The call.
The Orleans Parish School Board finally opened one school. That school, Benjamin Franklin Elementary, opened this week 3 months after the storm. There is only one other Board supervised school slated to open this year, McMain Secondary School. It should open Jan 9, 2006. The district faces multiple problems. Many of the schools were damaged, some beyond repair. The chaos and money trouble that plagued the district pre-Katrina has not gone away. Many children are in school out of town, in other parishes nearby or private schools. The problems go on and on.
There will be other “public” schools opening in the city this year, but they will be charter schools. These schools are independent operators that function with public money. There is both good and bad to the concept. Presently they are the rage among educators and legislators. It’s an unproven theory. It has worked in small numbers, but is it a replacement to the traditional public school system? We will soon find out.
Yesterday, Elizabeth got the call; she’ll be back as the librarian at McMain when it opens. She is one of the lucky few who will be employed in public education in New Orleans this year. There are thousands of unemployed teachers and the prospects for getting teaching jobs are very dim.
The school will be very different from the way it was last year. McMain was a college-prep 4 star school made up of students from all over the city. Many of the students lived in hard hit New Orleans East. Some of these same students will be back, but no one knows how many. The teachers were dedicated and hard-working, some of them will not return. The exact configuration of the school has not been worked out, but it will be grades 7-12 and hopefully there will be teaching going on. The building flooded, and though there is talk of repair before students arrive in January nothing has yet been done. There is also talk that the school will relocate for the year if the electrical problems cannot be fixed. How the library will move is anyone’s guess. Without knowledge of the student population, there is no way to know what will be most needed. Elizabeth imagines that an ear to listen and a friendly face will probably be most appreciated by students and teachers alike.
