Wise: Godchaux-Reserve House warrants saving
Published 12:01 am Saturday, April 18, 2015
VH-1 Save the Music Foundation considering St. John grant
I was very happy to read two side-by-side stories on the front page of the midweek edition: Work has begun to restore the famous Godchaux-Reserve House on River Road, and the Sheriff’s Department has begun working with the St. John Public Schools to be prepared in case someone comes into a school with a gun.
I have been actively advocating both of those things for some time.
I had originally proposed, nearly 10 years ago, that the Godchaux house be restored and incorporated into a group of new and historic buildings to become a complex of offices and meeting rooms for the School Board. The current Central Office, right next door, is outdated, overcrowded and too small. The current plan is to turn it into a museum.
I will support that, and donate funds, because history is important, and the building worth saving no matter how it’s used.
I began talking with Sheriff Tregre about active-shooter drills even before he was elected. He has already begun the process, using the former Lake Ponchartrain Elementary School as a training ground and sending deputies to photograph and map out every school in the district.
I am hoping that he and senior School Board officials will work together to develop and rehearse plans in every school in the District. It’s always better to have a plan and never need it, than to need it and not have it.
I’m also pleased to announce that St. John Public Schools is expecting a visit later this month from a representative of the VH-1 Save the Music Foundation, which is considering a second grant of $35,000 to buy musical instruments for one of our schools.
Just a few weeks after I had met with the Foundation’s Ms. Chiho Okuizumi at a national school boards event, she had approved a grant for Emily C. Watkins Elementary, which led to our hiring three elementary school music teachers — the first in the School District’s history.
Now it appears highly likely that two years later the VH-1 Foundation will help us fund musical instruments at yet another school.
Russ Wise is a St. John the Baptist Parish School Board member from LaPlace.