With the 2020-2021 budget cycle complete, advocates for a rebuilt Lafayette High are one step closer to launching the high school rebuilding project.
At its Wednesday meeting, the Lafayette Parish School Board approved next year’s budget in an 8-0 vote, including the transfer of $2.8 million in recurring revenue to a fund dedicated to the overhaul of Lafayette High, Carencro Heights Elementary and Prairie Elementary.
The board began setting aside funds for the projects in fall 2017. With this latest approval, the fund total stands at $20.4 million come July 1 and the start of the new fiscal year. Combined with bonding capacity, the projected available funds will be $93 million, board member Justin Centanni said.
Centanni, whose District 6 includes Lafayette High, said the transfer puts the board within striking distance of its funding goal of $150 million in cash plus bonding capacity. He estimates the board needs to transfer $3 million more to the fund to reach that goal and believes they can achieve that savings goal within the next two years.
While Lafayette was fortunate and saw a rebound in tax revenues after a multi-year decline that helped make the savings plan possible, the increased revenue didn’t free the board from making difficult decisions with the funds, Centanni said. Cuts to transportation and academic programs, like French instruction, were required to make the financial planning possible.
“This money wasn’t laying around. It was certainly being used and being used on things that were important and makes an impact on day-to-day education. But the classroom and the desk that the child sits in make a pretty big impact, as well. We just had to start doing it because otherwise it was never going to get done,” he said.
The District 6 representative said he believes the board can enter the planning phase for the new construction while shy of the overall funding total. Planning for the new schools, especially Lafayette High, will take time. Centanni said he plans to advocate for the Lafayette High project to take priority.
The high school project will be more complex; the student population requires a larger facility, the unlikelihood of moving the facility to another property requires construction while the campus remains in use and the school’s central location on a main thoroughfare will result in extensive public meetings, he said.
“All the planning is really going to drive what the final budget estimate is for the project,” he said.
The board purchased 22 acres on Rue du Belier for Prairie Elementary’s future campus and while the Carencro Heights site would require construction on the current property, available space and the smaller size of an elementary school makes the project more manageable, Centanni said.
Kathleen Espinoza, a founder of the Rebuild LHS movement, said her advocacy group also plans to push for Lafayette High to take priority.
The group formed last summer to educate school board candidates and lobby their support around funding the rebuilding project. The core group is comprised of community members with ties to the school; Espinoza is a Lafayette High graduate and her husband, Rodolfo Espinoza, teaches in the school’s social studies department.
The board’s $2.8 million transfer is a good sign for the project’s future.
“We’re very pleased. This is a great development and we are grateful to the school board for really making that commitment,” she said.
The reasons to rebuild the school are numerous, Rebuild LHS argues.
Lafayette High is the oldest high school in the parish and the layout of the facility no longer meets the needs of the student and faculty population. Heavy storms produce frequent flooding in buildings on campus, namely the auditorium, and mobility is restricted because elevators cannot be installed in the school’s two-story buildings because of structural stability, Espinoza said.
The facilities need to support Lafayette High’s wealth of opportunities, including the health academy, English as a Second Language program, foreign language immersion offerings, hearing impaired program and gifted program, she said.
“Those are the things we love about Lafayette High. It's the parish high school and it has this incredible diversity in the student population. It’s great. We just want the building to reflect that,” Espinoza said.
Centanni agreed the needs at Lafayette High are clear. The school board member said he’s been aware the high school needed a revamp since moving to the city in 1995 for college at the University of Southwestern Louisiana.
“New buildings are not necessary, as a rule, but you do have to keep up with the infrastructure that supports education,” he said.
The full rebuild for Carencro Heights Elementary and Prairie Elementary and a new building for Lafayette High were proposed in 2017 as part of a list of facilities projects that would have been funded by a new sales tax that was rejected by voters.
With limited funds and a population surge in the southern part of the parish, the board shifted focus to building Southside High and completing wing projects at several elementary and middle schools around the parish before returning to those three high need schools, Centanni said.
Now firmly back on the radar, Espinoza said she and other Rebuild LHS supporters will continue to lobby to maintain the project’s momentum.
Centanni said launching the planning phase is on his radar for the near future, but a hoped for timeline has not been established. The board is considering possible changes to its construction and design hiring process, and Centanni said he’d like that to be ironed out before embarking on large facilities projects. They’re also being mindful of the novel coronavirus pandemic’s impacts on the economy.
While it may not happen tomorrow, rebuilding Lafayette High is on the horizon, he said.
“We have diligently made sure that school construction is a priority in Lafayette Parish and I’m excited about what the future holds for these facilities,” Centanni said.
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Latest school board budget cycle puts advocates one step closer to a rebuilt Lafayette High - The Advocate
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