LPSS Superintendent Touchet Says Enrollment, Capacity Are Reasons Ovey Comeaux Is Up for Closure Again

LAFAYETTE, La. (KPEL News) — Lafayette Parish School System Superintendent Francis Touchet says repurposing Ovey Comeaux High School is about more than just a school building. In a radio interview Wednesday morning, he said it is about fiscal responsibility, career readiness, and a district that can’t keep pretending a half-empty campus is a workable long-term solution.

Touchet joined Acadiana’s Morning News on NewsTalk 96.5 KPEL on Wednesday, ahead of Thursday’s school board meeting. The board is set to take up the Comeaux proposal 16 months after its last attempt to close the school.

GO FURTHER: LPSS Looks to Close Comeaux Again, Turn It Into Career Campus

The item first surfaced about a year and a half ago, before being shelved following community pushback. Now it’s back on the agenda, and Touchet says the circumstances have changed enough to warrant another look.

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What’s Changed Since the Last Proposal

The biggest new factor is the district’s W.D and Mary Baker Smith Career Center.

Touchet says LPSS has 450 students who want to attend the Career Center but can’t get in because the facility is already at capacity. Beyond that, estimates show it would cost between $6 million and $10 million to renovate the current Career Center building to meet the district’s expanding needs.

“It doesn’t look like that is something that is fiscally responsible as far as putting $10 million in that particular facility,” Touchet said.

That’s where Comeaux comes in. Board members have been looking at the Comeaux campus as a potential new home for an expanded Career Center, one that could serve not just LPSS students but also kids from charter and private schools across Lafayette Parish.

The second factor is enrollment. Comeaux’s student population has been falling every year, and Touchet said he doesn’t see a realistic path to turning that around. The building is designed for 1,400 students. Right now, it has about 600.

“I just don’t know what else to do as far as getting that enrollment up there,” Touchet said.

Where Comeaux Students Would Go

Under the proposal, Comeaux’s current students would be redistricted to three schools: Acadiana High, Lafayette High, and Southside High. Touchet said his team has already analyzed capacity at the schools, adding that he personally visited all four campuses to make sure the numbers work.

He said roughly 208 students would move to Southside. He did not express concern about capacity at any of the three receiving schools.

“I didn’t leave it up to my team. I went myself, and I looked at this,” he said. “I have seen it with my own eyes.”

No Formal Community Meetings—Yet

One concern that surfaced immediately after Thursday’s agenda went public: the Comeaux community feels like this is being sprung on them. A listener reached out to KPEL overnight, saying it feels like the item just keeps reappearing without any real dialogue.

Touchet acknowledged that no formal community meetings have been organized.

“We haven’t had any organized meetings with anyone,” he said, adding that informal conversations with school and community personnel have been ongoing since the proposal first came up a year and a half ago.

He said even if the board approves the repurposing, the Comeaux building would still need renovation work before it could function as a Career Center hub.

The Bigger Budget Picture

The Comeaux discussion is part of a broader fiscal reorganization Touchet is bringing to the board on Thursday. LPSS is down 850 students compared to last October, and Touchet said that decline translates to roughly $10 million in lost funding.

His answer is a central office reorganization: consolidating positions, eliminating some job descriptions, and cutting what he calls waste before touching anything at the school level.

“There are some things that have been happening in Lafayette Parish where we’re just wasting money,” Touchet said. He described personally visiting schools and finding classrooms with three adults and four students, calling that kind of spending unsustainable.

“Cut out the waste,” he said. “Make sure that you look at where your functions are as far as what you want to do as far as those priorities are concerned.”

The school board meeting is scheduled for Thursday. Public comment will be allowed on the Comeaux item.