Our school district looks dramatically different now in comparison to what it looked like right after Katrina hit. It looked as if there was no way we would be able to have school one month after the storm, but we were very optimistic from the beginning and took an aggressive approach to getting our children back in the classrooms.

When we started school again, our enrollment numbers were way down, but five months after the storm, our enrollment has leveled out some. That includes students coming into our district who had to relocate from other areas.

The hardest thing for me to cope with after Katrina was not knowing whether or not our children were safe. But as communication lines improved over the days and weeks, I was assured more and more that our children were OK.