With the Southside High area growing, Lafayette school board may have to look at rezoning

The Lafayette Parish School System may have to change its feeder zones as the south and west parts of the parish continue to see its population boom, the district’s demographer told board members Wednesday.

The Lafayette Parish School Board had its first long-range planning committee meeting Wednesday with demographer Mike Hefner presenting information on projected enrollment changes in the district.

Between the past school year and the 2027 school year, some feeder zones – particularly those in the southern part of the parish – are expected to see their student populations boom as a result of new residential developments in the area.

“Almost half of the new developments are in the Southside High School feeder zone,” Hefner said. “That’s going to affect your elementary, your middle and your high school.”

Over the last two decades, the parish has seen a number of new subdivisions constructed in the southern part of Lafayette, Youngsville and Broussard. More recently, those developments have been joined by some in Carencro and the southwest part of the parish.

Hefner’s report to the committee indicated there have been around 125 residential developments since 2019, including some that are expected to be approved in the next few years. Those developments account for around 10,435 residential units across the parish.

Of those units, around 5,195 would be in the current attendance zone for Southside High School – accounting for nearly half of all the planned units. Around 1,822 of the units are planned for the Ovey Comeaux High School zone, and 1,819 are being developed in the Acadiana High School zone. The Carencro High School Zone is expected to add 1,509 units from the developments.

Those four high school zones account for 99.1% of the new residential units. The Northside High School zone is only expected to add around 84 new units, while the Lafayette High School zone – located in the center of the parish, where land for development is scarce – is only expected to get six new units.

“They’re really not too bad until you get to Southside,” Hefner said.

Overall, the district’s enrollment is expected to rise from 28,901 in the 2022 school year to 30,762 by the 2027 school year. Including additions during the 2022 school year, the district is expected to add 1,674 elementary students, 654 middle school students and 985 high school students through the 2027 school year.

Including the 2022 school year, Southside High is expected to have an average of around 340 additional students each year through 2027 from the planned developments. The Acadiana High zone is expected to have an average of close to 100 extra students per year, but no other high school zone is expected to average more than 60 additional students per year over that period.

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With some schools expecting to see enrollment grow by more than 200 students – and two schools expected to grow by more than 500 students – by 2027, many will be exceeding their capacities unless the school board takes steps to redistribute the population.

“Parishwide, districtwide, that doesn’t seem that unmanageable. I remember at one time we had a little over 31,000 (students) and almost 32,000 students,” Hefner said. “The problem is where they’re coming from. That is where the issue is going to be.”

Hefner outlined a few potential solutions to the committee. One would be to modify the attendance zones, which could be an unpopular decision for homeowners, considering that many use school zones as a factor in determining whether to purchase a home.

The last time LPSS made comprehensive changes to its attendance zones were made during the 2017 school year.

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Kate Labue, the school board member for District 7 and the chair of the planning committee, mentioned the possibility of zone changes as her reason for voting against a plan that would create a special taxing district in the Southside High zone to build a football stadium complex on campus. If the taxing district is created using the current zone and the attendance zone changes, people could pay the tax for the stadium and not be able to send their children to Southside High.

Hefner said the board could also consider new programming such as magnet academies to help redistribute the student population. Another potential solution would be to change the grade spans for schools.

The most ambitious solution would be to build wings at existing schools or to build new schools to accommodate the population growth. In addition to building wings, the district may need to expand core facilities such as libraries, cafeterias and administrative areas.

“That’s the most expensive option, and it’s usually the last one that you want to consider,” Hefner said.

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This article originally appeared on Lafayette Daily Advertiser: How will the Lafayette school board handle a growing southside?