New Orleans’ loss is area’s gain

By Emily Richmond

Wednesday, July 19, 2006 | 7:38 a.m.

In the Gentilly neighborhood of New Orleans, in the days before Hurricane Katrina, Jewdeia Olmsted could look out at her herb garden, citrus trees and luxuriant lawn.

She's now living in North Las Vegas, where she gazes upon her neighbor's garage door.

She and her husband traded charming architecture and gregarious neighbors for Southern Nevada's anonymous subdivisions.

But they've decided to continue rebuilding their lives here , hopeful this place will eventually become home to them - garage doors and all.

Olmsted and her husband, Eric Olmsted - both teachers - were hired last fall by the Clark County School District after their campuses in New Orleans were closed indefinitely.

"We don't want to be floating from place to place," Jewdeia Olmsted said. "Sometimes the (Las Vegas) heat gets to you, sometimes the traffic. There are other times I like it here."

In the wake of Katrina, hundreds of Gulf Coast students enrolled in Clark County schools and about two dozen people were hired by the district as teachers or support employees. District officials say nine New Orleans teachers have renewed their contracts for the school year beginning Aug. 30.

The Olmsteds say they were warmly welcomed by the staff, students and parents at their new campuses - Jewdeia Olmsted at Wayne Tanaka Elementary School and Eric Olmsted at William Snyder Elementary School. They'll be returning to those schools.

Jewdeia Olmsted, who teaches special education, said Clark County's schools are generally newer and better equipped than those in New Orleans. But she was taken aback at the number of standardized tests she was required to administer .

"Nevada tests too much," she said with a laugh. "You say, 'OK, when am I going to teach?' You want to spend more time on instruction, but you can't."

Another surprise: Instructional techniques being touted by the district as the latest and greatest are old hat in Louisiana.

"We've been doing some of these things for a long time," she said. Eric Olmsted said he isn't able to make any comparisons. He taught middle school and high school visual arts at a parochial school, and will teach fourth grade in Las Vegas.

In the weeks after the hurricane the Olmsteds considered teaching jobs in Mississippi, Georgia and Florida. But "no one was as willing to take us at face value as Clark County was," Eric Olmsted said.

Along with their cat, Tiger, the Olmsteds fled New Orleans in the early hours of Katrina. When the levees broke they were safe in a Memphis, Tenn., motel room.

When they returned home more than a month later, there was little to salvage.

The house was swallowed by 10 feet of brackish water. Eric Olmsted's original artwork was ruined, as were most of the couple's belongings. Only their wedding china, stored on a topmost cabinet shelf, was untouched.

New Orleans' 129 public schools, already struggling before the hurricane, have been taken over by Louisiana. Thousands of students fled with their families to cities across the country, and New Orleans is short 400 teachers.

It's unknown how many students will return. Many schools were damaged beyond repair, and classes will be consolidated at the handful of usable buildings.

Progress in New Orleans has been "excruciatingly slow," said Denise Brodsky, who resigned her seat on the Clark County School Board to become executive director of United Way in St. Charles Parish, where New Orleans is located. Her first week on the job coincided with the hurricane.

"We're finally getting rid of some of the abandoned cars," Brodsky said Tuesday. "Every day I go past rescue boats that were left on the side of the road. Homes are still being gutted."

Brodsky said she doesn't fault New Orleans teachers for settling down in communities that provided safe harbor.

But she also understands how some may still ache for New Orleans. Its lure is powerful, particularly for those born and raised in the Big Easy.

"People live life, and that's what drew me here," said Brodsky, who spent 15 years in Clark County. "They invite you into their homes and they don't have to know you very long to do it. Every house is different and has character and personality. You walk down your street and neighbors wave to you."

And that's something that Olmsted misses, too.

"Maybe people were nosier back home, but I liked looking out and seeing who was coming by," she said. "I really can't tell here. I've introduced myself to a few people on our street, but you just don't get the same feeling."