Louisiana District Prepares for Three Facilities for Rebuilds

  • By Matt Jones
  • 02/14/22

The Lafayette Parish School System in Lafayette, La., announced this week that it has selected construction companies for three rebuilding projects within its district. According to local news, J.B. Mouton LLC has been named the construction manager at risk for renovations to Carencro Heights Elementary and Prairie Elementary. The Lemo1ne Company has been selected as the construction manager at risk for the Truman Early Education Center. The two firms were named after a unanimous vote at a school board meeting last week.

The Truman Early Education Center will move from its current location to a new, 10.5-acre property whose purchase the district approved in December 2021 for $2.3 million. Funding for the project is coming from $26.5 million in ESSER III funds; local news reports that the project qualifies because it will meet COVID-19 health and safety standards in a way that the current campus cannot.

“It has been somewhat of a rose bush in the forest,” said board member Elroy Broussard. “It’s hidden. Nobody knows it’s there. Unless you’re going there, you don’t know it’s there. When parents are looking for someplace to send their kid, they thing about every other school—but they don’t think about Truman.”

Broussard said he hopes the increased visibility at the school’s new location will help boost enrollment and increase community awareness of the facility.

Carencro Heights and Prairie Elementaries, meanwhile, have been tagged for replacement since the district’s 2010 facilities master plan. Carencro Heights’ rebuild will occur at its current site and on a 10.5-acre property next door that the school board bought in 2018. Prairie will also move to a new location, a 22-acre property also purchased in 2018. Both the Carencro Heights and Prairie rebuilds are estimated to cost about $22 million each, according to the school board’s agenda from last week’s meeting.

The architects for each of the three projects have also been announced. Grace Hebert Curtis and DLR Group will work on Truman, Barras Architects on Carencro and Poché Prouet Associates will work on Prairie.

About the Author

Matt Jones is senior editor of Spaces4Learning. He can be reached at [email protected].

Featured

  • Case Study Highlights Texas District’s Campus Security Upgrades

    The Taft Independent School District near Corpus Christi, Texas, recently partnered with Intech Southwest Services to revamp its campus security technology system, according to a news release. Intech has released a case study on its website detailing the process that advanced the district’s technology by more than 20 years in less than three weeks.

  • Longwood University Selects Builder for $73M Performing Arts Center

    Longwood University in Farmville, Va., recently announced that it has selected Swedish construction company Skanska as the builder of its new performing arts center, according to online news. The project involves the demolition of the current building and constructing a new, 64,500-square-foot facility.

  • Tennessee State University Gains Approval for New Engineering Facility

    Tennessee State University in Nashville, Tenn., recently announced that it has received approval from the Tennessee State Building Commission to build a new engineering building on campus, according to a university news release. The 70,000-square-foot, $50-million facility will play home to the university’s engineering programs and the Applied & Industrial Technology program.

  • i-PRO, NovoTrax Partner for New School Emergency Response Solution

    i-PRO Americas, Inc., which manufactures edge computing cameras, recently announced a partnership with NovoTrax, provider of end-to-end life safety and mass notification solutions, to address gaps in emergency response workflows at K–12 schools, according to a news release.

Digital Edition