A Gulf Coast School District Still Trying to Rebuild from Katrina Deals With Budget Cuts

In our continuing series on how budget cuts are affecting school districts across the state. MPB’s Phoebe Judge reports on how one Gulf Coast school district still trying to pick themselves up from Katrina is handling this latest blow.

The Bay St. Louis-Waveland School district lies directly at what has come to be known as Ground Zero, the area in which Hurricane Katrina made direct landfall. It’s been over three years since the storm, the recovery has been slow, and there’s still a long way to go. Kim Stasny is Superintendent of the Bay St. Louis-Waveland School district,

“Since the storm we have many properties that have just been completely deserted. The people are just not coming back to this area I think the way was first predicted. About 30% of our kids are just not back in the area. So we are operating on a 2 million dollar deficit because of our student population dropping down to 1600 children as opposed to 2400.”

Stasny is sitting in her office, in a trailer next to the old elementary school in Bay St. Louis which was complete destroyed by the storm. Second Street Elementary sits now as an empty shell, like so many of the buildings around the area. On top of the deficit in tax money coming in, the Bay St. Louis-Waveland school district is looking at another loss of 300,000 dollars as a result of the Governor’s latest round of budget cuts,

“And we have about a million dollar payroll to meet every month.”

Stasny has been holding meetings will all the teachers in the district, talking about ways to get costs down by turning off the lights, turning down the heat, making sure that teachers aren’t putting in too much overtime. But it’s hard to think about what to cut, when you are still tyring to figure out how to get back all that you lost says Stasny.

“We certainly don’t need to take anything else away from them.”

North Bay Elementary School Principle Francis Weiler is standing in a double wide trailer which serves as the cafeteria for the 350 kindergarten-second grade students who attend the school,

“They’ve spent their whole lives in portable classrooms, and sadly enough is that some of them have spent most of their lives in trailers at home.”

Lunchtime at North Bay is chaotic, there is no kitchen on the school grounds anymore and food has to be cooked at another school and then brought over in vans. Kim Stasny says that even with the budget cuts, the academic integrity of the district will not be sacrificed, but that hasn’t put everyone’s mind at rest. Gym Teacher Patricia Sager-Resor, and Music Teacher Shari Gunsch are having their lunch in the next room, and both are worried. Patricia Sager-Resor,

“It seems like when budget cuts in the past have been made, p.e., music and art are cut. They’re not allowed to go outside a lot of these children. So there is no physical activity, so I’m it. I can see a change in the children when they get outside a lot, because they are free and moving and they are not confined anywhere.”

Shari Gunsch, is not positive that what they do to cut electricity, and turn down the heat will be enough. She says that giving the students classes like music provide them with a type of escape in a world that can seem pretty bleak sometimes,

“I think that they need to know that aside from the tragedies that have occurred here. That’s there’s more to life than just what they see every day. They look around and they do see destruction. So when they experience music they get to see a part of the world that they don’t even know exists.”

Kim Stasny says that classes like P.E. and art will remain in all the schools, but it may mean that one teacher unit may be cut and the schools will share teachers instead. She just doesn’t know. That’s the hardest part says Stasny, trying to determine what the best move for the district is. Like whether it was a good idea to break ground on two new elementary schools. Stasny says it’s scary,

“Not only is it scary because I personally don’t want to make the wrong guess or the wrong decision, that’s going to damage the district down the road but I don’t have a crystal ball and I can’t make that determination.”

For now everyone is hoping that trimming the little things will add up, and that the school district can continue working on the real issue, rebuilding after the storm. For MPB News, I’m Phoebe Judge in Gulfport.