School Board News

While school districts in the Gulf states and their immediate neighbors are doing the heavy lifting in serving students displaced by Katrina, districts all over the country are welcoming new children. Good profile here of transitions into Washington, D.C. area schools. D.C. Superintendent Clifford B. Janey details his district’s efforts in a Washington Post op-ed, here. Even Canadian school boards are helping.

The private sector is pitching in to help school districts meet the challenge, too. Hertz Furniture Systems has donated $60,000 worth of furniture to San Antonio Independent School District. Hertz CEO Mark Wagner says, “Although the public has heard about the generosity of the many school districts enrolling extra students, they may not be aware of the strain it will put on existing space and furniture.”

Students themselves are helping out. Here’s a story about a tractor trailer full of donations from school kids in Western New York. Sault Ste. Marie Area Public Schools in Michigan are organizing a big relief event.

The challenge of meeting the needs of traumatized students in Mississippi is a tough one. And Mississippi officials are visiting with the feds today to seek the help school districts so desperately need.

And today’s big news from the feds? The winds are blowing vouchers.

More info here on the back-and-forth between affected states and the feds over relief to schools in the form of desperately needed funding and release from federal red tape. And the New Orleans school district, already under restructuring, needs money to pay its teachers, according to both the superintendent and the private restructuring firm. Another legal issue being watched, according to the Wall Street Journal: Will the feds let school districts educate displaced students in separate facilities, or will this violate federal law against segregating homeless children? And check out the comment under our first September 15 item to see what else the feds apparently have in mind and what one Virginia school board member thinks about it. More on that next week. That “Comments” link under every BoardBuzz posting is for your use, dear readers.

In a letter sent to Capitol Hill yesterday, NSBA strongly urged Congress to send disaster relief money directly to local school districts because state and local governments are already underfunded and cannot cover the necessary costs for the more than 370,000 relocated students. These costs include additional classroom space, teachers, counselors, textbooks, supplies, transportation and fuel expenses, special education services, healthcare costs, and other needs.

NSBA also pointed out this is the time that Congress should make good on its promise to fully fund special education, since at least 12 percent—or 44,000—displaced students may need special ed services not budgeted for by receiving districts. In addition, NSBA urged Congress to set up a special school construction fund as well as special designations for tax-exempt financing mechanisms to help districts with repair and reconstruction costs.

As NSBA top lobbyist Michael Resnick pointed out in the letter, “Clearly, more resources are needed beyond those provided in the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Program.” Congress is expected to work on developing a third disaster relief package shortly.

The state school boards associations of Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana have established several programs to assist schools affected by Hurricane Katrina.

In Mississippi, donations can be made to that state’s hurricane school relief fund. In addition, the association has set up an adopt-a-school program allowing schools to adopt or be adopted.

Alabama has also established an adopt-a-school program, and has devoted an area of the association’s Web site to recovery information for school districts.

A trust fund has been created by the Louisiana association to accept financial donations for the schools in need of assistance. Contributions can be made by sending an e-mail here.

Kudos to the Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama state schools board associations for their quick efforts to aid in the recovery and rebuilding of the region’s schools.

The school board of Charlotte County, Florida, which had one-third of its schools destroyed by Hurricane Charley last year, has made itself available as a resource to Gulf region districts that are beginning the post-Katrina recovery process. A letter from the district and a list of specific contact names and number are available here.

South Carolina has this message for displaced teachers in Louisiana and Mississippi: We want you. That state’s department of education has announced it will venture south to recruit those educators. South Carolina needs about 400 math, science, and special education teachers. About 10,000 teachers are out of work in Mississippi and Louisiana. Here are more details.

Schools across the country are staying busy raising funds and organizing efforts to bring in needed supplies for hurricane relief. Here is a list of what schools in Cincinnati are up to.

The Texas Association of School Boards reports to BoardBuzz:

In what may be the first trace of normalcy, students displaced by Hurricane Katrina are enrolling in schools across Texas. The generosity of Houston has garnered national attention, however, districts everywhere in the state are reaching out to help with fund-raisers, donations of clothes and school supplies, and volunteer work at area shelters.

Officials have estimated 50,000 to 60,000 displaced students will enroll in Texas schools in the aftermath of the disaster. Almost 19,000 displaced children have already started school. District officials are visiting evacuation centers to help with enrollments, setting up school tours for parents and students, and providing school clothes and supplies. Individual campuses are collecting food, money, and care packages. School administrators are scrambling to figure out where to accommodate hundreds of new students, who will teach them, and how they will get to school.

In Houston, the district has registered more than 1,000 children and more are being processed at the Astrodome. The district has reopened two closed elementary schools that can hold up to 1,350 children, and many more students will be attending schools throughout the district.

The Texas Education Agency (state department of education) has set up a toll-free hotline (800-957-5109) number and posted information on the Agency’s web site (www.tea.state.tx.us) to orchestrate offers of help and districts in need. TEA has promised to release money immediately to help affected districts cope. The federal government is sending $250,000 apiece to six Texas regional education service centers in various parts of the state.

“Texans have extended their hearts and hands to people impacted by Katrina and school districts across Texas are welcoming displaced students and their families. It is heartening to watch Texas educators rise to the challenges with such professional grace and personal generosity,” said Karen Strong, TASB associate executive director.

Education Secretary Margaret Spellings yesterday met with national education groups, including NSBA, to discuss the department’s relief response and impact on schools and students, and coordination among groups that are implementing relief efforts. The key points:

1. The Department of Education has created a Web site, Hurricane Help for Schools, to encourage schools to post supply needs and organizations to post items they can donate. Contact information is provided so schools and organizations can directly connect.

2. Regarding funding, the department plans to work with affected states and districts that want to transfer or reallocate funds—across districts. “This could include the transfer of funds to districts in other States that are serving displaced students,” writes Spellings. The department also will work with the Office of Management and Budget as further supplemental relief efforts are made.

3. Regarding NCLB, the department says it will “consider promptly” requests for waivers from those affected. Spellings also indicated Adequate Yearly Progress reporting requirements may be relaxed—but no details as to what that may precisely mean. The department did note it will be flexible on highly qualified teacher requirements, particularly where displaced teachers have begun working in new states. This makes sense considering the different certification standards across states.

4. The department is working with the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) to determine immunization needs of displaced students. In recent days, we’ve seen countless stories of school districts helping to get students back in class by waiving enrollment rules regarding immunization records.

5. Spellings is dispatching Assistant Secretary Henry Johnson, the former Mississippi state superintendent, to the region to determine ongoing needs.

This letter provides more details.

As BoardBuzz noted yesterday, NSBA already has made several general recommendations for Congress to consider regarding schools’ needs.

Dr. Eduardo Sanchez, Texas Commissioner of State Health Services, said this week that students displaced by Hurricane Katrina enrolling in Texas schools pose no increased health risk to Texas students. In a statement, he addressed those concerns and said schools are safe:

Sanchez said some Texas parents have expressed concerns about health risks to their own children from the incoming students’ exposure to floodwater and their vaccination status. He called the concerns “understandable but unfounded.”

“Many of these kids were not exposed to floodwater,” Sanchez said. “And those who were exposed are being evaluated in the various shelters for types of exposure and monitored for illness symptoms and are getting treatment if they need it. Standard practice says any child, not just evacuees, who’s sick should not be sent to school.”