NOLA-PS COO Recognized for Response to COVID-19

(New Orleans – September 26, 2022) — Tiffany Delcour, NOLA Public Schools' (NOLA-PS) Chief Operations Officer (COO), is one of 10 individuals chosen as a recipient of the Bureau of Governmental Research (BGR) 2022 Excellence in Government honorees.

Ms. Delcour will be awarded the BGR Innovation Award for her work in developing innovative and timely responses to the COVID-19 pandemic, including a citywide meal program to serve students during school closures and partnerships between schools and testing, vaccine and other health care providers. The Innovation Award recognizes public employees who have implemented creative solutions to pressing problems since July 1, 2017.

Ms. Delcour squarely approached the complications bred by the pandemic (keeping students learning and fed during school closures) by creating new systems and programs from whole cloth that, when blended and layered together, transformed NOLA-PS into a national leader on how to successfully preserve public education while in the grip of an extraordinary public health crisis.

Under her leadership:

• The District distributed 10,000 computers and 8,000 hotspots to students by mid-April 2020.
• The Community Feeding Program delivered 1.5 million meals in the first three months of its implementation, from April to June 2020.
• In October 2020, NOLA-PS became the first large school system in Louisiana to return to in-person learning. Many of the protocols created by the district were used by surrounding school districts in our state.
• When vaccines became available to eligible populations, the NOLA-PS community had one of the highest participation rates in the state. The District hosted or collaborated with schools and medical providers on more than 150 vaccination events in 2021-2022.
• In the first year of the pandemic (March 2020-2021), the NOLA-PS school community administered more than 600,000 COVID-19 tests to students and staff. over a million tests the following school year.

"NOLA-PS is grateful and proud of Ms. Delcour's leadership," said NOLA-PS Superintendent Dr. Avis Williams. "She created entirely new practices and approaches to health and safety when there was no playbook on how schools should handle a pandemic. As we all know, there were no guarantees throughout COVID-19 because of its unprecedented impact on all populations. In addition, she was transparent with our school system and the community on each of the steps the District took to handle the health and well-being of scholars and staff."

"I am truly honored by this recognition, and I'm glad I had the knowledge and trust of city and school leaders to preserve in-person learning and establish trust in our system-wide health and safety protocols," said Ms. Delcour. "This gave our scholars the best chance to continue their education when so many school districts around the world were struggling."

BGR will recognize Ms. Delcour and the other 9 honorees at a luncheon at the Sheraton New Orleans Hotel October 6, 2022.

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About NOLA Public Schools: NOLA Public Schools (NOLA-PS) is the public school district for Orleans Parish. It includes the district's administration and elected school board, known as the Orleans Parish School Board (OPSB). NOLA-PS currently oversees 72 public schools and is led by Superintendent Dr. Avis Williams, the first woman in the District's 181 years to serve as its permanent superintendent.

For more information, visit www.nolapublicschools.com. For updates, follow NOLA Public Schools on Facebook @NOLAPublicSchools, Instagram @nolaps and Twitter @NOLAPSchools.