LAFAYETTE, La. (KLFY)-- A plan to rezone three Lafayette high schools failed Wednesday evening at the Lafayette Parish School Board meeting. The hope of one school board member was to rezone Lafayette, Carencro and Northside High Schools, sending students from both Lafayette and Carencro High to Northside High.
With four votes for the rezoning and four against it, the plan failed, though LPSS School Board Member Tehmi Chaisson said the incoming school board must pass it.
"The proposal would be to move a potential plus 100 kids from the Lafayette High zone to Northside High School, which is physically closer to where these kids live in the Truman area. And then to move kids that live in Country Acres and right off of Pont Des Mouton, which is all of less than a mile from Northside High School, back to Northside, where they were originally zoned in the first place," Chaisson said.
Chaisson said Northside High School needs more students. There's only around 520 students there currently. Comparatively, Carencro High has 1,100 students, and Lafayette High has 1,800 students. This is a problem Chaisson said rezoning would fix.
"They have to rezone that area. Otherwise, you're just doing Northside High School a detriment. There's no reason Northside should have 30 kids on the football team," the school board member said.
Chaisson, who spearheaded the rezoning plan, said his plan wouldn't just help Northside High but Lafayette High as well.
"It will give more kids a chance to attend because there's a wait list every single year, and kids don't get in. So, we're freeing up space, but yet we're doing the right thing by putting kids at Northside High School," he added.
He hoped the school board would have passed the rezoning plan Wednesday night, but school board members who voted no said the plan felt rushed and wanted more time.
"You do this as soon as possible to give parents the option if you want your kid to go to a certain school or go to a certain school of choice or even apply for the lottery. The chance to do it was so you had time to apply for the lottery. Now the lottery will be closed whenever they do it. So, they're going to have to make a special provision and open up the lottery, but now you're doing it to the tune of you've given away a lot of those slots. So, you're actually doing the parents a disservice. What they claim to be doing in favor of the kids actually hurts the kids," Chaisson told News 10.
The next school board, which takes office in January, will now decide how to rezone the areas.
