New Orleans wanted a non-charter school. It doesn’t have enough students.

A little more than one year after opening the Leah Chase School, New Orleans’ first traditional public school in nearly two decades, school board members have a choice: invest more in the school in hopes of turning it around or cut their losses and shut it down.

When Leah Chase opened its doors last August, then-NOLA Public Schools superintendent Avis Williams called it a “pivotal moment” for New Orleans education . The Orleans Parish School Board was testing the waters for directly running schools, something the board had not done on a permanent basis since the state took control of most New Orleans schools after Hurricane Katrina.

But a little more than a year later, after millions of dollars and much fanfare, the school is on life support due to financial struggles and low enrollm