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Teachers Uncertain of Future With Orleans Public Schools

Posted on: Monday, 14 November 2005, 03:01 CST

By Capochino, April

The decision to reopen 20 New Orleans Public Schools under charter status is dividing School Board members and state education officials and creating an air of uncertainty for teachers - many of whom want to return to the district but won't know what kind of job they are coming back to.I have terrible concern about my job, said Judy Demarest, who teaches English and college writing and is English department chairwoman at Warren Easton High School on Canal Street. I've been teaching for 32 years and I have an awful lot of time, energy and heart invested in the schools of New Orleans. I don't want to leave.The charter school proposal would turn 20 Orleans public schools - 13 on the West Bank and seven on the East Bank - into individually run institutions. In this case, the state, the Orleans Parish School Board and the newly created Algiers Charter School Association Board would run the schools. Some School Board members wanted to go ahead with the plan; others said the plan could exclude certain students.Nearly 3,000 teachers have expressed interest in returning to the school district, said Steve Alschuler, spokesman for Alvarez & Marsal, the New York-based firm overhauling district finances. That's 43 percent of the more than 7,000 employees the district had pre-Katrina. Alschuler said hiring decisions will be up to the Algiers Charter School Association, the board mostly comprised of Orleans Parish School Board members who will oversee the charter schools.School Board Vice President Lourdes Moran is spearheading the charter school effort and said all teachers are welcome to apply.What we want everyone to understand is that the association will develop an open process for hiring individuals and will do its best to match the skills of those applicants with the needs of the individual school sites, Moran said via e-mail Nov. 2. We also understand that there are so many displaced and highly qualified, experienced and caring teachers and support personnel who share our vision and mission to create outstanding schools for our children and our community. We will do our best to place as many of them as we can throughout the charter schools.Charter concernsHowever, some teachers say the Board could hand-pick favorites. They are also concerned about job security because charter schools do not have to contract with the union, unlike public schools. More than anything in the world, I want to come back and teach, said Katrena Ndang, who taught American history at Alfred Lawless High School in the Lower Ninth Ward. But I don't think I'll be selected to teach at a charter school. Everything is up to the principal to hire and fire. I believe (the School Board) wants to get rid of the union. But it's not the teachers' fault that the schools were bad. We busted our butts every day. There's an old African proverb that says when the elephants are fighting, the people at the bottom suffer. We're the ones at the bottom - the teachers and students.Some teachers have moved on to different jobs, like Ronald Andry, who taught seventh-grade math at Murray Henderson Middle School on Whitney Avenue.There's too much chaos, said Andry, who is now a case manager for Catholic Charities. I don't want to go back, but right now (the School Board) has a chance to change everything. They need to do that. If they don't, it'll be the same thing all over again.Others say they just want to teach their students again.It's a tough job. It's the hardest job I've ever had but I absolutely loved my job, said Susanne Farrar, a special education teacher at Henry W. Allen Elementary School on Loyola Avenue who is living in Arkansas because her apartment was destroyed. I think the school system in New Orleans was stagnated and politically choked, she said. Whatever it takes to get the schools up and running again - just do it. I want what's best for the children. If that's a charter school, fine. If that's a school in a treehouse, that's fine, too.Karen Beebe, who lives in Marrero and taught first-graders at Allen Elementary School, said she's also eager to get back to the classroom. I'm dying to teach. That's what I do, she said. What's the other alternative - pulling Sheetrock?Union oppositionThe Washington, D.C.-based American Federation of Teachers said most charter school efforts across the country have not worked in favor of teachers.Often charter schools throw out the union contracts, said John See, spokesman for the AFT. Throwing that out opens the door for all kinds of problems, and one of those would be nepotism; the jobs that are awarded are not based on merit but something else. For now, teachers must wait until the Algiers School Board Association starts to rehire. Many have no jobs, homes, cars or medical benefits. Employee benefits for NOPS employees expire Nov. 30 and will be replaced by catastrophic insurance carrying a $5,000 deductible for individuals or $10,000 for a family.But despite the challenges and the uncertainty, teachers remain dedicated to the students.These kids deserve to have something to come home to, said Demarest. They're entitled to it. They've had enough tragedy, enough disaster. If the people behind the charter schools are well-intentioned and they truly care about the children, it will be OK. But if they're not, God bless us all.

(Copyright 2005 Dolan Media Newswires)

Source: New Orleans CityBusiness

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