The Lafayette Parish School Board has put off a likely vote on a controversial property purchase for a new career and technical high school until next week.
The Lafayette Parish School Board has put off a likely vote on a controversial property purchase for a new career and technical high school until next week. The board had originally planned to take the item up at its meeting today but at the request of the Community Coalition for Lafayette Parish Schools organization and others, the school board has agreed to delay the vote until after a special workshop can be held addressing the facilities master plan.
Recently developed by Baton Rouge consulting firm CSRS, the proposed master plan identified over $1 billion in facilities needs - including $590 million in priority needs. Sarah Walker, chairperson of the Community Coalition, says "What [the community coalition] has been pushing for is, before you move ahead with buying property for a new career and technical high school, let's have a workshop to really discuss the master plan and how we're going to go forward with it, i.e. how are we going to fund it."
"I think with the election campaigns going on, the board has been real reluctant to talk about funding," Walker continues, referring to the October election and today's runoff contests. "but it's time now." The board has not yet set a date or time for its workshop or special meeting next week. A presentation on the properties being looked at for the new CTC high school, both of which include the old Super K-Mart building on Ambassador Caffery, can be viewed here. The board estimates total cost of the property purchase and construction of the new high school to total just under $50 million.