[StBernard] Classes to Restart in St. Bernard

[Westley Annis]

Class to restart in St. Bernard
Trailer schools set for mid-November 
Thursday, October 20, 2005
By Manuel Torres 

and Karen Turni-Bazile 

St. Bernard/Plaquemines bureau 

St. Bernard Parish public schools plan to reopen in temporary trailers next
month and could be ready to handle as many as 1,300 students by January,
schools Superintendent Doris Voitier told hundreds of residents Wednesday at
an often emotional town hall meeting updating the parish's reconstruction
efforts. 

Voitier said the school system plans to accept students in all grade levels
by the middle of next month once trailers are set up at a makeshift campus
in the parking lot of Chalmette High School. In January, sturdier modular
buildings would be used to set up an 800-student school for prekindergarten
to eighth grade and a 500-student high school. 

Last year's enrollment on Oct. 1, 2004, was about 8,900. 

The announcement of schools restarting in St. Bernard, one of the areas
hardest hit by Hurricane Katrina, left the east bank of New Orleans as the
only pocket in the metropolitan area for which public school officials have
not laid out specific plans to reopen this school year. 

"It's the best news we have gotten in quite awhile," Marty Darby, a
Chalmette mother of three, said after hearing Voitier's presentation. Darby
said the availability of education is a big factor for her and her relatives
as they ponder whether and when to return to St. Bernard. 


$72 million sought 


Voitier's news was the highlight in a meeting at which parish officials
asked state legislators to help them obtain more than $72 million in federal
money to keep government going for the next 12 months. In an indication of
the vast devastation in the parish, which Katrina flooded from end to end,
officials told members of a joint Senate and House subcommittee on
reconstruction that it may take two years for the parish economy and
properties to generate enough taxes to sustain the government. 

About 800 residents flocked to the parish for the meeting, the first town
hall session about the parish's recovery since thousands filled the two
chambers and all meeting rooms for a meeting at the state Capitol last
month. Cars lined up for more than a mile at the parish's entry checkpoint,
and the gutted and chairless St. Bernard Parish Council Chambers proved so
small for the crowd that some council members held a parallel meeting with a
spillover crowd of 200 in a nearby playground. 

Several in the audience said they found answers to frustrating questions,
including ways to get federal aid, guidelines for reconstructing their homes
and of course, the schools reopening. 


Resuming classes 


The school system has seen its work force temporarily reduced from 1,200 to
12 and its cash reserves shrink to less than $2 million, but Voitier said
administrators are using the state's per-pupil allocation and emergency aid
to set up the temporary school. She said the trailers are expected in two
weeks, and classes could start by mid-November, as soon as officials get
results from environmental tests in soil samples at the site. 

But she urged legislators, including Sen. Walter Boasso, R-Arabi, and Rep.
Nita Hutter, R-Chalmette, to keep the state from taking away the money the
system is still receiving based on pre-Katrina enrollment. 

"If we can get our regular (allocation) I can operate. But if they cut it, I
cannot," Voitier said. 

Parish President Henry "Junior" Rodriguez and Council Chairman Joey DiFatta
asked for cash as well: $60 million in federal money for the next 12 months,
or $3 million more than the parish's budget this year. Sheriff Jack Stephens
said his office needs $12 million to operate. 

All parish agencies have been strapped since Katrina wiped out sales tax
collections, and destroyed property will likely be reassessed at lower
amounts. 

"We need help," Stephens said.