The Lafayette Parish School Board will discuss the grade configuration of Billeaud Elementary at a board meeting tomorrow.
The board meets in regular session at 5:30 p.m. at the Central Office on Chaplin Drive. An hour before, at 4:30 p.m., the board will meet in special session to discuss school security and the school resource officer program.
On the agenda for the regular meeting is an item by board member Jeremy Hidalgo who wants to discuss the grade configuration for Billeaud, which is under construction and slated to open in August 2019.
The two possible configurations he’s discussing are a traditional elementary school that serves grades Pre-K or K to 5th grade, or an upper elementary school that serves grades 3 through 5. In the latter configuration, the school would be paired with a lower school, grades Pre-K through 2, which would be Katharine Drexel Elementary School.
Another item would authorize the staff to hire a Construction Manager At Risk plan for four new classroom projects. The CMAR method has to be authorized by the legislature – which these were – and is the same method used to manage the construction of Southside High and the arts building at Comeaux High.
The new projects are planned at Broadmoor Elementary, Middlebrook Elementary, Ridge Elementary and Drexel Elementary.
If approved, staff would start the process to hire one or more qualified construction contractors to assist with the planning, development of drawings and cost estimating of the classroom wing addition projects.
“At a later date, if the pre-construction services are acceptable and the guaranteed maximum price for the project is within the budgeted funding, staff may recommend that the Board enter into a construction contract with the approved CMAR for the construction of the particular building project. However, if the price is not within the budgeted funding, the Board has the option to send out the project for public bidding and the approved CMAR will not be allowed to submit a bid on the project, in accordance with the revised statute,” according to the agenda documents.
You can see the board’s agenda for any meeting, and even look at all documents attached to the item, by clicking here and selecting the board meeting date.
