Jamar McKneeley
CEO, InspireNOLA Charter Schools New Orleans
Pre-Katrina, you had individuals who were working. You had individuals without a doubt who cared about students; but we didn't have the flexibility and the autonomy to truly make the change that we currently have now. After Katrina, what we saw was an evolution of inspiration. We saw an evolution of our individuals able to be creative, to really drill down on the skill sets of what our students needed, to really be successful. We saw the budget free up. We didn't have any more district mandates that said that we had to do this or do that for a program that was not necessarily gonna work with our schools. We were able to transform the landscape of being creative and innovative to bring a new landscape for our students.
I was one that was laid off with the rest of the 7,500 teachers that was laid off, where there was a divide that was there. I see myself now as being a bridge-builder — to say we have to focus on what's in the best interest of our kids. There were a lot of conversations that this was actually done to the community, not with the community. Now, for me, the question becomes, how can we engage the community now? How can we really amplify the needs and the responsibilities of what schools need to do holistically for our community and try to engage and be an active partner as often as possible?
There were a lot of individuals that were hurt based on how this actually happened, so now I try not to focus on the hurt and try to be a healer on what we can do now.
