[StBernard] School Registration, Industrial Waste Watch, and 2-mile Walk/Run

[Westley Annis]

School Registration, Industrial Waste Watch, and 2-mile Walk/Run 

October 31, 2005

By: Steve Cannizaro


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Registration is Nov. 2-5 for school that will start Nov. 14 in Chalmette;
Residents asked to report seeing anyone dumping industrial waste in sewers;
Two-mile Run/Walk will be held Nov. 6 and the first Sunday of every month.

St. Bernard Parish parents can register children Wednesday, Nov. 2, through
Saturday, Nov. 5 for public school classes that will begin Nov. 14 in a
temporary school being placed in the parking lot of Chalmette High School's
football stadium, Schools Superintendent Doris Voitier said.

Registration will be held 9 a.m, to 3 p.m. at the school system's
administrative building on East St. Bernard Highway in Chalmette, site of
the old Meraux School. Parents will also be able to register children after
the initial week, officials have said. 

St. Bernard's public school system has been closed because of damage from
Hurricane Katrina.

"I'm not predicting a number'' of students who will be registered this week,
Voitier said, saying there are many factors that will determine who man
children the school system has again initially. At first, most will likely
be children of St. Bernard Parish sheriff's deputies, firefighters and other
parish employees, plus children of residents as they move back into the
parish, school officials have said..

The new school will hold classes for pre-kindergarten through 12th-grade and
have classrooms in trailers, with the capability of adding more classes as
needed, school officials have said..

Parents enrolling students will be asked if the children have attended
school anywhere else since Katrina shut down schools in St. Bernard, Voitier
said, so that an education plan an be prepared for each. "I'm hearing that
some children haven't gone to any other schools while some have been to more
than one school'' as a family moved, she said.

Classes will be from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m., with additional activities offered
after school until 6 p.m., including recreation programs, Voitier said.
There will also be transportation. Breakfast, lunch and snacks will be
served, she said.

School officials have also said that In January, the plans are to open two
modular school buildings, one at Chalmette Middle School for pre-K through
8th-grade and the other at N.P. Trist School for high school, grades 9
through 12.


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Also, St. Bernard residents are being asked to refrain from dumping anything
into sewer lines and report to the Sheriff's Office at 504-208-0820 if they
see anyone emptying industrial waste from tanker trucks into manholes.

Chris Merkl, manager of the water and sewer department of St. Bernard Parish
government, said he has received reports of illegal dumping into manholes.
"We can't allow that to happen.'' Merkl said. "Our plants can't treat
industrial waste.''


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Also, on Sunday, Nov. 6 at 8 a.m., Gibbs Construction will sponsor a
two-mile Run/Walk on Dr. Meraux Boulevard, the street that runs along side
the Council on Aging Building, which is next to the Parish Government
building in Chalmette.

The Run/walk will also be held on the first Sunday of each month in the same
location.

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