69传媒

San Juan, Puerto Rico

Can Puerto Rico鈥檚 schools get back on their feet in just over a month after the island was devastated by Hurricane Maria? The U.S. territory鈥檚 top school official is making a push to do just that.

There鈥檚 been little sleep for Puerto Rico鈥檚 Secretary of Education Julia Keleher as she and her staff work the phones and back channels from a busy command center here to get as many schools open as possible within the next two weeks. Doing so could bring much-needed solace and stability to the commonwealth鈥檚 350,000 students and their families in the aftermath of one of the worst storms to hit the commonwealth in recent memory.

That could mean very different things for communities depending on where they are.

On Monday, Keleher said the goal was to have 165 schools open by Tuesday. That includes the initial 22 schools that opened their doors to students last week for basic academic activities, emotional support, and to give them and their families basic necessities after the hurricane.

That鈥檚 still a far cry from getting the nearly 1,200 public schools in Puerto Rico back online. And it will be a challenging task for all viable schools to reopen by Oct. 23, the date Keleher has set for school leaders and in public statements.

A school鈥檚 leaders can鈥檛 just decide to open if they want to: First, the school needs to be structurally sound, relatively free of debris, and have water for sanitation purposes. Many schools could be torn down as a result of the devastation from the storm.

And it鈥檚 unwise to think that schools will reopen at a smooth, geometric pace. Some, like those in mountain towns like Utuado, will probably take many more weeks or months before they can open back up for something resembling normal activities.

But Keleher said that after looking at additional data on schools over the weekend, she thinks there are 227 more schools that can open once workers clear away debris. Another 577 could reopen once they get cisterns for holding water, she added.

Keleher is also juggling interagency work. For example, on Monday, she met with a coordinating committee trying to use various community hubs, including schools, as 鈥淪top and Go鈥� centers where residents can get everything from a clean meal to a washing machine and WiFi service. It鈥檚 an initiative begun by Puerto Rico鈥檚 first lady, Beatriz Areizaga.

Keleher is getting help from the Council of the Great City 69传媒 and is also lining up aid from school officials in the Miami-Dade school district and from the University of North Carolina to provide support for educators.

鈥淲e understand that if our teachers aren鈥檛 well, they鈥檙e not going to be able to take care of our students,鈥� said Keleher, who鈥檚 been Puerto Rico鈥檚 schools chief since January and took over a system with a massive debt and that had to close a large number of schools recently.

As for the U.S. Department of Education, Keleher said she appreciates the funding flexibility that Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos has provided. What else do Keleher and her department need to help schools recover? Congress could also waive requirements around adult and special education. And Keleher said she looks at the funding package given to schools in Louisiana after Hurricane Katrina and says something similar would be appropriate for her schools.

鈥淭hose restart funds were huge [after Katrina],鈥� Keleher said in an interview here with Education Week. 鈥淚f we鈥檙e strategic about it, it鈥檚 only going to advance our reforms quicker.鈥�

Reality on the Ground

Strategy can鈥檛 change the realities. At a minimum, about 35 instructional days will be lost if schools begin something like regular academic work later this month. For many, that lost time could extend for months. And the delay, however long, will have a tremendous domino effect. To name just one example, college entrance exams for many students were slated to start the week of Oct. 9.

Right now, activities at schools that are open consist of providing students the opportunity to talk about their experiences during the hurricane and giving them both an emotional outlet and a positive support system. In addition, other schools are providing supplies to students and their families.

69传媒 at one middle school, for example, were cutting out paper images of hands and writing what they would do to help others affected by the hurricane.

Some of Keleher鈥檚 most difficult moments have come when she鈥檚 watched poor families in remote areas move into shuttered school buildings with all of their possessions, seeking shelter.

鈥淚t鈥檚 the most vulnerable of the vulnerable,鈥� Keleher said. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 kind of heartbreaking, but it鈥檚 inspiring. It makes one very committed.鈥�

In order to operate, Keleher told us, schools have to have running water and be structurally sound: Nothing on school grounds can look like it鈥檚 about to crash down on top of people. Power isn鈥檛 a necessity鈥攊f a school has a generator, that鈥檚 more than enough. But that means plenty of schools with no air conditioning when the temperature is still reaching into the sticky high 80s and low 90s.

Supporting 69传媒

These are the sorts of conditions, along with an uncertain future, that are driving teachers, among others, to leave the island and seek a better future for them and their children. How does Keleher deal with that dynamic? She鈥檚 more committed than when she began in January, but she鈥檚 also flexible.

鈥淢y main objective is that every child in Puerto Rico gets a quality education. If my system provides that, great. If another system in a state is going to provide that, that鈥檚 great too,鈥� she said. 鈥淲hat I鈥檓 committed to is to work collaboratively with the leaders of those systems so that our students get a little briefcase, and they can go. So that we help them. That鈥檚 what we鈥檙e here for. The adults can figure out what鈥檚 important to adults later. ... I need to make sure if that kid goes, that kid has everything he or she needs to adapt.鈥�

The Puerto Rican education department itself isn鈥檛 back at home yet: Keleher and her top staffers have relocated from their normal headquarters to the island鈥檚 convention center, cheek by jowl with military personnel, aid workers, and other Puerto Rican government officials.

On Saturday, Keleher was working with her chief of staff, Carmen Denton, and Ruben Huertas, her top legal adviser, to get data to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers about the state of individual schools. The engineer corps, in turn, would then make decisions about which schools would get priority. So far, her department had gathered information about roughly 85 percent of the territory鈥檚 public schools.

The week following the storm, she only had information about a third of the schools. In Humacao and in Caguas, some of the hardest-hit areas, there鈥檚 still missing data on the schools.

Keleher is also negotiating with the Federal Emergency Management Agency to use schools as warehouses for food to distribute to communities, beyond the meals and other necessities already being provided to surrounding neighborhoods. And she was wrangling with federal authorities about reimbursement for funds. That sort of bureaucratic jujitsu is possible even in this situation, Keleher said, but only if the demands of paperwork are met and rules are followed.