NOTIFICATION FROM ORLEANS PARISH SCHOOL BOARD
AND SUPERINTENDENT ORA WATSON
Wednesday,
November 30, 2005 - The Orleans Parish School Board and Superintendent Ora
Watson today announced that January 31, 2006 will be the last day of employment
for New Orleans Public Schools employees who have not been reactivated by that
date. This potentially affects 7,500
employees who are currently on disaster leave.
These employees have been on unpaid leave and have not been receiving a
salary since Hurricane Katrina.
Many
employees are owed payments for accrued vacation time and/or sick leave. Those amounts will be calculated and
payments will be made shortly after January 31, 2006. A later communication will be issued with further details.
These
actions were precipitated first by the Katrina disaster, which caused serious
damage to many NOPS schools and forced a significant portion of the population
to relocate. With the state having
recently created a recovery district with responsibility for most of the
schools that had been under NOPS control, these steps became necessary.
The
categories of employees who will be affected are: central office clerical,
school site clerical, central office administrators, school site
administrators, teachers, social workers, nurses, counselors, librarians,
coaches, support and appraisal services, para educators/interpreters,
custodians, transportation workers, maintenance, food service and security.
These
developments will also affect insurance coverage for employees on disaster
leave. In an effort intended to provide
a level of insurance coverage to employees on disaster leave in the wake of
Katrina, a catastrophic health insurance plan was offered to NOPS employees. Approximately 2,200 employees enrolled in
that plan. Individuals who have enrolled in the catastrophic plan will have
coverage until January 31, 2006. At
that point, the catastrophic plan will go out of existence, but employees will
be able to enroll under a COBRA health insurance plan. Employees who have not
enrolled in the catastrophic plan will immediately be able to enroll in a COBRA
plan.