Archbishop Blenk High School - Blenk/Immaculata Merge

Blenk/Immaculata Merge

The Archdiocese of New Orleans has announced that after the 2006-2007 school year, Archbishop Blenk and Immaculata High School, both located on the westbank, will merge. The new school will be called The Academy of Our Lady. Alumni, parents of students, and students have protested against this merger. One group of concerned parents, students and alumni have created a web site called Stop The Merger to pass along information in the hope of preventing the merger of Archbishop Blenk and Immaculata. http://www.stopthemerger.net/ The new school, like Immaculata, will be run by the Salesian Sisters.

The Times-Picayune reported on January 4, 2007: "Reversing course for the third time in less than a year, the Archdiocese of New Orleans will close the 46-year-old Archbishop Blenk High School in Gretna at the end of the school year and shift its students to Immaculata High in Marrero. Under a plan announced last spring, students at both schools would have been consolidated at Blenk’s Gretna Boulevard campus, and Immaculata closed, until construction of a new all-girls Catholic school on the West Bank. Then, a second plan to retain both campuses under a new name was announced in October."

The Blenk building will be remodeled and used for a new magnet school. Since the magnet school is public, all religious figures and statues will be removed from campus. The incoming school is Thomas Jefferson Senior High School, a magnet school for advanced studies.