The Lafayette Parish (Louisiana) district has broken ground on a new Lafayette High School building.
The Daily Advertiser reports the first stage of the construction — building a new parking lot — has been completed, and the work is beginning on the the 300,000-square-foot building itself.
The new school will be built in Lafayette behind the existing school, which will be demolished in 2026, after the new school is completed.
The building remains on track to open in August 2025.
When completed, the three-story building will be able to accommodate 2,300 ninth-, 10th-, 11th- and 12th-grade students.
The need for a new Lafayette High building has been evident for years; a facilities study in 1990 called the school a "hodge podge of buildings that are run down."
The district did a survey in early 2022 to see if area residents wanted the school to remain at its existing location or to move somewhere else. About 89% wanted the school to remain at its West Congress Street location.
