[StBernard] St. Bernard school chief expects 4,200 students

[Westley Annis]

By JOE GYAN JR.
Advocate New Orleans bureau
Published: Jun 7, 2007 - Page: 17a 

The St. Bernard Parish public school system is projecting student enrollment
for the next academic year at about half its pre-storm level, the system's
chief told a Louisiana Recovery Authority panel Wednesday.

St. Bernard's pre-Katrina enrollment of 8,800 students plunged to 334
students when classes resumed in temporary facilities only 11 weeks after
Katrina. But enrollment steadily climbed, reaching 2,460 students by the end
of the 2005-06 school year and 3,886 students at the end of the 2006-07
school year, Superintendent Doris Voitier said.

Voitier said it was a matter of "build it and they will come.''

The system is projecting 4,200 students for the start of the new academic
year in August, Voitier told the LRA's education committee during its
meeting at the State Office Building in Baton Rouge.

"This is a significant enrollment considering the complete devastation in
the parish,'' said Voitier, who received the Kennedy "Profiles in Courage''
award in May.

The recently concluded school year saw 2,100 students - from 3 years old
through sixth-grade - at Andrew Jackson Elementary and 1,700 students from
the seventh to 12th grades at Chalmette High.

Voitier said pre-kindergarten programs for 3- and 4-year-olds are so
important because there are no day-care facilities in the parish.

She also said the schools offered after-school activities until 6 p.m.
because there was nothing else for students to do in the struggling parish.

"We have been picking up the slack'' for parish government, Voitier said.

This fall, classes will be held at five schools. Pre-kindergarten through
fifth-grade classes will be held at Andrew Jackson and Gauthier Elementary,
sixth- and seventh-grade at Trist Middle, and eighth- through 12th-grade
classes at Chalmette High. Rowley Elementary will be used as an alternative
school, Voitier said.

The parish had 14 public schools before the hurricane.

Voitier said the rebuilding program for 2008 includes St. Bernard High,
Smith Elementary and Joseph Davies Elementary. She hopes to have Arabi
Elementary opened in August 2009.

Voitier said the St. Bernard system has come a long way in 21 months but
still needs lots of financial help.

"We have not waited for definite funding'' to repair and rebuild schools,
she said of hurricane-related funding from the state and federal
governments.

FEMA estimated it would cost $2 million to $2.5 million to renovate Gauthier
and Rowley, but the cost ended up about $7 million apiece, Voitier said.

Trist will cost $14 million rather than the $7 million estimated by FEMA.

"Everything is costing more after the storm than before the storm,'' she
said.

Voitier also voiced concern over the shrinking state aid the St. Bernard
school system receives annually through a complex system, the Minimum
Foundation Program. The system, with 8,400 students, received $29 million in
MFP funding pre-Katrina but only $13 million last year with its 3,400
students, she said.

At the same time, Voitier said, health insurance for the parish school
system's 500 retirees was costing the system $3.6 million pre-Katrina - an
amount that came out of the $29 million. But with 700 retirees post-Katrina,
she said, the system's health insurance cost jumped to $5.6 million, which
was deducted from the $13 million in MFP funding.

"This is a unique situation we have,'' she said of the system's growing
retiree population. "No one else is experiencing this. We have costs we
never had prior to the storm.''

Voitier said it is extremely difficult to recruit and retain professional
staff because of the lack of available housing in the parish. All she can
offer a teacher is an 8-foot by 29-foot trailer.

St. Bernard had a pre-Katrina population of about 67,000. Now, it ranges
from 25,000 to 30,000, Voitier said.

Once the Road Home money for homeowners begins to flow in St. Bernard, she
expects the parish's repopulation to "boom.''

"I think we're going to see a growth spurt,'' she said.
 

  
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