Against the backdrop of a beautiful spring day, leaders of Louisiana Key Academy held a celebration Thursday in front of their new home, a private school campus that closed in 2022.
The charter school, which caters to children with dyslexia, has spent the past 11 years in the old Westmoreland Shopping Center at 3172 Government St.
Initially sharing space with a Piccadilly’s and a RadioShack, Louisiana Key Academy, or LKA, grew to occupy the entire building. It now has 443 students in kindergarten to ninth grade. LKA won approval in October 2022 to add a new high school with as many as 280 students, but needed more space before it could follow through with those plans.
“This beautiful new campus will allow us to expand LKA’s reach and impact,” Ali Landry, LKA's new CEO, said Thursday. “And we will have room to grow.”
Landry’s hiring in January is an indication of the charter school’s transformation from a stand-alone school to a network of schools.
Besides the new high school in Baton Rouge, Louisiana Key Academy has expanded to other parts of Louisiana. It opened a campus in Covington in 2022 and one in Shreveport in 2023; those schools have 258 and 90 students, respectively.
Louisiana Key Academy plans to expand yet again this fall by opening a learning pod in Ruston as an extension of its Caddo campus; it has yet to formally notify state regulators of the new learning pod.
In moving eight miles southeast to 5015 Auto Plex Drive in Baton Rouge, Louisiana Key Academy will have ample room to expand, enough to enroll an estimated 530 students next year and more in the future.
Its new home was formerly Baton Rouge International School, which closed in 2022 after 22 years in operation. The campus has an elementary section, with 6,000 square feet, and a newer secondary section with 26,000 square feet of space, including a dozen classrooms, a basketball gym, a performing arts stage, cafeteria and an outdoor cafe. There also is room for temporary buildings, which the school plans to move onto the campus.
Also speaking Thursday was Lesley Guzzardo, a master teacher at the charter school. She leads its STEAM program — short for science, technology, engineering, arts and math. She said the new facility will help her program grow and flourish.
“LKA is more than just classrooms and textbooks. It is a space where students are celebrated for their strengths and not just judged for their differences,” Guzzardo said. “As students discover their strengths and build their skills, they are gaining the confidence to pursue their dreams in fields like robotics, engineering, animation or even becoming the next breakthrough scientist.”
Thursday’s event included a groundbreaking ceremony. Landry said the school has hired a contractor to make renovations ahead of the start of the 2024-25 school year. She said Key Academy is also planning to hold a summer camp in June at the Auto Plex Drive campus.
LKA has been receiving help from New School Facility Partners, an arm of the influential pro-charter school group, New Schools for Baton Rouge.
Louisiana Key Academy plans to lease the Auto Plex Drive property from Baton Rouge native and Florida businessman Ryan Jumonville, who purchased the 20-plus acre property in December for $4.2 million. Landry said that the two parties are close, but have yet to finalize that lease.
Taking Key Academy’s place on Government Street will be St. Lillian Academy, a small private school that caters to children with disabilities. The old shopping center is owned by Catholic High School. Jumonville is a graduate of Catholic High.
Dr. Laura Cassidy, a co-founder and board chair for Louisiana Key Academy, was present Thursday but did not speak. Cassidy and her husband, U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy, became prominent dyslexia advocates after the couple learned their daughter Kate had the condition.
