After a torrential school year in which Hurricane Harvey struck the Texas Coast and Southeast Texas experienced a frigid winter spell, Port Arthur schools are looking forward to a relatively quiet period this time around.

Superintendent Mark Porterie said teachers and staff are ready for the new school year and are excited to be a part of it. He also said administration is hoping for a return to normal.

“We’re trying to get back to some sense of normalcy,” he said. “Right now, we’re not looking at anything too big. We want to remain calm and move forward.”

The move forward may entail a certain number of students fewer than last year; though the number isn’t exact.

Less is more

Student enrollment projections are based on where the district ended the previous year. Porterie said last year ended with about 8,500 students.

“We had around 9,000 last year going in,” Porterie said. “After the hurricane, we lost about 500.”

He stressed the fact that more concrete numbers would not be known until after the school year has started.

“Most kids come after Labor Day, but we are expecting more students to return to the area,” he said. “We’re expecting more families to have secured a place to live by then or to have completed the renovations of their homes.”

Porterie expressed hope that more children and families would be returning to the area.

“At our One Stop Registration, we visited with lots of new students in the area,” Porterie said. “There are still people moving in. It’s wonderful to have so many kids coming back.”

Teachers wanted

As for teachers and staff, Porterie alluded to progress being made in that regard as well, if not as robust.

“We’ve been hiring since March full throttle. We’ve been looking at (Lamar) University for assistance, but there’s not a large number of individuals graduating with degrees in education,” Porterie said. “We really have to look at ways to encourage our young people to look into the (teaching) profession.”

The district is still looking to fill in some teacher positions as a result, although Porterie said the shortage would not negatively affect the quality of education students would receive — substitutes would be used to fill the gaps temporarily.

He could not give exact numbers before the school year has started as to how many teacher positions were left unfilled, though.

“We do know that we have very good substitutes, but we understand that substitutes don’t take the place of certified teachers who have gone to school for four years and have decided to devote their lives to educating children,” Porterie said.

Education as calling

“Education is a calling. We want individuals who are called to education and who are called to educating our children,” Porterie said.

Accordingly, Porterie emphasized the higher standard PAISD undertakes when hiring new teachers.

“We look at their background history and we look at their philosophy on life,” he said. “When looking for teachers, we look for someone who could be a model for children because children in Port Arthur Independent School District need good models.”

Porterie called for men and women with positivity in all things, including work ethic and morals.

“We want a positive person in order to enable our students to think positively,” he said. “We look for well-rounded individuals who can help us not just in (teaching) content but in how they’re going to make a difference with the students.”

Changing needs

In light of the new school year and ever-changing needs for students, Porterie said the district tries to teach to all manner of kids.

“‘College isn’t for everyone.’ We coined that because we tried to accommodate where our children are and then give them something to strive for.”

Porterie said the district looks carefully at where individual students seem to succeed and then apply it accordingly.

“We need people like welders and plumbers — those types of professions that deal with interruptions of life. If something happens with our toilets or pipes, we want those individuals now to fix them.”

Porterie said the curriculum for the new year is sound and that it would be part of the district’s mission going forward — namely, to educate.

“We had a lot of excitement for the 2017-2018 school year; so, a little calmness and peace would mean a lot. We just want to move forward and do what we do as educators.”