[3] It was named after Sarah Towles Reed and the campus was built to house up to 1,170 students.

[4][5] In 2005, as Hurricane Katrina was about to hit land, the New Orleans Regional Transit Authority (RTA) designated Reed High School as a place where people could receive transportation to the Louisiana Superdome, a shelter of last resort.

[6] After Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans, Reed was moved to an alternate location, where it stayed until October 2006.

During that month it moved to its original building, which at that time housed middle and high school classes.

The Recovery School District stated that there were plans to reopen Reed in 2016; it was looking for organizations to act as charter school operators for Reed.