Education officials on Monday released a draft $1.7 billion plan for rebuilding public schools in post-Katrina New Orleans, calling for, among other things, the construction or renovation of 28 schools within five years.

Associated Press / File Photo

Recovery School District Superintendent Paul Vallas.

The initial phase, which would include those 28 projects, would cost about $685 million, and officials say it has full funding. Sources of funding for future phases remain unclear, though Lt. Gov. Mitch Landrieu said he believes additional funds could be secured by having a clear plan and timeline and following through on them.

The proposal is bound to generate heated discussion, as some neighborhoods in the city struggle to recover from 2005's Hurricane Katrina. The emotional tie to schools was apparent Monday, with state Education Superintendent Paul Pastorek fielding questions from concerned parents and residents during a media briefing.

The plan was to be aired Tuesday before the state board of education and Orleans Parish school board. Officials plan to hold two public hearings next month before making a final decision that would be subject to review every two years.

The proposal calls for 67 elementary school and 17 high school sites. It also calls for 52 additional sites to be "landbanked," with those more than 51 percent damaged demolished and others potentially converted to housing or other uses or made available to third parties to bring back a school.

By one estimate, the city has at least 322,900 residents; that compares to nearly 454,000 in July 2005, the month before Katrina hit.

Pastorek said New Orleans' school system was overbuilt before the storm, with capacity for about 100,000 students but only about 60,000 enrolled. In the next eight years, projections call for 46,700.

Aging buildings and deferred maintenance were major pre-storm issues in a system plagued by other problems, including poor academic performance.

A reorganization after Katrina left schools running under the local board, the state and private groups, which are running theirs as charters. Major reforms, ranging from longer instructional days to theme-based schools, are also under way in the state-run Recovery School District.

Pastorek said the proposal is "agnostic" on the issue of who should run any new schools. How new schools are to be named is also yet to be determined.

Landrieu said committing to build modern schools is another way for the city to say it's not going back to the pre-storm system.

At least half of New Orleans' public school students will be in "state-of-the-art" facilities at the end of the initial phase, Pastorek said.

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