Message from the School Board President: March 1, 2007

You must know by now that Education Superintendent Cecil Picard passed away this week following a long illness.  Our School Board passed a resolution honoring him and extending our sympathy to his family.  Under his leadership, we had formed a strong partnership that helped the Orleans Parish School System and the Recovery School District to work together in the best interest of children.  We will miss him.

Today, the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education appointed Paul Pastorek, attorney and former BESE board member and chairman as Interim Superintendent.  Paul has been an active leader in a number of ways on behalf of education and will be a valuable asset as we continue to build a quality Orleans School System.  We are looking forward to working with him.

Meanwhile, we do want to thank Mrs. Carole Wallin, Deputy Education Superintendent for her untiring efforts while Superintendent Picard was ill.  She was responsive, professional, and a strong leader of the department, and was totally dedicated to children.  We enjoyed and appreciated working with her.

Our School Board recently appointed Darryl Kilbert as the permanent Superintendent.  He is a highly qualified educator with over 30 years of experience with the school system.  We also appointed Edward Morris as full time General Council and hired Stanley Smith as the Chief Financial Officer.  We are building a quality staff to operate our school administration.

Currently, there are 56 public schools open in New Orleans with nearly 28,000 students in attendance.  Our OPSB district schools are operating very successfully.  Meanwhile, we are continuing to work with the Recovery School District to repair and reopen schools and are so far staying above the demand.  Together, we are developing creative plans to assure ample room in the city for children and also to acquire qualified teachers.  We are also working closely with Dr. Edward Blakely, the City’s new Director of Recovery to coordinate a short and long-range plan for the rebuilding of our city.

We hope our children are finding their schools satisfactory and that parents feel the teachers and personnel are working in their children’s best interest.  We are working hard to continue to improve our schools and welcome you to email me at plandrieu@cox.net if you have any suggestions about how we can improve.

Thank you for your support.