The federal office that oversees recovery along the Gulf Coast has created a Web site that features details on federal funding set aside to rebuild, repair, or replace the more than 100 New Orleans school campuses damaged by Hurricane Katrina.
The project is intended to offer a clearer picture of how much the government is spending to rebuild public schools in the city, officials said. Called the Transparency Initiative, the Web site plots individual school buildings on a map of New Orleans, and, for now, provides two specific dollar amounts for each campus.
One figure represents how much money has been allocated by the Federal Emergency Management Agency. The second represents how much of the FEMA funding has been 鈥渄rawn down鈥� by local school officials for spending or for reimbursement. The map also indicates which school buildings are open and which ones remain closed.
This map above, and accompanying , provide detailed information about the funding that FEMA has provided to the State of Louisiana for schools within the RSD and OPSB.
Map image courtesy of FEMA.
In most cases, the figures do not represent the total amount of money necessary to rebuild and repair schools, said Karen Burke, the deputy superintendent of operations for the Recovery School District, which runs most of the city鈥檚 schools. Since Hurricane Katrina struck in August 2005, the district has spent roughly $170 million on construction, she said.
The mapping tool鈥攃reated by the Office of the Federal Coordinator for Gulf Coast Rebuilding鈥攊s meant to be the first piece of a much larger project that will outline federal spending on recovery efforts across the entire region affected by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, and across other sectors such as police and fire agencies.
Federal officials said they intend to provide more data on schools as they receive it, including other federal sources of recovery funds, such as grants provided by the Department of Housing and Urban Development.
鈥淭here has been this void in answering 鈥榃here鈥檚 the holdup?鈥� 鈥� on recovery efforts, said Donald E. Powell, the federal coordinator appointed by President Bush to oversee rebuilding along the Gulf Coast. 鈥淚f you鈥檙e a stakeholder, you鈥檒l be able to see where it is. This is a tool for both transparency and accountability.鈥�
鈥業ncredibly Relevant鈥�
Mr. Powell said providing information on New Orleans schools first made sense because they are key to the rebuilding of neighborhoods. The fate of all of New Orleans鈥� public schools鈥攖hose already open and those that remain closed鈥攚ill be decided later this year, when a citywide master plan for school facilities is completed.
Angela W. Daliet, the executive director of Save Our 69传媒 New Orleans, a nonprofit group founded after Katrina to support the opening of high-quality public schools in every neighborhood, said the information is critical.
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鈥淭his is incredibly relevant information,鈥� said Ms. Daliet, whose organization recently launched its own Web site, www. sosnola.org, to provide detailed information on every public school in the city. 鈥淚t鈥檚 only fair for our public to see these figures and have a bigger picture to see where every school stands. This is information we鈥檝e been struggling to get ourselves.鈥�
Ms. Daliet said the information on the federal site will likely raise more questions than it answers. 鈥淏ut to have this information now allows us to ask questions that we may not have known to ask,鈥� she said, 鈥渁nd challenge things and hold people accountable.鈥�
Paul G. Vallas, the superintendent of the Recovery School District, called the mapping tool 鈥渁n honest attempt at transparency.鈥�
He praised FEMA for changes to rules that have speeded up reimbursements and allowed the district more flexibility in how it spends the federal disaster aid.
