Walter Pierce

LPSS facilities meeting tonight

by Walter Pierce

The Lafayette Parish School System will host a meeting at 6 p.m. today at Plantation Elementary School to share more details on the facilities master plan being coordinated by a planning firm. Baton Rouge-based CSRS was contracted last year to develop the plan and has prepared an assessment of each school in the district. The LPSS is seeking public input on CSRS’ findings.

The school facility assessments identify structural and other infrastructure deficiencies at each public school in the parish and rates the schools according to a facility condition index. The FCI is, according to the school system, “a ratio of the cost of deferred maintenance and additional needs divided by the cost of replacement.” The index is used to determine if a school should be renovated or replaced.

Lafayette High, for example — the parish’s most populous school — has an FCI of 66, meaning the cost of rehabilitating and upgrading the school is estimated to be 66 percent the cost of building a new school. CSRS identifies such deficiencies at LHS as cracked masonry, plumbing in need of repair and a clock system that needs to be replaced. Meanwhile, a newer school like Charles Burke Elementary, constructed in 1999, has an FCI of 11.

You can view the assessment for your child's school at the CSRS Web site.