A fairly uplifting story of the renovation and planned reopening of Ben Franklin High:
nola.com
Mind over muck
Monday, December 05, 2005
By Barri Bronston
Staff writer
After Benjamin Franklin High School took on
2 feet of water and the Orleans Parish School Board announced that it may not open any schools this year, Franklin's employees, parents and students sprang into action. Their efforts will pay off Jan. 17, on their namesake's 300th birthday.
From her mother's home in Amite, Carol Christen, principal of Ben Franklin High School, could only imagine the kind of damage that Hurricane Katrina had wreaked on her Lakefront school.
"I was watching the news and reading the paper just like everyone else," said Christen, who has served as Franklin's principal for the past six years, assistant principal for 16 years before that.
But worse than anything she could imagine was what she was hearing, talk among state and local education officials that the city's public schools -- particularly those on the east bank -- may be unable to open at all this school year.
Before Christen was willing to accept such a fate, she wanted to see Franklin, the school district's academic flagship school, for herself. So she called physics teacher and football coach Charles Firneno and asked him to meet her there.
"It was an unforgettable, horrifying moment," Christen said of her mid-September drive through the Franklin neighborhood. "No picture on TV or in the newspaper could ever depict the reality of the devastation."
Armed with flashlights and donning masks and gloves, she and Firneno, a former captain in the U.S. Marines Corps and still a member of the Marine Corps Reserves, entered the school through the auditorium, walking through mud and muck as they made their way to the front lobby.
Although standing water remained in some parts of the neighborhood, the 18 to 24 inches of water that entered Franklin had receded, revealing the extent of damage to the school's office area, library, cafeteria, gymnasium and other first-floor rooms.
Mud blanketed the floors. Mold covered the walls. Trees and branches were sprawled from one end of the courtyard to the other. Records and library books were soaked, and computers, furniture and sports equipment ruined. The recently repaired gymnasium floor had buckled.
"I broke down," Christen said. "It was heartbreaking."
They headed to the second and third floors, and except for a few blown-out windows, classrooms were unscathed, as if frozen in time on Aug. 26, 2005, the last day of school before the storm.
Seeing the upper two floors lifted Christen's spirits, and soon she and Firneno were mapping out ways to get Franklin back open and bring students -- many enrolled in schools across the country -- back home.
With relatively little damage to his own Algiers house and with experience tearing out Sheetrock, Firneno persuaded Christen to let him oversee cleanup. Joining forces with the University of New Orleans, Christen began the process of turning Franklin into a charter school, giving it the independence it needed to open on its own.
"My concern was providing the next level of instruction, getting our seniors graduated and providing an opportunity for people to return to New Orleans," Christen said. "I knew that if we didn't open, that a good percentage of these students would not come back."
To get Franklin even close to its pre-Katrina state would take an army of laborers working virtually around the clock to clean up the building before contractors could come in to begin rebuilding the bottom floor.
Firneno knew just where to find them. Using the school's e-mail group, he recruited parents and teachers to help out on weekends, or whenever they were available.
"One of our parents came in with 24-inch and 18-inch chainsaws and within one day, with a crew of volunteers, we had all the trees cleared from the courtyard," Firneno said.
Other parents brought generators, cleaning supplies, garden sprayers, wet-dry vacuums and surgical masks.
"We opened the doors, we had the fans blowing and we got pressure washers in here. A couple of other parents came on board, and I was able to organize and direct crews where they were needed the most. Our athletic director, Jodee Pulizzano, single-handedly cleaned and sanitized the locker rooms."
With the charter process still in its infancy, it was crucial that volunteers "stay below the radar," Firneno said. "We didn't want to create a situation where they (school officials) were going to come and tell us we couldn't be there. We felt it was easier to ask for forgiveness than to ask for permission."
Their goal: Re-open on Jan. 17, the 300th birthday of Benjamin Franklin.
Beyond the fierce loyalty that most high schools inspire in their students, the effort to get Franklin open and get the students back in school has been driven in part by its rigorous academic program. As the top-rated high school in the state, Franklin has strict admission standards and an ethnically diverse student body, and last year had the second highest number of National Merit finalists in the nation.
It is an environment that Franklin parents scattered across the country have had trouble duplicating for their kids. So when Firneno asked, help arrived in waves.
For parent Nicholas James, joining the Franklin volunteer army was a no-brainer. He had relatively little damage to his house, and wanted to do whatever he could to help bring students -- including his own daughter -- back to New Orleans.
"I was one of the few parents whose life had not been devastated by the storm," he said. "So what better way was there to help everyone than working as hard as I could to get the school going again?"
The volunteer effort also included alumni, such as Doug Daspit, a 1995 Franklin graduate who serves as youth pastor of Berean Bible Church in Algiers, which is housing volunteer church groups from across the country. With several volunteers working in the Franklin neighborhood, it only made sense to offer help to his alma mater.
"I was driving by Franklin and noticed Ms. Christen standing by the front door," Daspit said. "I told her, 'I doubt you remember me but I graduated in 1995, and I have 60 college students (from Cedarville University in Ohio) that I need to find a job for, and I would love for them to help you guys.' "
Firneno wrote down his phone number and contacted him three days later.
"He was pumped," Daspit said. "He had the kids split into teams. He sent some to the gym, some to the office area and some to the library. They finished everything they were assigned to do in three days. It was a very positive experience."
Meanwhile, Christen, other faculty members and leaders from the University of New Orleans worked on putting the charter proposal together. As a charter school, Franklin would still be subject to state laws and accountability standards but would be able to open up independently, obtain money allocated for charter schools, maintain its admission standards and, because of its partnership with UNO, have access to college-level resources.
On Oct. 28, the Orleans Parish School Board approved Franklin's charter application along with applications from 19 other schools. The charter movement will be financed in part by a $20.9 million federal grant established after Katrina to foster the creation, expansion and repair of charter schools damaged in the storm.
But to have a viable school, Franklin needs its students -- or at least a good number of them. Christen set a goal of 500, slightly more than half of the 936 students who began school on Aug. 18.
As of late last week, more than 400 students had confirmed they would be back in January and many more committed to returning in August. In some cases, students will return without their parents, who because of new jobs cannot return to New Orleans.
"Franklin is home," said Stephen Andrus, a senior now attending McKinley High School in Baton Rouge.
"I never really appreciated it until it was taken away from me," said Jamie Pounds, a senior attending a Houston school with more than 4,000 students. "It's the people in the school -- the students and the teachers -- that make it so special."
While Christen and her staff continue to work on bolstering enrollment, parents are helping families find affordable housing so they can return to New Orleans. The school's parents association has started a recovery fund to help Franklin families in need. A separate effort to collect money for faculty salaries and instructional materials has raised $88,000 so far, said Julia Walker, campaign chairwoman. She hopes to raise $500,000 by opening day.
"People feel that education is at the heart of rebuilding this city," said Walker. "And it's a symbol of rebirth to have Franklin reopen."
Academics will remain the school's cornerstone, but tending to the emotional needs of students also will be a priority.
"You're going to be looking at kids who have lost everything, including some who've lost family members," Firneno said. "It's a monumental task."
But Christen knows that being able to call themselves Benjamin Franklin High School students again will be an important part of the recovery.
"If we can give them a sense of normalcy that they can cling to," she said, "they can have some peace in their lives and move on." |
