Old Sci-Port management is out; new leadership coming

Sci-Port Discovery Center, the Shreveport science center and children's museum that has been on financial life support for the past year, will get new management.

Sci-Port Discovery Center Inc., the non-profit that previously ran Sci-Port, is out. In its place, a new non-profit entity backed by the Community Foundation of North Louisiana will take over the city-owned building on the Shreveport waterfront with the goal of operating a children's science center.

It will still be called the Sci-Port Discovery Center, said representatives from the old Sci-Port management and the Community Foundation. The change was announced at a news conference Wednesday afternoon at the Sci-Port building.

The new non-profit is Red River STEM Inc. (for Science, Technology, Engineering and Math). The Community Foundation will serve as the non-profit's fiscal agent initially, according to a news release.

Red River STEM is supported by a group of community organizations and individuals, according to the news release.

The new non-profit must conclude an agreement with the City of Shreveport. Sci-Port's IMAX and Power of Play children's museum will remain open pending city approval of the new arrangement.

Sci-Port opened on a limited basis earlier this year. It will remain partially open for now, with a full opening expected this fall, said Kristina Gustavson, president of the Community Foundation of North Louisiana.

Sci-Port's financial difficulties had come to light in the spring of 2017, when an audit by the Louisiana Legislative Auditor's Office concluded that the non-profit had improperly used donor-restricted funds for purposes not approved by donors.

In June, Sci-Port's long-time executive director left the organization. In August, its non-profit board announced that the attraction would close in September for an upgrade and to get its finances in order. Most of Sci-Port's more than 70 employees were laid off.

A plan to turn over operation of Sci-Port to the owner of the Shreveport Aquarium never materialized.

The attraction opened on a limited basis earlier this year.

Rich Lamb, chairman of the board that has operated Sci-Port, acknowledged in comments to the Caddo Parish Commission and the Shreveport City Council that the attraction previously operated beyond its financial means. Lamb said Sci-Port had more full-time employees than the operation could afford.

The specialized staff members currently employed at Sci-Port will be "strongly recommended" for positions under the new management, Gustavson said.

In August, a representative of the Community Foundation of North Louisiana told The Times that it had withdrawn financial support for Sci-Port because it no longer had confidence in the non-profit.

Gustavson said Wednesday that she was first approached by Sci-Port board members about their inability to raise funds at the end of 2017. The discussion of a new non-profit to manage the center was a recent development, she said.

"We were told that they were not going manage the (center) any longer," she said.

Neither Red River STEM nor the Community Foundation will assume the former Sci-Port non-profit's debts, Gustavson said.

Lamb, the former nonprofit, declined to say in an interview Wednesday how much Sci-Port Discovery Inc. owed in debt. He said only that it was a "big number" and that it was owed to multiple creditors.

Lamb said he would sit down to talk with Sci-Port Discovery Center Inc.'s creditors.

The chairman of the new non-profit, Red River STEM, will be Jay Pierson, a lawyer who also has worked for Regions Bank, according to the news release. He also is a non-practicing certified public accountant, the release says.

Pierson said that a full board would be appointed quickly and that the new board would make hiring a new executive director a priority.

"These folks have the resources and the flexibility to come in here and deliver a quality product — the whole center — to the city, to the community, to our visitors much faster than we can," Lamb said about the new group. "If we were to object to that, it'd be totally selfish."

None of the former members of the Sci-Port Board of Directors or Sci-Port Discovery Center Inc. will be involved with the new non-profit, Lamb said. Sci-Port Discovery Center Inc. will change its name to STEAMed Rice Inc., according to a board vote Wednesday morning. It's unclear what STEAMed Rice's future role in Shreveport will be.

"We're leaving Sci-Port, the building, in a better place than when we found it," Lamb said.

Wednesday's news conference was put together by Judy Williams, president and owner of Williams Creative Group, a PR and marketing firm. Williams also represented the Sci-Port non-profit.

Witt Caruthers, a former Sci-Port member, is quoted in the news release offering support for the new plan.

"We are excited to see a children's science center operate under new leadership," he says in the prepared statement. "The community has been very supportive of Sci-Port since its inception. We are elated that a new entity plans to operate the center and keep the valuable city building occupied."

The Community Foundation will keep a close eye on Red River STEM, Gustavson said, to review finances and perhaps to act as a potential funding source. A Community Foundation fund will be set up to benefit the Sci-Port center.

"It's really important to our board that we don't lose this resource," Gustavson said. "We are going to do what we can, along with the other funders we assembled."