Employees of French immersion charter school Lycée Français de la Nouvelle-Orléans claim that school administrators have waged an aggressive, and illegal, intimidation campaign to squash a nascent unionization drive.
According to a series of complaints filed over the past nine months with the National Labor Relations Board by the United Teachers of New Orleans — the citywide teachers’ union that’s partnered with Lycée employees — administrators allegedly gave teachers who supported the union the impression that they were being monitored, interrogated an employee about their support for the union and retaliated against teachers who supported the new teachers union.
According to the complaints, which allege that the school’s actions violated federal labor law, Lycée administration denied contract renewals for multiple teachers who signalled support for the union, including foreign employees whom the school had brought in on work or cultural-exchange visas. Other union-supporting teachers were allegedly terminated outright.
In an emailed response to inquiries from Verite News, Lycée spokesperson King Logan declined to discuss the charges.
“So long as these matters pertain to ongoing NLRB actions, we cannot and will not comment on any of them. We are confident that LFNO will be free from any liability once this process is concluded.”
Lycée employees started the process of forming a union early this year. The effort culminated in a May election on whether to unionize the school, and an overwhelming majority of teachers voted in favor.
The school’s administration, however, has been less enthusiastic. In a written statement after the May election, school Superintendent Chase McLaurin said, “We generally see interjection of a union between administration and staff as complicating efforts at communication.” Since then, according to union representatives, administrators have refused to sit down with the union to negotiate a collective bargaining agreement.
And in interviews, former teachers at the school described an environment that grew increasingly hostile after McLaurin took over leadership in the 2022-3023 school year. They said the administration began engaging in union-busting behavior, including using disciplinary action against teachers who supported a union and firing others.
Aurore Soliman, whom the school hired at the beginning of the 2022-23 school year to teach 3rd grade, said she received strong positive feedback from administrators in her evaluations before she and other teachers decided to unionize.
But on May 10, three days before employees were set to vote on whether to unionize, Soliman was notified that she was terminated and that her last day of employment would be May 31. She said she felt the timing of presenting her with the termination letter was to intimidate her from participating in the union vote. Ultimately, more than 80% of the teachers at Lycée Francais voted in favor of the union.
“I was the super teacher and then when they started to know I was supportive of the union it [started] to drop and then I was fired,” Soliman said. Soliman, who is from France and was here on an H-1B work visa, had two months to either find work or return to France.
Students and parents have shown their support for teachers who they feel the school has treated unfairly. Soliman said when she found new employment in Florida, one Lycée parent drove her and her son and their belongings to their new home state.
When 5th grade teacher Samuel Fick was terminated on Nov. 8, 2024, parents once again sprung into action. Daniella Santoro, whose daughter is in kindergarten, said Fick’s termination “galvanized” parents to increase their support for the teachers’ union.
In a board meeting last week, Santoro and other parents demanded that the school negotiate with the union. But the school has refused to sit down at the negotiating table to iron out a contract, according to a representative from UTNO.
Santoro said she doesn’t believe the school can truly care for students without caring for its educators.
“We’re realizing this is our fight too,” she said. “Why would we trust them if we learn that they are not respecting the basic workers’ rights of the teachers. It calls into question what they are saying about their choices about our children as well.”
Parents have also launched a website expressing their frustrations.
‘We thought it couldn’t be worse’
Berenguer Becat, a social studies teacher originally from Spain, said there have long been problems between employees and teachers at the school.
When he arrived in the United States in August 2020, he thought that the administration was disorganized. And he was concerned about what he thought was an unfair salary gap between pay for teachers on visas and U.S. citizens and permanent residents.
But things deteriorated after the 2022 hiring of school superintendent Chase McLaurin, he said.
“At that time, we thought it couldn’t be worse,” he said. “After Chase arrived things went crazy.”
Becat, who taught 8th grade social studies, said at first he felt good about McLaurin’s arrival. He said salaries for visa-holding employees were increased to closer match that of American ones.
But in January 2023, the school fired fellow social studies teacher Jennifer “Jinger” Whiddon, allegedly because Whiddon encouraged students to attend public meetings of Lycee’s governing board to voice their concerns about conditions at the school. Students responded to the move by staging a protest.
Whiddon’s termination made him and other teachers worry about job security.
Fick said other issues soon began to creep in – teacher salaries were frozen due to budget concerns, there was an increase in employee insurance contributions and administrators demanded that teachers work longer hours.
In January, Fick and other teachers hand delivered a letter of support for a union with a list of names of teacher organizers behind the effort and filed a petition to unionize with the National Labor Relations Board.
According to NLRB documents, the administration immediately challenged the foreign teachers’
Becat said McLaurin responded by sending out anti-union emails to staff. In an email on February 6 that Verite News reviewed, McLaurin provided answers to “frequently asked questions” that appeared to portray the union as unnecessary. In one March email, McLaurin claimed employees had made complaints that union organizers were “harassing” and “bullying” them.
Under McLaurin, teachers with no blemishes on their records began receiving disciplinary actions, Fick and Becat said.
Fick, who began working at the school in 2012, said before this year, formal disciplinary actions at the school were “extremely rare.”
“It’s just hard not to draw a casual relationship between, ‘Oh we are organizing and now everybody is being nitpicked about little things,” he said.
According to Fick, the school’s choice to refuse to renew foreign teachers contracts was also rare. He said although the cultural exchange visas used by many Lycee teachers are good for three years, it was a general practice for the school to request visa extensions for up to five years – the maximum amount of time someone can work under an exchange visitor visa.
But in March, school administrators told Becat that his contract would not be renewed for another year, he said. They told him they did not have enough working hours to keep him employed, he said.
At the end of April, Becat was placed on administrative leave. A letter provided few details as to why, only that there had been a “recently reported incident.” He requested more information, but the administration did not respond. The letter warned him that he could be arrested for trespassing if he stepped on campus “without prior approval.”
Then, on May 10, three days before teachers were to vote on the union, he, Soliman and at least three other teachers received letters informing them that their employment would be terminated, according to the NLRB filings. The letter to Becat said he had been insubordinate, had not fulfilled his job requirements and had engaged in activity that made the school look bad. Because of his suspension Becat did not get to see his students finish the school year.
Becat said he was barred from attending the 8th grade graduation ceremony on school property. He said he was invited by a parent to the high school graduation at Loyola University, but when he attempted to attend the event, he said security officers blocked him from entering the auditorium.
“It was a painful ending of the school year,” Becat said. “It took me a long time to process.”
Fick and Soliman expressed great care for the students and families of Lycée Francais. Fick said he doesn’t wish to tarnish the school’s reputation, but feels strongly about standing up for teachers across New Orleans. Soliman said she wishes the administration had chosen to work with the union instead of against the teachers who supported it.
“This school could be a lighthouse in Louisiana for French culture and education,” Soliman said. “And they just destroyed it. It’s really heartbreaking.”
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