About The FirstLine Schools Network
FirstLine Schools operates Samuel J. Green Charter School and Arthur Ashe Charter School. Both schools enroll children in kindergarten through eighth grade. Both are open-admissions public schools – no testing is required. Over the next two years, FirstLine will add three charter schools in New Orleans to our network: two kindergarten through eighth grade schools in the 2009-10 school year and a high school in 2010-11.
Our mission is to create and inspire great public schools in New Orleans. To fulfill that mission, we provide a caring community where students acquire the academic foundation necessary for success in high school and college. We also offer a wide variety of activities that nurture students' intellectual, social and moral growth.
FirstLine’s leaders are committed to sustainability and quality in public education. In 1992, they founded James Lewis Extension School, which they later converted to a charter school, the first in New Orleans. This school, New Orleans Charter Middle School, became the highest-performing open enrollment public middle school in the city between the school’s opening in 1999 until 2005, when the flooding from Hurricane Katrina destroyed the school building.
Our students live in every part of the city. About one-third of the enrollment is from the 70115 and 70118 zip codes; the others come from neighborhoods throughout Orleans Parish. Free air-conditioned buses provide transportation.
Green enrolls 460 students; Ashe currently has 240. Both schools offer innovative programs for students – including the nationally acclaimed Edible Schoolyard New Orleans – and for teacher development. Green also boasts a KaBoom playground and a flag football field.
After graduating from 8th grade, students attend high schools all over the city.
Ties with the schools don’t end at graduation, however. We have ninth-graders who even volunteer to come back and help around the school! FirstLine is a family – a network for life.
