School Climate & Safety

Educators Wonder If They’ll Go Back to New Orleans

September 13, 2005 2 min read
  • Save to favorites
  • Print

Hurricane Katrina has upended the lives of many educators from southeast Louisiana, including two principals from New Orleans who stopped by the East Baton Rouge district office last week to apply for jobs.

“I live about a half mile from the 17th Street canal, where they had the breach” that helped cause the flooding of the city, said Leonard M. Parker Jr., 47, who was uprooted from his job as the principal of a New Orleans elementary school. He’s applied for employment with the state department of education, and this day was trying his luck at the school district for the city where he had just rented an apartment for his family.

See Also

View an updated collection of outreach resources from state and national agencies,

Hurricane Relief: Outreach From National Organizations

Join our ongoing discussion,

Of the 80 staff members at his school, Mr. Parker said, he had heard from only 23 by Sept. 6. “I check every day,” he said.

Despite having lost practically all of his belongings, and possibly his home, Mr. Parker, an ordained minister, seemed in remarkably good spirits.

“You’ve got to have a positive frame of mind, and trust God and move on,” he said.

Sitting next to him, Monica Boudouin, a fellow New Orleans principal, said she agreed. She’s already registered her three children to attend the public schools in Baton Rouge. But while hopeful, she remained visibly upset. “I’ve cried till I can’t cry anymore,” she said, though moments later her eyes welled up.

No Place Like Home

Ms. Boudouin, 43, said that while she’s hoping to return to New Orleans eventually, a lot will depend on how things turn out for her family in the coming months.

See Also

Read the related story,

School Official Rides Out Storm

“My heart is still in New Orleans, and it will always be in New Orleans,” she said. But she said she may well decide to stay: “You don’t know what’s going to happen.”

Seated at another folding table in the East Baton Rouge district office, Dorothy J. Newell, a 55-year-old social worker in the 60,000-student New Orleans school system, was contemplating her own future as she applied for a job with the district.

Ms. Newell said her area of specialty would surely help under the circumstances.

“I know they will have a need for social workers for these kids,” she said.

She had ended up catching a ride to Dallas with just two days’ worth of clothing to escape the storm. But she came back to Baton Rouge to find a job to be as close as possible to New Orleans, where she hopes to be part of the effort to rebuild.

“I want to go home,” she said. “My name is Dorothy, and I want to be like Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz. I want to click my heels, and I really want to go home.”

A version of this article appeared in the September 14, 2005 edition of Education Week as Educators Wonder If They’ll Go Back To New Orleans

Events

This content is provided by our sponsor. It is not written by and does not necessarily reflect the views of Education Week's editorial staff.
Sponsor
Equity & Diversity Webinar
Classroom Strategies for Building Equity and Student Confidence
Shape equity, confidence, and success for your middle school students. Join the discussion and Q&A for proven strategies.
Content provided by Project Lead The Way
This content is provided by our sponsor. It is not written by and does not necessarily reflect the views of Education Week's editorial staff.
Sponsor
Professional Development Webinar
Disrupting PD Day in Schools with Continuous Professional Learning Experiences
Hear how this NC School District achieved district-wide change by shifting from traditional PD days to year-long professional learning cycles
Content provided by BetterLesson
Jobs Virtual Career Fair for Teachers and K-12 Staff
Find teaching jobs and other jobs in K-12 education at the EdWeek Top School Jobs virtual career fair.

EdWeek Top School Jobs

Teacher Jobs
Search over ten thousand teaching jobs nationwide — elementary, middle, high school and more.
View Jobs
Principal Jobs
Find hundreds of jobs for principals, assistant principals, and other school leadership roles.
View Jobs
Administrator Jobs
Over a thousand district-level jobs: superintendents, directors, more.
View Jobs
Support Staff Jobs
Search thousands of jobs, from paraprofessionals to counselors and more.
View Jobs

Read Next

School Climate & Safety Q&A Making the Case for Schools That Don't Look Like Prisons
Claire Latané, a landscape architecture professor at Cal Poly Pomona, discusses how schools can design environments that support mental health.
6 min read
Freshmen at George C. Marshall High School in Falls Church, Va., eat lunch outside in the Senior Courtyard on March 1, 2023. The high school has three courtyards where students can access the outdoors during the day.
Freshmen at George C. Marshall High School in Falls Church, Va., eat lunch outside in the Senior Courtyard on March 1, 2023. The high school was highlighted in Claire Latané's book <i>Schools That Heal: Design with Mental Health in Mind</i> for its abundance of outdoor spaces.
Jaclyn Borowski/Education Week
School Climate & Safety Sandy Hook Promise CEO: 'School Shootings Are Preventable'
There have been 152 shootings on K-12 school property that resulted in firearm-related injuries or deaths since 2018.
2 min read
Back of a teen girl walking home from school while wearing a backpack with one strap hanging off her shoulder.
iStock/Getty
School Climate & Safety 6-Year-Old Won't Be Charged After Shooting Teacher, Prosecutor Says
The local prosecutor said his office has yet to decide if any adults will be held criminally accountable.
4 min read
Students return to Richneck Elementary in Newport News, Va., Jan. 30, 2023. Authorities in the Virginia city where a 6-year-old shot and wounded his teacher will not seek charges against the child, the local prosecutor told NBC News on Wednesday, March 8.
Students return to Richneck Elementary in Newport News, Va., Jan. 30, 2023. Authorities in the Virginia city where a 6-year-old shot and wounded his teacher will not seek charges against the child, the local prosecutor told NBC News on March 8.
Billy Schuerman/The Virginian-Pilot via AP
School Climate & Safety A Superintendent Left His Gun in a School Restroom. A Student Found It
A Texas superintendent has resigned after a student found his gun unattended. The incident follows debates over arming teachers.
4 min read
Image of street signs: (1) Stop sign, and (2) Gun Free School Zone.
Education Week and sshepard/iStock/Getty