So we forged ahead without help from the state or federal government, locating our own portable classrooms and housing trailers, securing our own national disaster clean-up team, and relying on our own people to salvage the very few materials that were undamaged on second-floor buildings, paying them with our district’s own dollars, as we were told that the Stafford Act would not allow us to hire our own people. Again, had we not been financially healthy, I am not sure that we would yet be open.

But open we did. On November 14th, just 11 weeks after the storm, we opened to 334 students, and by December we had doubled in enrollment. At the start of the second semester, we numbered 1500 students, and today we are at 2330 and continuing to grow. We built it and they came – parents brought their children because for those children, our school represented hope for a normal tomorrow, and for our community, the returning children offered hope for the future. St. Bernard Parish could not die.

To detail the struggle would take more than the brief time I have been allotted. However, allow me to respectfully review some thought on federal actions since Katrina’s landfall.

First, there needs to be, for the future, a plan in place to immediately restore education, health, and essential public services to any community in this country devastated by a disaster. The best projection by FEMA and the Army Corps of Engineers was 4-6 months for a school and 3-4 months for housing for essential personnel. We did it on our own in 3 ˝ weeks.

We sincerely appreciate the efforts of Congress to provide us with dollars through the Community Disaster Loan; however, at the same time, we are dismayed - first because we cannot use these dollars for construction, and secondly because for the first time in the history of this country, the language in the legislation for those loans prohibits forgiveness of the loans with the possibility of their becoming grants. The last time I studied geography, Louisiana was still part of this country, and I certainly feel that our community deserves the same treatment as foreign countries enjoy as their schools, hospitals, and infrastructures are rebuilt by this federal government gratis because of a recognized humanitarian obligation to restore essential services.

We are most appreciative of the dollars provided by Congress for the restart of our school district and for assistance in addressing the needs of our displaced students. However, we remain perplexed about how best to use these dollars. Again, we cannot use them for reconstruction, which will be our biggest expenditure. We are faced with unpredictable property and sales tax revenue at best, and how we will raise the 10% required FEMA match needed for our rebuilding program is unclear at this point in time. Additionally, guidelines tell us that we may not use these dollars for the required 10% FEMA match for instructional materials and supplies – nor may we supplant any funds that FEMA would provide for replacing lost items. We still await guidance on that issue so that we may access these dollars appropriately.

We entered into a recovery mode back in September knowing that we would have the expertise and full force of the federal government behind our efforts. Now, almost eight months and many lessons in bureaucracy later, we have learned to stand on our own, hoping, at best, to be reimbursed at 90% for our efforts.

I understand that no one – not the authors of the Stafford Act and not the Senators and Representatives who have no real understanding of what we are up against unless they, too, have experienced the disappearance of an entire community – no one ever imagined or predicted a catastrophe of this magnitude. But for four reasons, we have to do a better job if, God forbid, it strikes in the form of tornadoes, an earthquake, or another flood in your community tomorrow.

The first reason is Mitch – Mitch is one of our three-year-olds who is living in a FEMA trailer and comes for our preschool program each day. Mitch wants to be a policeman like his dad when he grows up. This is Theresa. Theresa, who is a straight A student, was our 5th grade Student of the Year. She attends our one, unified school, and she, too lives in an 18’ x 29’ travel trailer with her mom, step-dad, sister, and two golden retrievers.

This is Craig. Craig is a 7th-grader who is academically gifted. His potential is limited only by his ability to dream, and we are trying our hardest to channel his abilities in a way that will benefit us all in the future. And this is Brandi. Brandi will be an honor graduate next month and then head off to college. She recently captured the state individual dance championship, meaning Brandi is the best young dancer in Louisiana. She drives in for school each day from a neighboring town because she so desperately wants to be back home.

These children deserve our best efforts. Do you have doubts about funding for a safer, more protected New Orleans? Do you have doubts about whether or not the stream of money to the Gulf Coast is warranted? Do you have doubts about whether or not the money will be used wisely and with integrity? These children should resolve all doubt because with or without federal assistance, they are back to school in St. Bernard Parish; they are thriving, and they are home. And we, together, must provide them a pathway back to normalcy.

So that is where we are, and why we acknowledge that appropriate and timely federal assistance is our greatest need. Will we return in August to a school district of 15 schools and 8,800 students? More likely, 2 or 3 schools and 3000 students. Will we return to a community of 68,000? More like a community of less than 20,000. What we have been through we wish upon no one – ever. The pictures only tell half of the story. No one has yet been able to photograph a broken heart.

We have a very, very long journey ahead of us. We began it with the first step – our one open and flourishing St. Bernard Unified School. We are now of the mindset that hard work, a can-do spirit and encouragement from individual people across the nation will help us along that journey. We are homeless and possession-less, but we are full of spirit. Thank you, thank you, and thank you again for anything that you may do. And may God bless you for caring.

also: http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/stbernard/index.ssf?/base/news-2/1155533575244590.xml&coll=1
http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/PersonOfWeek/story?id=2357