real number. It might as well be $10,000.” For McQuillen and thousands of others across the state, those “not real” numbers are an early glimpse of what’s ahead if Congress allows the ACA’s enhanced premium tax credits to lapse after 2025. The enhanced credits — beefed-up subsidies first created during the COVID-19 pandemic — helped drive marketplace enrollment to record highs and brought average premiums down to about $73 a month in Louisiana. The ACA’s premium tax credits lower the monthly cost of health insurance for people who buy coverage on the federal marketplace and have low or moderate incomes.
ä See INSURANCE, page 5A
FEMA head quits unexpectedly after six months BY MARK BALLARD and GABRIELA AOUN ANGUEIRA Staff and Associated Press writers
Brook Wells, of house Altruismo, reads information about the food drive at Riveroaks Elementary on Friday. “Through the house system they form, the other Riveroaks students feel like they belong, and that sense this Friday afternoon were wearing of belonging motivates them,” Prin- T-shirts in their house colors. But before she could join her cipal Angela Oquin said. While Zury on Friday was wearing ä See HOUSE, page 4A her burgundy-and-black school uni-
SAN DIEGO — The acting chief of the Federal Emergency Management Agency left his job Monday after just six months, according to the Department of Homeland Security, the latest disruption in a year of mass staff departures, program cuts and policy upheaval at the agency charged with managing federal disaster response. David Richardson is leaving the post after replacing previous acting head Cameron Hamilton. DHS did not comment on the reason for his
ä See FEMA, page 5A
Rouses acquires 10 Winn-Dixie locations CEO says stores will be converted early next year BY STEPHANIE RIEGEL Staff writer
Rouses Markets is purchasing 10 Winn-Dixie locations in Louisiana and Mississippi from the Florida-based chain’s parent company, continuing its yearslong regional expansion and adding to its share of the local grocery market. Terms of the deal, announced on
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Monday, were not disclosed. But Rouses CEO Donny Rouse Jr. said the stores — including a location on Chef Menteur Highway in New Orleans East that is one of the few grocery stores in the underserved area — will be converted to Rouses Markets early next year. All Winn-Dixie employees who meet Rouses’ hiring criteria will be offered jobs. “It’s a big opportunity for us and will be great for the community,” Rouse said Monday by phone. In addition to the store on Chef Menteur Highway, locations that are part of the deal include two Jefferson Parish
stores (one in Kenner and one in Marrero), three on the northshore, and one each in Destrehan, Gramercy, Central and Hattiesburg, Mississippi. “Some locations will be new markets for us,” said Rouse, the third-generation CEO of the company founded by his grandfather in 1960. “Others are existing markets where we already do well and wanted to expand.” The deal comes two months after Robert Fresh Market, another local chain, acquired the century-old
STAFF PHOTO By DAVID GRUNFELD
The Winn-Dixie on Chef Menteur Highway in New Orleans East is one of 10 locations in the region acquired by ä See ROUSES, page 4A Rouses.
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