Donors here sending aid to schools in Houston
San Francisco is rallying behind its former schools superintendent Richard Carranza, who is in the thick of recovery efforts in flooded Houston, where he moved to run one of the largest school systems in the country.
Carranza, who had been working for less than a year in Houston when Hurricane Harvey hit, is now working to reopen the city’s 300 schools. He’s doing it with seven-figure financial backing from the Bay Area, including $1 million from Salesforce.com founder Marc Benioff.
The money, which also includes donations from San Francisco school officials, teachers, parents and philanthropic organizations, is already feeding families in Houston school facilities and providing cash to fill needs, including trauma counseling, clothing, supplies and more for many students and teachers rendered home-
less, Carranza said.
“The rebuilding is going to take longer than anyone has even expected,” he said Tuesday by telephone. “There are tragic stories about people in abject poverty who have been even more devastated.”
The Houston Independent School District will start classes Monday, two weeks late, but at least 20 school sites are too damaged to open, Carranza said. The district is still determining how many students and teachers will be able to return and where they will go.
“The community has been devastated,” he said. “We’re doing whatever we need to do to try to get everyone up and going again.”
In addition to Benioff ’s personal donation, the Salesforce.org foundation gave $150,000 to support Carranza’s efforts.
“Richard is in urgent need of discretionary funding to provide emergency support to his students and staff,” Benioff said. “We know from his leadership at SFUSD that Richard is an exceptional leader and will make excellent use of the funding.”
Carranza has opened several schools and is providing three meals a day to anyone who needs them. He’s also contracting crisis counselors to help students deal with the loss.
San Francisco officials jumped in to help after contacting Carranza to see how he was faring, said Hydra Mendoza, school board vice president and Mayor Ed Lee’s education adviser.
“He just sent us this really crazy note, saying he had never before seen something like this in his entire life,” Mendoza said. “He talked about his families needing food, a place to lay their heads.”
Carranza told his old colleagues that many of his district’s families are homeless and that members of his staff don’t have professional clothes to wear when they return to work.
“So we started to call around,” Mendoza said.
The donations from the Bay Area have ranged from $1 to $1 million, Carranza said.
“We are completely indebted and thankful to our friends in the Bay Area,” he said. “It feels good to have that big hug from our family in San Francisco.”
“We’re doing whatever we need to do to try to get everyone up and going again.” Richardschools superintendentCarranza, Houston