Gustav, Ike take a toll on seven Terrebonne Parish public schools

Seven Terrebonne Parish schools were unable to open yesterday due to heavy flooding in the eastern half of the parish this weekend.

Students of Boudreaux Canal Elementary, Dularge Elementary and Middle schools, Grand Caillou Elementary and Middle schools, Montegut Middle and Pointe-aux-Chenes Elementary schools will not return to classes until further notice.

The severity of the damage to those schools will determine whether its students are bused to another school or kept out until the schools are back in use.

Grand Caillou Elementary probably suffered the worst flooding among the schools.

“We haven’t been able to get into Grand Caillou Elementary yet, but from the pictures, I’d say they had four feet of water,” said school Superintendent Ed Richard.

Pointes-aux-Chenes and Boud-reaux Canal Elementary and Grand Caillou Middle schools also had a couple of feet of water inside their buildings.

Dularge Elementary and Middle schools and Montegut Middle School did not take on water, but the roads surrounding them are impassable because of high water. The Dularge schools also have no electricity.

Every other school in Terrebonne Parish welcomed back students yesterday after more than two weeks away for hurricanes Gustav and Ike.

That includes Evergreen and Houma junior high schools, which are being used as shelters for Gustav and flood evacuees.

Richard hopes by cordoning off the evacuees from the student population, the education process runs smoothly and overcrowding is avoided.

“Overcrowding could happen, but we’re going to try and coexist,” he said.

The school district did not have to consolidate schools to get students back into class. Even East Houma Elementary, which lost a building housing its library and five kindergarten classrooms to roof and water damage, had space for its students.

“We just put a brand new modular there this summer, so that means we added eight new classrooms to the campus,” Richard said.

Two weeks after Gustav, the school district does not have a dollar amount for the damages done to school properties. Whatever the amount, it is sure it rise once an assessment from the flooding it complete.