The Plaquemines Parish School Parish Makes Top Rated A

The Louisiana Department of Education released the school ratings for the 2018-2019 school year this week. According to the data provided, the Plaquemines Parish school system was the highlighted system this year. They jumped from a B district to an A district. Plaquemines Parish was the only district in the New Orleans metro area to earn the highest mark given to the state’s school districts.

Each year the state’s department of education looks at many factors to determine the district’s grade which include students’ test scores and student growth. The performance scores are converted to letter grades which are calculated using metrics that show how the students did on key tests, graduation rates and academic growth. In order to become an A district, the district and schools need to get 90 points out of 150.

The scores are accounted for differently in elementary schools and high schools. The elementary school level’s grade includes 25% for growth, where only 12.5% accounts for growth in the high school level. The remaining 75% of the grade in the elementary level is based on actual test scores. The high school level is calculated as follows: 12.5% on student growth, 12.5% on state test assessment, 25% on ACT scores, 25% on student graduation rate and the remaining 25% based on strength of diploma.

According to the data collected, most metro area’s districts remained at the same grade. St. Bernard, St. Charles and St. Tammany parishes remained at a B and Orleans, Jefferson and St. John the Baptist parishes remained at a C.

Overall, the stated maintained its grade B. Superintendent John White is working with ways to improve the grade to an A.

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A Building Material That Can Protect Homes During Natural Disasters

Natural disasters are one of a homeowner’s biggest fears. Hurricanes, earthquakes, tornadoes and fires can cause many to lose their homes and all of their possessions. There is a company that can help protect homes during these unpredictable weather phenomenons. RSG 3-D has created a building material that can keep a house intact during hurricanes, earthquakes, tornadoes and fires.

The building material is called 3D cementitious sandwich panel. Each panel is constructed of fire retardant foam that is held between two wire mesh faces. The wire mesh faces are connected with reinforcement wires running through the foam and the whole piece is then covered with concrete.

“The RSG 3-D panel is known for it resilience to natural disaster,” RSG 3-D CEO Ken Calligar said. “The panels are fireproof, they are seismic resistant beyond any earthquake recorded in human history and they are also hurricane resistant. They’ve been tested throughout the world through 200 hurricanes, hundreds of seismic events and several wildfires.”

Although this building material is still new to the US, the technology behind it is not. NASA has used a similar version to build spacecrafts. In fact, President Carter used the technology to rebuild damaged buildings in Florida and Georgia.

“One of the major push for that technology actually was the adoption of that system by our former President Carter,” said Ayman Mossallam, a civil and engineering professor at the University of California, Irvine.

The reason it has just now been noticed in the US building industry is because it can now be massed produced. EVG, a company in Austria, created machines to assemble the panels which brought the manufacturing cost down. RSG 3-D uses EVG’s technology and machines to mass produce the material, bringing it to the United States.

“Housing economists will tell you that 77 percent of homes built in the United States are at extreme risk for some type of natural disaster,” said Calligar. “The East Coast is primarily hurricane, the Midwest is tornadoes, which we will also survive, the Rockies and the West are wildfire plus seismic events. We are resistant to all of that.”

This can be a game changer when it comes to the structural integrity of a home. Reports show that 2018 was the costliest year on record for climate disasters in our country. According to NOAA, there were over $300 billion in damages.

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More Train Traffic in the Horizon for Gretna

Despite the recent vote to not build a new section of track through downtown Gretna, both the Gretna mayor and railroad executives say there will still be railroad work on the horizon.

“The traffic is coming,” Robert Bach, president and chief operating officer of Rio Grande Pacific Railroad, said Tuesday. “We were seeking for a way to handle it more efficiently. The city disagreed, so we’re going to stick with what we’ve got.”

The expected railroad traffic is due to the proposed liquid fuel terminal that will be in Plaquemines Parish. The $2.5 billion crude oil export terminal is proposed by Kansas-based Tallgrass Energy and will be located in the Myrtle Grove area nearly 25 miles downriver. That means that there could be approximately four trains with 100 cars that will go back and forth through Gretna on a weekly basis.

“Our efforts now are focused on the traffic that we foresee coming and handling (it) on the current route, sans curve,” Bach said.

Rio Grande Pacific Railroad says the planned new connector would alleviate the process of trains having to go in and out of a switching yard located in Gretna in order to pass through the town on their way to Plaquemines. This would allow trains to pass through Gretna in less time and would bypass a portion of the route that includes an elementary school and many residential homes.

Many city officials and members of Gretna’s legislative delegation do not want trains to go through Gretna’s downtown area period. They feel that there are too many unprotected railroad crossings in the area. They hoped that an alternate plan that would reroute trains on new tracks that would be built along Peters Road would allow the downtown area to escape the train traffic.

This alternative plan would cost $350 million and would take several years to complete. According to Rio Grande, the liquid fuel terminal would not make enough income to pay for moving the tracks.

“We have to come together to work on a unified plan to reroute that rail if Gretna is going to survive any expansion in Plaquemines Parish,” Gretna Mayor Belinda Constant said.

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What’s Next For the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center’s Upriver Land

The 1200-room hotel on the upriver end of the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center is the first part of the new entertainment district planned for the Convention Center’s 47 upriver acres. The $558 million hotel is scheduled to be completed in late 2023 with a grand opening in early 2024.

The Convention Center’s officials now want to focus on the remaining development of the entertainment district. They have extended the deadline for accepting proposals from developers to develop 20 of the 47 acres.

The extended deadline came under pressure from developers from local and national firms saying the initial timeline was too short to propose for such a large development. Michael Sawaya, the Convention Center’s president and general manager, made the decision to push the deadline back two weeks since there is such high level of interest from developers.

Officials envision retail outlets, private residences and entertainment venues on the empty space between Tchoupitoulas Street and the Mississippi River. The land, which is one of the city’s largest untouched properties, would make an excellent new district for the city. It would keep the area competitive with other tourism destinations.

“This project is going to define what New Orleans is for the foreseeable future,” Barry Kern, who owns Mardi Gras World, said. “A lot of other cities that we do business with are seeing these type of things happen, but none of them have the music, food, and culture of New Orleans. We have a competitive advantage over any other city, but the only way we’re going to keep that is to be super creative in what happens with this.”

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High New Orleans Prices Leads Home Buyers to the Suburbs

With rising home prices in New Orleans, many potential homebuyers have been priced out of the market. Many consumers are looking in areas that have not had such dramatic jumps in prices. One of these areas is Marrero, Louisiana.

After moving out of New Orleans due to Hurricane Katrina, Janine Lewis moved back to New Orleans in 2010. Around a year ago she decided to buy a home instead of renting. Hollygrove is where Janine grew up and after renting her whole life she decided to purchase a home in the New Orleans area.

The search for a home close to the area she grew up turned out to be disheartening for her. Home prices in Metairie, her old neighborhood around West Napoleon and Cleary Avenues, are rising at a steady rate. The house prices per square foot on average for the first six months of 2019 was $171.

“I didn’t like the West Bank since I was little,” Lewis said. “At first I was looking in Kenner and parts of Metairie, and I didn’t mind a little fixer-upper. But when I started to look at new-builds in the West Bank, it was actually cheaper than the old houses in Metairie that I was looking at.”

Marrero, located on the West Bank, has an average price for single-family homes at just $107 per square foot. Janine was able to purchase a new three-bedroom, two-bathroom home in Brentwood, a 100-unit subdivision in Marrero, where homes have sold from $236,900 to $247,900.

Lewis’ story is the same for many other metro area residents. Steed “Steedie” Ubas Jr. who was born and raised in Marrero, purchased a home in the area. He chose to purchase in Marrero over New Orleans where he works as a welder for Textron because of the lower home prices. Proximity to work was not as  important to the cost of living for Steedie.

Steedie now is the proud homeowner of a three-bedroom, two-bathroom home in a brand new community called Pelican Bay in Marrero. His new home, in the 218 unit neighborhood, only cost him $190,000.

“I bought in Pelican Bay because it’s close enough to the city and it’s close to the swamp, to Lafitte (National Historical Park), right in the middle of everything,” Ubas said.

Morrero is seeing a big push in new homeowners in the area according to Nell Francipane, a sales representative for DSLD Homes, which built both Brentwood and Pelican Bay.

“Some are single and in their 20s, others in their 30s, 40s, 50s,” Francipane said. “We have had first-time home buyers and some might be on their fourth property. There are teachers, nurses, firemen, police officers, retirees, empty-nesters. Really, from all walks of life.”

This trend has been seen around many suburbs in the metro area. Jefferson Parish had more house sales than Orleans Parish in the first half of the year. St. Tammany Parish was the busiest of the eight metro parishes with the most home sales according to the Realtors Association.

Single-family homes rose 2.4% across the eight-parish metro area in the first half of 2019 according to the New Orleans Metropolitan Association of Realtors and the Gulf South Real Estate Information Network.

“There has been a lightening-up period in terms of (price) appreciation,” said real estate consultant Wade Ragas, who compiled the data. “Orleans Parish had been taking all the air out of the room, but about a year ago it started to shift and suburban parishes started to have more increases.”

The trend is reflected by the percentage of increases seen throughout the metro area. Jefferson parish only rose 4.7%, St. Tammany Parish saw a 2.1% increase, St. Charles rose 6.2%, St. John the Baptist Parish prices rose by 2.7% and the Belle Chasse area of Plaquemines Parish saw a 5.7% increase.

The Greater New Orleans area sees the most sales in the $200,000 – $400,000 range. According to local Brokers, golf communities in St. Tammany are doing the best. The first half of the year this area saw an 8% increase in home prices.

This trend will still run strong for the time being as the priciest home in the 70130 area code sold at $286 per square foot. The rising land cost will also keep pushing the large developers farther out from areas closer to the Lower Garden District, the CBD and the French Quarter.

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