Last fall, for the first time since Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans’ school district opened a new school of its own, The Leah Chase School. Everybody’s gonna do charter.”New Orleans Schools, 10 Years After Katrina: Beacon Or Warning? “If you close low-performing schools, students end up in better schools and they do better,” Harris says. Why school closures are so painfulIn recent years, New Orleans’ school board has closed an average of about two charter schools a year. Zervigón points out that charter schools in New Orleans are more closely regulated than they were in the beginning, and they have far fewer freedoms than charter schools elsewhere.