E.D. White Catholic High School in Thibodaux and Vandebilt Catholic High School in Houma – the two Catholic high schools of the Diocese of Houma-Thibodaux – share the teaching charism of the Brothers of the Sacred Heart and also a healthy rivalry that has spanned generations through the lived experience of thousands of graduates who, perhaps from birth, are schooled to recognize the difference between cardinal-and-white and royal blue-and-gold.
But when Hurricane Ida slammed into Lafourche and Terrebonne parishes on Aug. 29, compromising the roofs of four major buildings on the campus of Vandebilt Catholic, Catholic solidarity became the rallying cry that brought the two schools together in ways they could not have imagined.
On Thursday, Sept. 23, after three weeks of intensive planning between both staffs, 725 Vandebilt Catholic students wearing their blue-and-gold T-shirts walked into the red-decked halls of E.D. White for classes on the Thibodaux campus.
At the doors, the Vandebilt Catholic students were greeted by student ambassadors from E.D. White, who provided a hearty welcome and handed out orientation maps to their Houma friends.
“This is reflecting the Christ-like attitude we’re supposed to have as Christians and Catholics,” said senior Karishma Nathaniel, E.D. White’s student council president. “We are all called to help out when the need is there and to give what we have because, when Christ blesses us, we’re called to bless others with what he’s given us.”
Despite significant winds in the Thibodaux area, E.D. White escaped the worst of Ida.
“Our baseball field had some damage – a dugout, a scoreboard – which was probably due to a little twister,” said E.D. White principal Michelle Chiasson. “Other than that, we were fine. We have a huge skylight in the school (which towers over the seniors’ sacred space called the Learning Commons), but not a drop came in.”
The damage report at Vandebilt Catholic was far different. On Monday, Aug. 30, Vandebilt Catholic principal Ginny Medina-Hamilton was able to tour her campus and actually managed to connect on a one-hour cell phone call with the school’s president, Jeremy Gueldner, who had evacuated with his family before the storm to the Hammond area.
“The first thing I saw was the damage to the windows on Hollywood Road and then, on the other side, two completely blown-out classrooms on the second floor,” Medina-Hamilton said. “I walked through the school, and walking on the inside looked very different than walking around the outside. The outside looked bad, but once we walked on the inside, we realized how bad it really was. On the second floor, there was standing water everywhere.”
Gueldner arrived on Tuesday, Aug. 31, and the extent of damage to Vandebilt Catholic’s four main buildings became even more apparent. He launched a drone camera that confirmed substantial roof damage to each building.
The roof damage allowed water to infiltrate and pool on the second floor of the main classroom building. Over the next several days, the damage was assessed by insurance adjusters, diocesan building and construction director James Danos, architects and an asbestos consultant, Gueldner said.
“Any school built before 1988 probably has asbestos in it in some way, shape or form,” Gueldner said. “The moment we saw standing water on the second floor, that’s immediately where my mind went because this could cause some challenges for us. The asbestos consultant shared the same concerns because, obviously, you have to get water out of the building. Then you have to go through a drying and dehumidification process.
“When the water sits in the tile, it swells. Then, when you have this deep humidification, it shrinks, and then you get this cupping effect on the edges. We didn’t want to have a trip hazard. So, the decision was made that it was in everyone’s best interest to go ahead and create an alternative plan for where we would attend school for the short term while an (asbestos) abatement process took place.” By Sept.15, it was apparent that Vandebilt Catholic needed a temporary home. The next day, Chiasson and E.D. White president Tim Robichaux met in the Carmel Conference Room at E.D. White with Medina-Hamilton and Gueldner.
“In 48 hours, the plan was done,” Chiasson said.
The four administrators used a whiteboard to list the major challenges – classroom time, transportation, lunch, office space, technology, parking, IDs, active shooter protocols – regarding how to create a schedule that would be best for each school. E.D. White has 700 students, and Vandebilt Catholic has 725, but it would have been physically impossible to have both student bodies on campus simultaneously.
The administrators discussed the possibility of platooning, with one school holding classes in the morning and the other in the afternoon. But, the more they talked, they felt that wasn’t the best solution.
“The most important challenge for all of us was classroom time – academic time,” Chiasson said. “That’s what led to the decision to alternate days and not split the campus. We both have seven-period days, with classes of 50 minutes each. If we were to split time, we would have to be on campus a minimum of five hours, which would have led to 34-minute classes without lunch or recess. If you throw in lunch or recess, you’re down to 31 minutes. And then if you had a special schedule – like our seniors are getting their class rings – you’re into 20-something-minute classes. We all just said, ‘This can’t be for show to say we got to school every day. We really need to do this so that learning is happening.’”
Medina-Hamilton wholeheartedly agreed.
“There are minutes for minutes sake, and then there are quality minutes,” she said. “If we only came to school for a half-day and we tried to get all our periods in in one day, kids would only be going to class for 20 to 25 minutes. By the time the bell finishes ringing, it would be like, ‘OK, we’re going to read this paragraph,’ and then, ‘Here’s your assignment. See you later!’ We both believed the quality of instruction would suffer.
Under the final schedule devised by administrators from both schools, E.D. White’s 700 students attend on-campus classes Mondays and Fridays, and Vandebilt Catholic’s students are on the Thibodaux campus on Tuesdays and Thursdays. The schools alternate on-campus schooling on Wednesdays. The days that either school is not on campus is handled through directed studies and Zoom.
After speaking with the construction management team that is handling damages to the Vandebilt Catholic campus, Gueldner said the abatement work to the main classroom building, which began Monday, Sept. 27, would take four to five weeks. If the schedule holds, that might allow students to return by early November.
“When we go back, it will be bare, concrete floors,” Gueldner said. “There might be some ceiling tiles missing. A classroom might be usable but have one window boarded up. But if it’s safe – and it’s usable space – we can use it.” “This is the time frame to make the building safe, not for remodeling,” Medina-Hamilton said. “This is the time for the abatement and making the building safe.”
Gueldner envisions that as each space passes air-quality testing, furniture that has been in storage will be moved back in, allowing the workers to tackle another part of campus. “We want to minimize the amount of time we have to be away from our house,” Gueldner said. “Logistics is the word of the day. We’re going to be as efficient as possible. We want our kids back on our campus. We want our kids back in school five days a week.”
Administrators from each school chuckle about their traditional rivalry. When E.D. White and Vandebilt Catholic used to compete athletically in the same district, the football game between the two always was held in Week 10. Now that they are in different districts, they schedule each other in Week 1, but that Sept. 3 game was canceled this year because of Ida.
However, the girls’ junior varsity and varsity volleyball teams met Sept. 29 inside the E.D. White gym. It was a raucous night that allowed the kids from each school to blow off steam.
“By the time the varsity game started, all of our (Vandebilt Catholic) football players got back from practice, and they were cheering on the volleyball team,” Medina-Hamilton said. “E.D. White had a huge cheering section as well, and the kids were going back and forth – ‘We’ve got spirit! Yes, we do! We’ve got spirit! How ’bout you?’ – the whole time. They were playing with each other and you could see the rivalry. Then, the game ended, and all the kids went to the middle of the court and nobody left. They all just talked to each other. You saw this mix of the red and the blue all talking to each other. I sat there with our athletic director and I said, ‘You know, this is pretty cool.’”
Let the record show, the red team won.
While Gueldner knew a lot about E.D. White over the years, he did find out something new during his weeks on the rival campus. “When the four of us sat around the table (to discuss the merged schedule), they brought us the famous E.D. White biscuits and a soft drink,” Gueldner said.
The famous E.D. White biscuits?
“They’re just basically a stick of butter,” Gueldner said, laughing.
“Yeah, a stick of butter and a few extra carbs thrown in,” Medina-Hamilton said.
“My joke has been, ‘E.D. White lost like one window. Even God loves E.D. White better than us,’” Gueldner said. But, it’s been all good.” Medina-Hamilton said the experience has been a blessing to her, the faculty and the entire Vandebilt Catholic student body.
“We are both founded and rooted in the charism of the Brothers of the Sacred Heart,” Medina-Hamilton said. “The collaboration has been wonderful. These challenges have brought us closer. It makes us really know that when we are stretched to the limit, this is something we can make happen. If we can get through this together, then we can get through anything. My biggest takeaway is that it takes all of us to make it happen.”
At a Vandebilt Catholic clean-up day after the storm, more than 200 students, parents, teachers and friends of the school showed up to help.
“What I said to them when I addressed them was, ‘Vandebilt is not the buildings,’” Gueldner said. “In my job of trying to improve buildings or build new ones, you can get caught up in the idea that everything’s about the bricks and mortar. But it’s not. You see a vibrant Vandebilt community residing on E.D. White’s campus. And that’s proof positive of the idea that we’re not the building. We’re the people – a community of people. Put us anywhere, under any circumstances, and we’ll find a way.”
(Peter Finney Jr. is the executive editor and general manager of the Clarion Herald, the Official Newspaper of the Archdiocese of New Orleans.)