Terrebonne Parish School Board Updates on District’s Hurricane Ida Response, “We have been moving mountains”

Terrebonne Parish School District announced at last night’s School Board meeting that they are moving forward with Hurricane Ida’s response and updated varying school statuses. 

Sammy Poiencot, Supervisor of Plant Operations, updated on the matter bearing upon maintenance updates. He began by reporting that Grand Caillou was moved into Elysian Fields on January 10 and they are currently processing moving Upper Little Caillou into East Houma. They are anticipating for the move to be complete by January, 24. “It didn’t happen overnight,” Poiencot said, “They had a lot of people that had to do with this, all the supervisors, principals, teachers, custodians, everybody pitched in.”

He made the note that the Superintendent’s determination to have schools open in January. Board Member Dane Voisin (District 9) then asked what is left at East Houma to make it 100 percent repaired, and Poiencot responded with only minor things such as cleaning and waxing floors, fixing heaters, repairing rusted and busted lines, along with a few other repairs. School Board Member MayBelle Trahan (District 8) thanked Poinecot for bringing the schools together, “We’re not really happy down the bayou that our children are all the way in Houma, but we’re going to have to be okay with that” she said, “I’m very pleased that Upper Little Caillou will have a building and being together again. It’s going to be something to celebrate.”

Superintendent Philip Martin then took time to address some rumors and criticism about the school district’s process of getting kids into school buildings. “Since Hurricane Ida, we have been on a merry-go-round,” he said,” I do have to say this, those people who are criticizing don’t know what they’re talking about, I’m not trying to hurt any feelings, but just to give them the idea…” He used schools such as Houma Jr. High, Evergreen, and Bayou Black as an example saying that if it would have been any other area, those schools still would not have been open. He went on to confidently say that many schools have had severe damage and with the help of contractors, architects, and everyone involved, they will get the schools open. “It seems like some people think since we opened so fast, it might not have been that much, but that is just somebody that doesn’t know what they are talking about. Look around this parish. There are buildings around that still aren’t open,” He said. 

He said it was a miracle that students were back in school just a month after Ida and they moved entire schools to others more than once and the process is not as easy as it sounds. He said the people involved in making this happen have worked miracles and it’s as simple as a lack of knowledge of the process that they don’t get the recognition they deserve. “Every kid is in school in Terrebonne Parish and have been. There are a lot of Band-Aids, but they’re in school, with a live teacher, every day.”

They have thus far spent $30 million in remediation for opening schools, “it is a major accomplishment,” Martin said, “I have to say, I had very little to do with it, I just said get it done by this date. The people in this room, and some who are not, in the district are the ones that made it happen.” He said it’s frustrating and disheartening to see the people who are doing the work being criticized and not recognized as they should be. He recognized the district doesn’t communicate as clearly, loudly, and strongly as they should say, “I agree with that, totally,” he said,” and I’m addressing that, I hired some people to help us out with that, maybe be a little more informative about what’s happening.”

From there, he announced they have appointed project manager groups to move forward with recovery efforts and project assignments have been given. They met with project managers yesterday and Martin said he sent one message to them: get started ASAP. He said they are moving quickly, and as soon as things are available, they are getting on the job. Although they are working as fast as they can, Martin wanted to make sure to clarify the process they have to go through.

“You can’t just say can you start tomorrow? Go start. I wish it were that easy,” he said. He went on to explain that a friend, who is living in a camper as his home is being repaired, asked him what’s taking so long to get the schools repaired. Martin said he simply responded with, “It’s the same thing why it’s taking so long for your house.” There’s a process that involves approvals and certain hoops to go through before moving forward. He announced they are getting started as soon as the day after the meeting.

Voisin agreed to say that people do tend to point out the bad and not recognize the good, “we have been moving mountains,” he said, “People want to just see action, and I understand that.” They then moved into a special school board meeting to further discuss matters about moving forward with hurricane response.

Daniel Bruce, with Daniel M Bruce Jr Architect, presented information about modular buildings for temporary campuses. He announced eight modular buildings will be put on Ellender and South Terrebonne High School campuses providing 54 classrooms on each campus. Bruce announced they have an aggressive timeline which has started today. They will begin ordering the temporary buildings and said they have a deadline of June 1st for them to be installed and ready to go. The buildings are expected to be on the Ellender Campus on March 18 and the South Terrebonne High School Campus on March 28. From there, there is a process to set up and install the modular buildings, but they are expecting them to be complete for the new school year.

They would like to remind residents that the buildings are temporary until campuses are ready for students to return after repairs and renovations are complete and these buildings are reimbursable. This raised a question of the former rule that FEMA and GOHSEP did not allow modular buildings to be placed where construction was ongoing. Martin confirmed that everything has been approved to move forward with the solution.

Martin announced that plans for any schools to be demolished have not been determined. Those decisions will be made by experts, “I am not an expert, that’s why we hire them,” Martin said,” but when I walk through the schools, I’m looking at it like, I don’t see how you fix this.” He said he simply doesn’t see any repair in some of the buildings, but that will be up to the experts, and the decisions haven’t been made yet. There is no timeline on the decisions and Martin reassured his directive has been to start immediately as soon as the decisions are made on what is needed.