Efforts to reinvent public education in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina have drawn such interest that it's easy to lose sight of some very concrete changes that will become obvious over time: A generation of brand-new school buildings is rising across the city. New Orleans is in the early stages of a construction spree both to build and renovate dozens of schools, and recently got news of an eye-popping settlement with the Federal Emergency Management Agency, or FEMA, under which the federal government is providing more than $1.8 billion to cover storm-related damages to schools. The $1.8 billion, federally funded effort aims to deal with the physical damage still evident from Hurricane Katrina five years after the storm. In August, five years after Katrina struck, the Recovery School District opened a new $54 million high school in the Algiers section of the city. That was in addition to the construction of another new high school and an elementary school completed within the past year, as well as recent major renovations to several other facilities. While the massive construction initiative and the settlement with FEMA are welcome news in the city, some observers argue that state and local officials have set themselves up for trouble in how the process is moving forward.