ATD Helps Plaquemines Schools

As news reports began to reveal the severe damage the schools in Louisiana were sustaining, our staff agreed, in the ATD-AMERICAN CO. tradition of community service, it had to help.

 

Our management team sprang into action and soon identified a long-time customer, Plaquemines Parish Schools, Louisiana, as one of the hardest hit school districts in

the area.

 

Six of the Plaquemine’s nine schools had to be closed for repairs until the Fall of 2006. Meanwhile the entire student population would be squeezed in the remaining three buildings.

 

The district administrative team in charge of renovating the six damaged schools had empty office space, but little else. District Executive Assistant, Mary Anne Bulot, told ATD they needed desks, filing cabinets, storage cabinets, large markerboards, and portable divider screens.

 

Our ATD staff coordinated the product selection and arranged for prompt shipment of all the donated furniture. Two of our best vendor partners also provided items: Virco Mfg. Corp, of Torrance, CA, and BestRite, of Temple, TX.

 

Expressing the gratitude of the district, Mary Anne said, “One outcome of this devastating loss was the outpouring of kindness from many sources. As we faced an initially grim situation, these acts of generosity made our task much more bearable.”

In addition to regular duties, her office is “busy coordinating rebuilding efforts, allocating and acknowledging donations, and creating lists of all property lost or damaged from the hurricane or flooding.”

 

As part of the reconstruction process the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is building two modular schools as a temporary home for student overflow, until permanent buildings are built or currently damaged schools are repaired. The modulars are scheduled to open September, 2006.

 

Currently the district is serving 3,000 of their former 5,000-student population. “We hope to welcome an additional 1,000 students by the time the modulars open this Fall,” explained Carol Roberts, Director of Secondary Education and Informational Technology. “However, potential enrollment figures can’t be easily predicted, because they depend on the return of families to areas that are still not habitable.”

 

Visit the district website www.ppsb.org to view pictures of all their buildings after Katrina struck. New modulars will go a long way to ease the burden of this struggling district, but more is needed.

 

We encourage you to join ATD-AMERICAN CO. in helping Plaquemines Parish Schools by making a generous donation. Click on the file below to see a list of items they still need.

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