More than 100 public schools in New Orleans were flooded in the hours after the hurricane struck. The roughly two dozen schools that did not fill up with water suffered wind and rain damage. It was a devastating blow to old, already battered school buildings that were among the most rundown in the country. The devastation created an unprecedented predicament for the city's post-Katrina education leaders: How to revive a school system when 85 percent of the buildings are in some state of ruin? Which schools should be fixed? Which ones should be demolished? Who will pay the $2.5 billion that officials say it will cost to fix the buildings worth saving and to build new schools to replace those that are not? This article talks about state and district leaders struggle to rebuild and repair campus buildings in New Orleans. Paul G. Pastorek, Louisiana's state superintendent of education, who oversees a majority of the city's post-Katrina public schools, ordered a six-month, $108 million blitz--overseen by Louisiana National Guard Maj. Rodney Painting--to upgrade restrooms, renovate cafeterias, paint classrooms and wire them for technology, and install nine modular campuses in neighborhoods where no decent buildings were available. Those preparations went down to the wire as district officials hustled to deliver all the improvements by the first day of school last month.