As American Teacher went to press, AFT affiliates and members had begun grappling with the devastation and displacement caused by Hurricane Katrina. In interviews conducted the first week in September, members of the AFT editorial staff spoke with some of the union leaders and members affected by the hurricane.

Hurricane Katrina swept across the Gulf Coast in late August, leaving in its wake untold damage and uprooting hundreds of thousands of people, including many AFT members. Even as the destruction was being assessed, AFT affiliates and local and state school officials in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Texas were working to bring stability to the lives of the displaced educators and schoolchildren.

The AFT represents nearly 15,000 teachers, paraprofessionals and school-related personnel, as well as higher education faculty, in the affected areas of Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi. The union represents 6,500 people in New Orleans alone.

The United Teachers of New Orleans (UTNO) and its president, Brenda Mitchell, have set up a temporary office in Baton Rouge, La. Working with the AFT and the Louisiana Federation of Teachers (LFT), UTNO is keeping its Web site current so that members can get the latest updates on New Orleans schools. Not surprisingly, the many UTNO members displaced by the hurricane have concerns about pay and insurance.

AFT secretary-treasurer and former UTNO president Nat LaCour is a native of New Orleans. He and his family were in Baton Rouge when the hurricane hit. LaCour had not been able to determine the extent of damage to his home in New Orleans. “I do know that the water was up to the top of my house and that I’ve lost photos, recordings and other personal items that I will never be able to replace. Sadly, the same is true of many, many other people in my hometown.”

The state superintendent of schools for Louisiana announced that schools in New Orleans and St. Bernard Parish would likely be closed for the entire school year. LaCour hoped the state and New Orleans school district would consider reopening schools on the city’s West Bank, which were not destroyed by the hurricane. “If there are schools that have not been heavily damaged in areas where people are still residing, we ought to make every effort to open them,” he said.

Affiliates spring into action
AFT affiliates in Texas were quick to extend a helping hand to AFT colleagues from New Orleans and Jefferson Parish who had arrived in Texas just a few steps ahead of Katrina or in the hurricane’s immediate aftermath. Within days of the storm, Texas affiliates mobilized to help evacuated members from Louisiana meet their most immediate needs. As a result of the storm, “New Orleans teachers’ first paychecks didn’t come through, and there’s no denying the urgency of the situation,” said Gayle Fallon, president of the Houston Federation of Teachers. As an AFT local, “we’re here to help.” An estimated 10,000 New Orleans students were expected to enroll in Houston schools.

While much media attention focused on the huge influx of evacuees into cities like Houston, San Antonio and Dallas, “a lot of our smaller cities will be affected, too,” said Linda Bridges, president of the Texas Federation of Teachers. “I think every city along the Gulf Coast will be impacted. We are making sure that all of our locals have a way to get information into the hands of any AFT member who lands in their districts.”

Starting from scratch
The school board in Jefferson Parish, one of New Orleans’ largest suburbs, hoped to reopen schools on Oct. 3. Parish school employees would receive full pay and benefits through September, said Joe Potts, president of the Jefferson Federation of Teachers (JFT), which represents about 3,000 teachers and PSRPs.

As soon as Jefferson Parish gives clearance, “property preservation teams” will begin to assess the damage to schools, equipment and supplies, Potts said. Although it was uncertain what the condition of the schools would be, Potts seemed certain the process would be like starting the school system from scratch.

Relocated teachers and school employees were calling in from cities across the country asking if they still had jobs, whether they should take a job elsewhere and whether they should sign up to collect unemployment, Potts reported. “We are working to get them the answers, because the longer we wait, the more time they have to get established somewhere else.” 

 A temporary union office was established in Baton Rouge within days of the storm. The union was working with the Jefferson Parish school district to establish a toll-free hotline members could call.

In the meantime, the JFT was using the Louisiana Federation of Teachers Web site and action alerts to stay in touch with Jefferson Parish school employees. Potts also was encouraging teachers and school employees to go to the Louisiana Department of Education’s Web site and report their current location to the Hurricane Katrina School Personnel Employment and Information Center so that the district could establish contact with them.

“We are trying to make the best decisions we can with the information we have and hopefully bring some kind of normalcy to people’s lives,” Potts said.

Reopening schools in St. Tammany Parish
Most schools in St. Tammany Parish near New Orleans escaped significant damage, and school district officials were hoping that students could return to classes on Oct. 3. The St. Tammany Federation of Teachers, which represents teachers and PSRPs, was working closely with school superintendent Gayle Sloan, herself a former St. Tammany federation vice president. Elsie Burkhalter, president of the St. Tammany local, reported that all school employees would continue to be paid through September and would resume work in early October if the district could meet its timeline.

Some union members were not as fortunate with their own property as the district was with its schools. Burkhalter’s house and the local’s office, for example, were both under water at press time. The district was hoping its employees all would return, but the superintendent acknowledged that some might not have housing or might end up taking jobs in other locations closer to where they ended up after the storm.

“We’re working as a family to keep on keeping on,” Burkhalter said. “Like always, the union makes us stronger. Thanks to the AFT, the LFT and our union brothers and sisters across this nation for their prayers and support.”

Lost homes, destroyed schools in Mississippi
In Mississippi, approximately 800 teachers, staff and school-related personnel have been directly affected by Hurricane Katrina, said AFT state federation president Greg Kelly. About 350 reside on the Mississippi Gulf Coast. The other 450 were in the direct path of Katrina as it roared over the rest of the state, he noted.

“We are just beginning to receive information regarding our individual members,” he reported, “but many have told us they have lost everything.”

The condition of the schools was still being assessed, but some were destroyed and others badly damaged, Kelly said. And many schools that had withstood the storm surge were being used as temporary shelters.

AFT officers meet with federal leaders on
hurricane recovery

AFT officers and senior staff met with ranking legislators in Washington, D.C., in early September to discuss how the federal government can provide fast-track help in the recovery effort in the Gulf Coast region.

AFT president Edward J. McElroy joined other education leaders and representatives of relief organizations at a Sept. 7 meeting with leaders of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee of the U.S. Senate. Sen. Michael Enzi (R-Wyo.), committee chair,  and ranking Democrat Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) invited McElroy, NEA president Reg Weaver and others to submit ideas for possible legislation to provide support to the hurricane victims. The New Orleans district schools, in particular, have been almost destroyed and will need sizable and sustained aid to recover, McElroy told the group.

Following that meeting, McElroy and Michael Casserly, executive director of the Council of the Great City Schools, sent a letter to Sens. Enzi and Kennedy urging immediate financial assistance to reopen schools in districts hit by the hurricane, financial assistance for school districts receiving students from evacuated areas, and funding to repair and rebuild schools in the Gulf Coast region.

Meanwhile, AFT secretary-treasurer Nat LaCour met with U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings to discuss the department’s efforts to help students and schools in the wake of the disaster.

He urged Spellings to provide relief quickly and to be as flexible as possible in finding solutions for schools in the affected areas. He asked that she work with Congress and the White House to establish a funding stream for school-related relief that would be under her authority and independent of FEMA.