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N O L A.C O M
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F r i d ay, J a n u a ry 9, 2026
School Board votes to keep Leah Chase School open
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Council overrides Cantrell Mayor’s veto of spending freeze struck down
BY JONI HESS Staff writer
The New Orleans City Council on Thursday overrode Mayor LaToya Cantrell’s veto of a spending freeze it imposed at City Hall, a finalhour conflict between the council and the mayor at the last meeting of the council’s term. The council voted unanimously to shoot down Cantrell’s Dec. 30 objection to its spending measure. That measure temporarily blocked city leaders from spending any city revenues until Monday, when Mayor-elect Helena Moreno and the new council are sworn into office. Though the measure froze spending of “any current funds held by the city,” the council also specifically named funds the city has received from the Sewerage & Water Board, from federal American Rescue Plan Act grants and from oil proceeds tied to the Edward Wisner Trust. Those funds are part of Moreno’s plan to generate $74 million in additional revenue to get the city back
ä See COUNCIL, page 10A
The Leah Chase School is the only traditional public school in New Orleans.
STAFF PHOTO By BRETT DUKE
Decision conditioned on receipt of private donations BY MARIE FAZIO Staff writer
The Orleans Parish School Board voted unanimously Thursday to keep the Leah Chase School open, giving the city’s only traditional public school at least two years’ reprieve after families and community leaders rallied to support the school as it faced financial challenges and low enrollment. In an unusual move, the board conditioned its decision on the receipt of private donations. If nearly $1 million in pledged money does not come through within one week, the board said it will reverse its decision and close the school.
“Closing it would erase a meaningful choice for families who want a public school.” LEONA TATE, civil rights pioneer The closely watched vote came at the end of a tense meeting where community members, public officials, teachers, parents and a student urged the board not to close the school, which opened in 2024 to great fanfare but earned a D state rating this year. The board’s debate over whether or not to close the only district-run school in New Orleans’ all-charter school system drew intense public interest — all the
more because of its namesake, Leah Chase, the famed New Orleans chef and “Queen of Creole Cuisine.” Leona Tate, a civil rights pioneer who helped desegregate New Orleans public schools, addressed the board Thursday, urging it to keep the school open. “Closing it would erase a meaningful choice for families who want a public school,” said Tate, one of the “New Orleans Four,” Black girls who integrated the schools in 1960. “Parents are telling you it is working,” she added. “They’re asking for stability.” In December, after an outcry from
ä See SCHOOL, page 10A
Elysian Fields hotel plan OK’d by council BY JONAH MEADOWS Staff writer
The New Orleans City Council on Thursday cleared the way for a controversial hotel in the Faubourg Marigny, overruling the recommendation of its own regulators and ignoring opposition from the neighborhood. The council voted 4-1 to approve plans for the five-story, 128-room Home2 Suites by Hilton, a midpriced extended stay hotel that will be built on a vacant lot at 621 Elysian Fields Ave. For nearly three years, neighbors have fought
ä See HOTEL, page 10A
Protesters take to streets of Minneapolis after killing by ICE officer BY REBECCA SANTANA and TIM SULLIVAN Associated Press
MINNEAPOLIS — As anger and outrage spilled out onto Minneapolis’ streets Thursday over the fatal shooting of a woman the day before by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer, a new shooting by federal officers in Oregon left two people wounded and elicited more scrutiny of enforcement operations across the country. Hundreds of people protesting the shooting of Renee Good as she tried to drive away marched in freezing rain Thursday night down one of Minneapo-
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afternoon and the conditions of the two people wounded were not immediately ä Shooting victim was a mother of three, known. The FBI’s Portland office said a poet and new to Minnesota. Page 14A it is investigating. Just as it did following the Minneapoä Immigration agents shoot and wound lis shooting, the Department of Hometwo people in Portland, Ore. Page 14A land Security defended the actions of the officers in Portland, saying the lis’ major thoroughfares chanting “ICE shooting occurred after a Venezuelan out now” and holding signs saying, man with alleged gang ties and who “killer ice off our streets.” Protesters was involved in a recent shooting tried earlier vented their outrage outside to “weaponize” his vehicle to hit the of a federal facility that’s serving as a officers. It wasn’t clear yet if witness hub for the administration’s latest im- video corroborates that account. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi migration crackdown on a major city. The shooting in Portland, Oregon, ä See PROTESTERS, page 14A took place outside a hospital Thursday
ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By TOM BAKER
People gather Thursday around a makeshift memorial honoring the victim of Wednesday’s shooting in Minneapolis.
Business ...................12A Commentary ................7B Nation-World................2A Classified .....................7D Deaths .........................3B Opinion ........................6B Comics-Puzzles .....3D-6D Living............................1D Sports ..........................1C
13TH yEAR, NO. 150