By MONIQUE ROTH
L’Observateur

LAPLACE — It felt a like a family reunion on Jan. 7 when all of the teachers and students of Lake Pontchartrain Elementary School were reunited on one campus.

After Hurricane Isaac flooded LPE on U.S. Highway 51 in LaPlace, students and teachers were dispersed to different sites.

The LPE temporary site is located at the rear of the East St. John Elementary’s campus adjacent to Joe Keller Memorial Stadium. The campus consists of 15 new modular buildings containing more than 30 classrooms, offices and restrooms.

Principal Sylvia Bailey beamed as she welcomed students back to school from the winter break. She said that she was glad to be back with everyone together and she hoped that there would be a boost of morale with all of the students in one place, especially siblings.

“It feels like a school again,” Bailey said.

Melissa Billings, in her eighth year of teaching at LPE, said she was excited for everyone to be together again. She said she was especially excited for her first-grade students to see their new classroom.

Construction crews were tying up loose ends on Tuesday morning as students arrived to their new classrooms. There is no timeline set for the reopening of LPE’s main campus.