A nonprofit arts school that operated for a decade at a former public school in south Kenner has been shut down because it is not allowed there by federal airport regulations.
The Cervantes School of Art opened at the campus of Stephen J. Barbre Middle School in 1997 under a rent-free agreement with then-Mayor Louis Congemi.
"The school as of right now is shut down," Javier Olondo, who coordinated music instruction at the school, said Monday. "As of right now we're just searching for a new location."
Barbre closed as a public school in 1995, the year that the Federal Aviation Administration bought it as part of a program to improve safety and reduce noise complaints around Louis Armstrong International Airport. The FAA gave the site to the city of Kenner in a land swap.
Recent research found that federal noise regulations bar the buildings there from being used for certain things such as schools, said Mike Yenni, chief administrative officer to Mayor Ed Muniz.
"We are trying to help relocate them somewhere in the city, if not the parish," Yenni said.
Congemi says he thinks Kenner had permission for the classes to be held in the building.
"I am sure we checked with the FAA and the airport," said Congemi, now a Jefferson Parish Council member. "I know that the airport knew that they were operating there."
An attorney for the New Orleans Aviation Board could not be reached.
The Barbre campus is home to other functions as well: the Kenner Food Bank and the city Recreation Department's gymnastics classes. Yenni said city officials think the food bank is allowed because it is an office and the gymnastics classes are OK because they are an "indoor recreational activity." To be sure, city attorneys are looking into these uses as well, he said.
The Cervantes eviction comes after Muniz reviewed the building with an eye toward having the tenants pay rent, utilities or insurance. Olondo said those details were being worked out when Cervantes received a letter from Kenner, which said federal guidelines prohibit it from using the building at all.
Olondo said the school employed 13 instructors, most with degrees in the areas they teach. It offered classes in music theory, art, piano, classical and jazz guitar, voice, oil painting, drawing and dance, Olondo said.
"The impact of Cervantes in the community is something that had no question," he said.
. . . . . . .
Mary Sparacello can be reached at [email protected] or (504) 467-1726.
