Joylynn Cormier Carrell
September 15, 2008Gustav, Ike take a toll on seven Terrebonne Parish public schools
September 17, 2008
Public schools will open for Terrebonne Parish students on Monday, Sept. 15, according to Superintendent Ed Richard Jr.
Teachers and part-time employees are asked to report to schools tomorrow and Friday. Administrators and 240-day employees, such as custodians and maintenance personnel reported yesterday.
“Everything is contingent on (Hurricane) Ike,” Richard said. “That’s why we’re not having the students back on Friday. If we have to evacuate again, it’s easier to cancel class if we just have teachers here.”
About 15 schools suffered substantial damage from Hurricane Gustav, including East Houma Elementary School, which lost the roof covering the school’s library and five kindergarten classes.
“Possibly the walls are damaged, too. We’re going to get a structural engineer in here to determine if we can save that building,” Richard said.
The wing houses about 100 students, according to Sylvia Champagne, principal of East Houma Elementary for eight years.
On Monday, three inches of water still filled the building’s hallways. Soggy yellow insulation was visibly hanging from beams and covering tables, chairs and school supplies.
“A lot of those items are the teacher’s personal items,” Champagne said.
Modular buildings were added to the campus over the summer to accommodate an influx of students. None of those buildings were damaged.
Champagne said kindergarteners may be moved to the portables that housed pre-school students last year. Either way, the school system ensured the school will not be faced with classroom overcrowding.
Gustav’s winds also damaged gymnasium roofs at South Terrebonne and Ellender Memorial high schools.
About two inches of water inundated the basketball court and football locker room at Ellender, while a goal post was blown down at South Terrebonne Memorial Stadium.
About half of the roofs at Bayou Black Elementary School and SEC, the special education school, were torn off by Gustav’s winds.
Richard said he wants to have every school open next week and to keep consolidation to a minimum.
“We may be able to consolidate within the school or we may have to consolidate using one school for two,” he said. “I think with temporary repairs, we can open every school on Monday.”
In the meantime, school board meetings have been cancelled until further notice.
Insulation and rain-soaked supplies lay about a kindergarten classroom at East Houma Elementary School. The roof over the school’s library and five kindergarten classrooms was destroyed by Hurricane Gustav. * Photo by KEYON K. JEFF
