Louisiana districts in flood limbo work to get kids in school

BAKER, La. — Severe flooding last week forced 22 school districts across southern Louisiana to delay or interrupt the start of the school year for tens of thousands of children.

Although some districts are closed indefinitely — the superintendent of one hard-hit district is living in an emergency shelter — the majority plan to welcome students back within the next two weeks, said John White, the Louisiana state superintendent.

School leaders are far more worried about having enough teachers than about the physical conditions of classrooms, White said.

“There is the facility and capacity in the region to serve all students,” he said. “The greater challenge is displacement, especially of teachers.”

He estimated that 4,000 teachers and other staff members who are critical to the schools’ operation — including bus drivers, cafeteria workers, paraprofessionals and janitors — have been displaced by the flooding.

Public servants considered “essential personnel” are entitled to expedited assistance from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, White said, adding that his agency is pushing for educators and school personnel to get this relief swiftly.

“But there is a very large number of displaced people,” White said. “So there is a question of what housing will be available.”

At stake is not only whether schools will be able to provide students with stability and routine at a time of great upheaval, but also whether students — many of whom are disadvantaged — will lose out on more precious learning time.

East Baton Rouge Parish Schools, the second-largest district in the state, had been in session just two days when floodwaters coursed into the city. So far, six schools there have been deemed too damaged to reopen, spokesman Adonica Pelichet Duggan said. That number is expected to rise.

Classes in East Baton Rouge Parish Schools started again Wednesday. But Pelichet Duggan estimated that the flood affected about one-third of the district’s 6,000 employees, making it impossible to operate schools normally.

District officials are planning to combine schools until all of the district’s buildings are functional, and in some cases will run two schools out of one building. The combination of missed class time, upended school routines and a scramble to find enough teachers carries an academic cost to students who already perform below the state average on math and reading tests, according to state data.

Plans call for students to be bused — no matter where in the district they are staying — to school sites in their home neighborhoods.

“Our students need some sense of continuity,” Pelichet

Duggan said. “For a lot of our students, they will eventually be moving back to their neighborhoods. We want to keep as much stability for those students as they can possibly have at this point in their lives, when everything else is chaos.”

Providing transportation to far-flung students poses an

“We are being very intentional and conscious of the challenges children may have.” John White, Louisiana state superintendent

additional logistical challenge to districts already struggling with more than the usual ones.

White, the state schools chief, said the Louisiana Department of Education is working on organizing additional bus routes in affected parishes.

Also, schools will serve as checkpoints for the mental well-being of traumatized students.

“We are being very intentional and conscious of the challenges children may have,” White said. “It is critical that to every extent possible, schools should have counselors on hand to deal with the social and emotional needs of their students.”

In some of the hardest-hit areas, including Livingston and Ascension parishes, school districts have not yet announced when they will reopen.

Livingston Superintendent Rick Wentzel, who took office July 1, said 15 of the 46 schools in his district were flooded. That damage was extensive in eight schools, and one-third of employees are displaced, he said.

“We’re still assessing our facilities, assessing our workforce, assessing our students,” Wentzel said. “Our plan is to get back as soon as we can. But that’s very difficult when people get displaced.”

Wentzel is staying in a shelter. He rescued his wife by boat after their home took in 2½ feet of water. “It’s very, very difficult,” he said.