We appear to be ready for the return of students and teachers to St. Mary Parish schools tomorrow (Wednesday, Sept. 10, 2008). It won't be perfect, but overall, St. Mary Parish was lucky--Hurricane Gustav could have inflicted much more damage than it did. Our thoughts are with those in other districts where electrical, water, and sewerage services may not be restored for four to six weeks. Imagine how difficult that will be!
Your contributions to this blog from wherever you sought shelter from the storm and after you returned to St. Mary Parish were vital in maintaining our lines of communication when local cell phone usage and electrical power were compromised. Rather than a static web page, the blog was interactive, allowing us to share information in real time. We all thank you for your questions, your reports, and your helpful hints. I know that I benefited from information posted on this site.
Mr. Thibodeaux's team produced a Hurricane Preparedness Plan that was highly effective. It now has been fully tried, and small improvements can be made to assist us next time a hurricane threatens. The plan included the purchase of an emergency generator, and its use provided a command center in the Maintenance Department that allowed Dr. Aguillard to assess damages beginning on the day after the storm passed. In fact, the generator was strong enough to power the district web site and email servers by Thursday at noon, even though electrical power to the Central Office Complex was not restored until Friday evening. Thanks to Brad Wiese, Blaine St. Romain, Mary Grimm-Howard, Lane Boudreaux, Kevin Derise, and the maintenance crews for making it happen.
And now, it's your turn: Please feel free to issue an "atta-boy" to those who made a difference at your school or facility, to those who helped to secure or survey or clean-up your site, and to those who helped maintain the lines of communication among school or district personnel.
Just click the Comments link below, and type your shout-out in the "Leave your Comment" window on the right. Beneath that window, make sure to click the "Name/URL" button and insert your name so that we'll know who has made the posting.
Note: Since all posts are monitored, you will not see your comment right away. Check back within an hour, and it will magically appear.
Thanks again for your support and participation!
sudu
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
9 comments:
Thanks to Su Dupre and Dr. Aguillard for keeping everyone informed with the emergency blog. I still cannot access the SMP homepage or email so this blog site was my life line. Thanks again! :)
Thanks Susan for keeping the blog....it was really great to be able to find out the information directly from you rather than delayed or misinformation from the news channels.
Thank you to all of the workers who did what needed to be done to get the schools ready to open.....both my children..Jordan and Harleigh..are ready to get back to their classes...while they enjoyed having the days off...they didn't like having such a long time missed from what they were doing the last day of school before the storm.
Thanks again
Pamela Price
The damage caused by Hurricance Gustav will ultimately make our organization much stronger. We have grown tremendously since the damage caused by Katrina and Rita. The district now has a very effective blog page for two-way communication, a command center at COC that can operate under emergency power, and a well-tested hurricane preparedness plan that will improve with each storm impacting our district. I extend my thanks to maintenance, food service, technology, district administrators and building principals who worked to provide the first level of response to Hurricane Gustav. I realize that many school personnel also stepped up to to assist in getting our schools ready to reopen. I am proud of the strength of our district to recover from natural disasters. We are a strong and thriving professional organization that will work to target student success. Thank you. Dr. Aguillard
I would like to thank Louis Ratcliff, Mayor of Berwick, Allen Benoit and the Town of Berwick for their support in the clean up efforts at Berwick Elementary School. The town sent in work crews to clean our campus of fallen trees and debris from Hurricane Gustav. They did an amazing job and our school is ready to reopen. Together we can make a difference. Thanks again, Steve Russo, Principal Berwick Elementary
I am very happy that this blog was helpful to us!
P.S. I cancelled my hotel reservations in Shreveport, so Ike is now free to visit Texas. I am looking forward to a weekend at home with lights and water!
sudu
I would like to give some attaboys to my custodial staff for their help over the time we were out. They took it upon themselves to get into tyhe building and clean up. To Lester Levine, Leroy Washington, Rickey Simmons,and Frederick Sneed a job appreciated.
I hope you are right about the power and water, although living in Lakeside, the power goes out at the drop of a hat, so I'm not holding my breath haha. Look how big Ike is! http://www.weather.com/maps/news/atlstorm9/floater3_large.html
Everyone please be safe as we are still under a tropical storm warning and can expect to see tropical storm force winds and rain.
A special thanks to Mike Ortiz for going and checking on his favorite elementary school. It is nice to have someone close to check on our school and provide us with a report. Also big thanks go out to Mrs. Tina Leonard for coming in early to get things back in shape for the return of our teachers and students. Also -- thanks for my janitors and cafeteria staff for the quick response to the call to come in Monday morning. One more big thanks -- to my little one- Rhett for helping me mop up the water in the halls and classrooms. He was such a big help.
Niki Fryou, Principal Hattie Watts Elementary
A huge thank you to Rachel Wells, head custodian at Bayou Vista Elementary, for getting to school quickly after Hurricane Gustav to assess damgaes and clean up. Mrs. Wells worked everyday during the week we were off to make sure that BVES was ready to reopen on time.
Claire Guarisco
BVES principal
Post a Comment