By Kimberly Hopson
L’Observateur

RESERVE – As the new school year approaches, a handful of Lake Pontchartrain Elementary teachers said they are grateful to have stable classrooms to use this year.
For the time being, pre-K through second-grade instructors from Lake Pontchartrain Elementary will be able to make their home in a special wing of East St. John Elementary School.
Second-grade teacher Liz Koster said she will keep abreast of the issues concerning the school district’s plans to repair Lake Pontchartrain Elementary and install a temporary campus but prefers to look on the bright side of things since none of them had a classroom to speak of last year.
Students displaced from Lake Pontchartrain Elementary will be consolidated into three schools for the upcoming school year: preschoolers will go to the St. John Child Development Center; K-3 students will attend East St. John Elementary; and grades 4-8 will go to the Adult Education Center in Garyville. New Superintendent of Schools Kevin George said this year is “not the best situation, but better than last year.”
George said the theme for this school year is “working as one” to improve across the board. Though he acknowledged recent issues concerning the rehabilitation of the two storm-damaged campuses, he remained positive about the issues in the school district.
“Now we have a plan to move forward. It’s a delayed plan, and it’s not the best, but at least we know where we’re going tomorrow,” he said.
The board chose to submit a new request for proposals for the recovery project altogether and plans to go to bid soon with the contract to build a temporary Lake Pontchartrain campus. George said he hopes to have a temporary campus built by January.