Lafayette School Board Votes to Close Ovey Comeaux High School in 5-2 Decision

LAFAYETTE, La. (KPEL News) — The Lafayette Parish School Board voted 5-2 Thursday night to take Ovey Comeaux High School offline, closing the southwest Lafayette campus as a traditional high school.

The decision came 16 months after the board narrowly voted 5-4 to keep the school open, with the outcome this time shaped in part by the absence of two board members who voted against closure in 2024.

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What the Vote Means for Comeaux High Students

Students currently enrolled at Comeaux High will need to transfer to one of three receiving schools for the 2026-27 school year. LPSS has already drawn rezoning maps directing Comeaux families to Acadiana High School, Lafayette High School, or Southside High School, depending on their address. Those maps were attached to Thursday’s agenda before the vote took place.

The Navy JROTC Magnet Academy Program, one of Comeaux’s signature offerings, will move to Acadiana High School under the approved plan. The school’s Performing Arts Academy was voted off the Comeaux campus in May 2025 and relocated to Lafayette High School.

What Happens to the Comeaux Campus

The physical campus on the west side of Lafayette will not sit empty. Under the plan approved Thursday, the building will be renovated to house the W.D. & Mary Baker Smith Career Center and the E.J. Sam Accelerated School. LPSS expects those programs to begin serving students in the new facility no later than the 2028-29 school year.

The school’s athletic facilities are also part of the plan, set to be converted into a centralized Lafayette Parish Schools Sports Complex available to schools across the district.

The campus will carry a new name going forward: the Ovey Comeaux Workforce Innovation Academy.

Why LPSS Moved Forward With Closure

Superintendent Francis Touchet laid out his reasoning ahead of Thursday’s vote, citing two factors driving the decision. The first is enrollment. Comeaux’s student population has fallen by roughly 500 students since the 2018-19 school year, a decline that accelerated after about 900 students were rezoned to Southside High when that campus opened in 2016-17. Touchet said he did not see a realistic path to reversing that trend.

The second factor is capacity at the Career Center. Touchet told KPEL, approximately 450 students want to attend the Career Center but cannot get in because the facility is already full. Renovating the existing building to meet the district’s needs would cost between $6 million and $10 million, a figure Touchet called fiscally irresponsible.

Closing the Comeaux campus saves the district’s General Fund an estimated $2,069,976 per year.

A Vote Shadowed by Absent Board Members

Thursday’s meeting took place without two board members who voted against closing Comeaux in 2024. Board Member Jeremy Hidalgo, who represents a district that includes many Comeaux families, was out of state attending a conference he said had been scheduled since October 2025, months before the agenda item was created. Board Member Joshua Edmond was also out of town.

According to KATC, the 2024 vote against closure included Hidalgo, Edmond, Amy Trahan, Kate Labue, and David LeJeune. Trahan and LeJeune were in town for Thursday’s meeting. Labue placed the closure item on Thursday’s agenda.

Hidalgo posted on Facebook that his absence from the meeting did not change his view on the school. Board Member Britt Latiolais, who voted for closure in 2024, said Hidalgo could have flown to his conference the following day. Board Member Chad Desormeaux noted before the meeting that any attending member could make a motion to postpone.

A majority of board members present was required to pass the item. With a quorum set at five members, the threshold for passage shifted based on how many members attended.

The History Behind Tonight’s Decision

The vote Thursday was the second time the Lafayette Parish School Board has formally considered closing Ovey Comeaux High School. The first came in November 2024, when the board voted 5-4 to keep the school open after an emotionally charged meeting packed with students, parents, and alumni. That vote came the same day state scores showed Comeaux had earned an A rating and the most academic growth of any school in the district.

The 2024 recommendation came from Civic Solutions Group, a strategic planning firm LPSS hired to help the district address a $38.2 million budget shortfall. CSG recommended closing several schools, including Comeaux, based on declining enrollment and per-student facility costs. The board rejected that specific recommendation at the time.