Upon reflecting on one of the most challenging years in modern history, 2020 was a very taxing year for me. Like many of you, I suffered the loss of loved ones and cried over zoom funerals. I was also hit with a serious case of COVID-19 that knocked me off my feet and kept me in bed for weeks.
That diagnosis led me to realize how fragile life is and how life is not promised to any of us -- as our pastor would always say. In fact, my pastor acknowledged that he presided over more funerals this year than any other time that he can remember. Therefore, I enter this new year with a heart of gratitude and purpose.
As I reflect on the beginning of this pandemic experience, I, along with my six colleagues including John Brown Sr. of District 1, Sarah Newell Usdin of District 3, Leslie Ellison of District 4, Ben Kleban and later Grisela Jackson of District 5, Woody Koppel of District 6, and Nolan Marshall Jr. of District 7 have each worked to do what no other school board in our history has had to do, which was to help the District move all our students to virtual learning quickly. Through our emergency allocation of $5,000,000 for technology and PPE, we worked with our schools to get our students what they needed to continue learning in the spring, albeit in a new and challenging way.
During my time as board president and on top of the once-in-a-century pandemic, our board also grappled with the storm of systemic racism and several hurricanes – one of which directly hit New Orleans. This time has been the most we have ever relied on parents to aid in school instruction since Katrina, and we are still not out of the woods.
While there is much more to lament, I am grateful for our educators, staff, school leaders, families, and students just as much for my fellow board members' support. I am honored to begin serving another term with two of them, John and Nolan. And, for the others departing, I am blessed to have served with and learned from each of them.
I will never forget the wisdom offered by our longest-serving board member Woody; the work of Ben to shorten the bus ride times and make the pickup times in the morning later for students; the time spent working with Leslie to pass the schools' preservation millage; the passion of Grisela to make the health and safety of students in our District central to our work during this pandemic; nor the tireless work of Sarah to raise money for our students and District to meet the never-ending needs.
There are countless wins that we can attribute to their leadership, including passing a historical racial equity audit; becoming the first government agency in New Orleans to increase the wages of our lowest-paid workers to $15 an hour, and investing millions of dollars to develop teachers at Xavier University and other local certified teacher development programs in hopes of increasing our local homegrown teaching staff. With each of these wins, I know that each of these board members was focused on doing what was in our students' best interest.
Our new board members- Olin Parker of District 3, J.C. Romero of District 4, Katie Baudouin of District 5, and Carlos Zervigon of District 6, will have big shoes to fill. The new board will have to perform immediately to address big challenges we face, including:
- The task of working to help sustain programs and much-needed supports for our students with impending budget deficits due to the lack of sales taxes.
- Keeping our students learning and our educators safe through the pandemic of COVID-19.
- Continuing to strengthen our school system by advancing policies that address the racial disparities in our system.
It can no longer be acceptable that our children and families with the least get hit the hardest when disaster strikes. This new board must work to ensure that equity is built into our legacy for our students, educators and families and those to come. We cannot do this alone. We will be asking our local legislative delegation, City Council members and the mayor to help us continue to stabilize families so that we can focus on educating our most precious resource, our students.
In closing, there is much more work to be done. However, on behalf of the District, I want to thank my board members who are ending their service on a job well done and welcome my new board members as we start next year focused on meeting the District's challenges for our students, families, and educators.
Wishing you a healthy and prosperous new year!
Sincerely,
