BATON ROUGE, La. (BRPROUD) – This summer, the Prescott area middle school formerly known as Democracy Prep will undergo a massive change.

According to Shan N. Davis, the Executive Director of the Louisiana Board of Elementary and Secondary Education, the campus will fall under the jurisdiction of the Louisiana Department of Education’s Recovery School District or RSD.

The institution will become a Direct-Run Charter School with a Partnership Agreement between RSD and a Colorado-based charter school operator called Third Future Schools.

To put it simply, Democracy Prep will be run by Third Future Schools on behalf of the RSD.

The decision was made during a March 7 meeting of BESE’s School Innovation and Turnaround Committee.

During the meeting, Third Future Schools, which describes itself as a nationwide, award-winning network of free public charter schools, was represented by its CEO, Mike Miles.

Miles answered the committee’s questions and detailed how he expected Third Future to benefit East Baton Rouge Parish’s students and community.

While addressing the committee, Miles mentioned that the average Third Future teacher’s salary is about $12,000 more than the average district’s, which comes to roughly $80,000 annually.

He also noted that in addition to ensuring that students take core subjects, Third Future would hire community members to teach additional classes like piano, dance, photography, and marital arts.

Miles then detailed another perk for students, explaining that while younger students would enjoy local field trips to enhance their studies, seventh graders would be able to participate in out-of-state trips and eighth graders would be able to go on international trips.

Miles said the extra classes and travel are designed to give students an enhanced perspective.

Third Future’s CEO also touched on improvements in test scores, saying that its organization has helped multiple schools improve quickly.

“We feel confident that we’ll be able to turn around the school in one year,” Miles said. “I don’t have any illusions about how hard it is, and every school is a little bit different. But we know kids can respond to high quality instruction. We’ve done our turnaround in six different cities.”

Every member of the committee voted to allow Third Future to maintain control of the campus for the next three school years through the summer of 2026.

BESE says the new charter school is authorized to open for the 2023-2024 school year.

Click here for additional information about the school and its employment opportunities.