[StBernard] 2 public schools in St. Bernard learn to cope

[Westley Annis]

2 public schools in St. Bernard learn to cope
Rising rolls lift hopes in quest for normalcy 
Saturday, October 21, 2006
By Karen Turni Bazile
St. Bernard/Plaquemines bureau 

Twice each day, a tightly choreographed ballet takes place outside Andrew
Jackson Elementary School in Chalmette, a production starring faculty and
staff with bullhorns and walkie-talkies, flagging down buses and waving on
parents in a winding line of vehicles. 

 
The routine of getting more than 1,800 young students on and off the campus
on 28 buses and in relatives' vehicles is just one of the many logistical
accomplishments at Andrew Jackson and Chalmette High School, the two large
public schools operating in St. Bernard Parish after Hurricane Katrina. 

Two months into the school year, St. Bernard public school officials said
enrollment is growing, but they say at this point, the schools can handle
the large number of students. The last resort would be to open a third
school at Trist Middle School in January, but officials are hopeful that
students won't have to be moved until next year. 

School Board President Diana Dysart said both schools are running smoothly
considering there are 1,860 prekindergarten through elementary pupils at
Andrew Jackson and about 1,720 students in the seventh through 12th grades
at Chalmette High. Both schools are designed to handle up to 2,000 students.


"We are at almost 3,600 students, and we want more kids to come back and
more citizens to come back to St. Bernard Parish," Dysart said. "I think the
schools have given the people of St. Bernard hope for the future that we
will have some normalcy in our lives." 

Besides adequate classroom space and teachers, each school has a full
complement of staff psychologists, social workers and counselors. Also,
medical and mental health professionals from the Louisiana State University
Health and Science Center and Tulane University have regular presences on
the campuses to work with parents and students as needed. 

Chalmette High was the first school to reopen after Katrina flooded every
school in the district. It reopened in November 2005 as the St. Bernard
Unified School, housing students in all grades on the same campus. 

Andrew Jackson reopened in August. 

Schools Superintendent Doris Voitier said she is pleased with the school's
student-teacher ratios -- ranging from a teacher and an aide for every 15
students in the 3-year-olds' classes to one teacher for no more than 25
pupils in fourth- and fifth-grade classes. 

Kindergarten teacher Tiffani Glapion said she is thrilled to have all new
supplies this year and to be in a spacious modular building with only 22
children in her class, a smaller class size than when she taught at Joseph
Davies Elementary School in Meraux before Katrina. 

"It's normal again," said Glapion, who recently was named regional teacher
of the year for an eight-parish area including St. Bernard. "They need this.
Most of my kids live in trailers while their parents are rebuilding their
houses." 

At Andrew Jackson, there are six modular buildings with eight classrooms
with small bathrooms in each room for the very youngest grades. 

At Chalmette High, longtime principal Wayne Warner said he, too, has
portable buildings for seventh- and eighth-graders. 

"The kids are getting along very well," Warner said. "They kind of like the
idea that everyone is in one place, and all of these kids have basically
been through the same trauma." 

While district administrators hope to not have to open Trist midyear -- they
don't want to disrupt the students' school year by transferring several
grades into a new school halfway through the academic year -- they plan to
bring even more schools on line next fall. 

Besides Trist Middle School, construction should be completed at J.F.
Gauthier in Poydras, which will be an elementary school for students
traveling from the eastern end of the parish, and at C.F. Rowley, which is
expected to house the NOVA Academy alternative school. 

Enrollment isn't just growing in the parish's public schools, either. 

At Our Lady of Prompt Succor Central School in Chalmette, the lone Catholic
school operating since the storm, principal Sharon Coll said enrollment is
up to 315 students, and the elementary pupils moved into a second wing of
five classrooms Friday. 

In a few weeks, another six classrooms will move from makeshift rooms in the
unfinished gym into a modular building on campus so the gym can be used for
a library and for athletics. An additional wing will open next year, making
space for at least another 150 students. 

And at Lynn Oaks School, a private elementary school in Braithwaite,
principal Karen Green said there are about 160 students. 

Dysart said the schools' progress is one of the keys to the parish's
recovery. 

"I think as residents finish their homes and move back ... that our numbers
are going to grow," she said. "I know of several students who started the
school year off in other parishes but only stayed a day or two and told
their parents they wanted to come home to St. Bernard Parish schools." 

. . . . . . . 

Karen Turni Bazile can be reached at kturni at timespicayune.com or (504)
352-2539.