I spend a lot of time *****ing about politicians. here's a good one.

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Testimony of Doris Voitier

Committee on Education and the Workforce

Hearing on “Gulf Coast Recovery:
Facing Challenges and Coming Back Stronger in Education”

April 26, 2006

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. I am both honored and humbled for the invitation to share our story with you this morning. I sincerely believe that ours is one worth telling and one that will bring you to a better understanding of the struggles we face each day in rebuilding our school system from its devastation at the hands of Hurricane Katrina.

I would begin by asking that you not paint the St. Bernard Parish Public Schools with the same broad brush with which many public school systems are painted today. Ours was a public school system that worked. Prior to Katrina, our students scored at or above national averages on standardized tests; we enjoyed a district-wide discipline and student dress standard that made our schools safe and effective arenas for learning; ours was the first school system in the state of Louisiana to see each and every one of its schools accredited by the independent Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS); and, ours was a system that was known for its financial stability and fiscal integrity. We had, for the past 15+ years, received annual audits that were without exception, with no questioned costs, not having received, during that time, even one adjusting entry or a management letter with recommendations for improvement over internal controls. And I must say that because of the efforts of the members of the St. Bernard Parish School Board and its administrative staff and through the support of the residents of St. Bernard Parish, we were a financially healthy district and able to survive the challenges of the past nearly eight months.

Katrina devastated our school and our community. In fact, St. Bernard Parish was the only parish totally destroyed by the storm. All others had pockets of normalcy; ours had none. Every school, every home, every church, every business in our community suffered massive damage at Katrina’s hands, and the storm turned a very close-knit, hard-working, middle class community of 68,000 literally upside down.

Prior to Katrina, our school district offered 15 school sites to 8,800 students in our parish. We were one of the very few in the state to offer our residents a universal four-year-old program and an additional 3-year-old component of a very popular and successful Head Start program.

But on August 29th, the footprint of our district would change for quite some time to come and, perhaps, forever. Our school buildings were severely damaged – many beyond repair – and our 1200 employees were suddenly without jobs and the vast majority of them were homeless. The devastation in terms of buildings and emotional toll on very good, decent people is beyond descriptors. And I would like to applaud our congressman, Charlie Melancon, for his ongoing support, and Congressmen Miller, Scott, Tierney, Payne, and Congresswoman McCollum for spending time in our school district and learning first-hand of our trials and struggles. I think that they would agree that our devastation is beyond words.

Nonetheless, ours is a district that has always been and remains focused and has always operated and continues to operate with an eye toward a better tomorrow. By September 1st, just four days after Katrina made landfall, we were opening temporary offices in Baton Rouge through the assistance of Louisiana State Schools Superintendent Cecil Picard. We were determined to stage a comeback despite our total destruction.

Within one week, we were operating with a borrowed computer system on loan from our vendor, preparing to issue a payroll, contacting employees through borrowed Internet space, and providing student records to parents. Admittedly, we were in a state of professional and personal shock, but our focus was clear – the reopening of the St. Bernard Parish Public Schools.

By mid-October it became obvious that first responders, refinery workers, and essential parish employees were returning their families to live with them as they began the work of dealing with the crisis in our community. Our promise was to be open and operational when the children returned. In September, we had begun discussions with the FEMA Educational Strike Force (the first of its kind in any disaster and the promised answer to a quick rebound) about the cleaning and recovery of our buildings and about the need for temporary housing for our school’s essential staff. But as our discussions progressed, it became more than clear that we were on our own. Portable buildings for schools were, through the Army Corps of Engineers, a possibility in March, which was an unacceptable date in our minds. Cleaning the muck, debris, and marsh remnants from our buildings was a task that would be ours. We were told that the National Guard would not do that type of work and the Army Corps of Engineers could not respond positively to our request for help. But we needed to open school – and the sooner the better.707&page=1

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

That reminds me of why the founding fathers of this country distrusted a large, overly powerful, central government. Those guys were no dummies. Times change, but people don't, really.

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" We have nothing to fear but the main stream media itself . . . ."- Adapted from Franklin D Roosevelt for the 21st century

OBK #55

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2002 C320 Wagon 122,000 miles
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It's a good thing we don't judge the quality of the public schools in New Orleans by the quality of the Katrina evacuee students that the Houston Independent School District took in after the hurricane....

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TXBill



Former owner of a few diesel MB cars
1998 Lexus ES 300 In Chicago We Trust

That is an absolutely amazing story. I had always wondered how they reopened so fast. Especially since most everyone was still evacuated.

It all starts with good stewardship of their money.
It's no supprise the Govt made so many hurdles to jump through. They can really learn a lesson from this........maybe?......ok probably not.

Danny

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1984 300SD Turbo Diesel 150,000 miles

OBK member #23

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I understand. My local public school system gained about 5,000 students from Katrina and Rita. It has had a huge impact with my wife (3rd grade teacher) as a good example. Her class went from 19 to 24 kids, 3 from Rita, 2 from Katrina. One Katrina kid was behind but intelligent and so, was able to catch-up over the course of the years. The other was a victim of repeated sexual abuse in NOLA (boyfriend of crack-mom) and herself both emotionally disturbed and mildly retarded.

Bot

70% of the Katrina students here in Houston had to be held back a grade from last year.

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TXBill



Former owner of a few diesel MB cars
1998 Lexus ES 300 In Chicago We Trust

Before Katrina the State of Louisiana was moving to seize control of the NOLA public school system citing nearly a decade of concrete evidence of local failure and misuse of tax dollars.

Katrina save the state a hell of a headache.

B