Committee reviews two metrics that would trigger an 'overcapacity' finding

At the policy committee meeting, presenters explained the two alternate metrics the administration would use to determine whether Orleans Parish is in a state of overcapacity.

First, the school-level fill-rate test measures the share of schools (K–8 and 9–12 separately) that meet 91% or more of their school-specific "optimal enrollment." The draft would treat fewer than 75% of schools meeting that threshold as an indicator of system overcapacity. Lagana said the shift to a school-level measure was intended to avoid masking under-enrolled schools within an overall system average.

Second, the campus-efficient enrollment test is a size-based threshold intended to capture whether typical campuses are large enough to be financially and programmatically sustainable. The draft sets a benchmark of roughly 675 students (about three sections per grade with 25–30 students per class) and says that if 50% or fewer of a grade-span's campuses meet that size threshold, the district could be in overcapacity.

Lagana emphasized that "optimal enrollment" will be set in annual meetings between NOLA-PS staff and schools and revisited each year, and that alternative school models and some small intentionally small schools would be considered within the process. Board members asked for simulations and past-year runs to see how these metrics would have applied historically; staff said they have run simulations using prior years' 10/1 counts and would share more detail.