ST. LANDRY PARISH — Grand Coteau Elementary School will close, and its students will be rezoned to three nearby schools after the St. Landry Parish School Board approved the measure during a tense special meeting Wednesday night.
The board voted 6-4, with one member abstaining, to move forward with the plan as part of a broader effort to address an estimated $18 million budget deficit.
District leaders say six schools will close under the district's consolidation plan, affecting nearly 200 students.
Under the approved proposal, Arnaudville Middle School will transition into a first-through-eighth-grade campus.
Students in Pre-K through kindergarten currently attending Grand Coteau Elementary will be rezoned to either Cankton Elementary or Leonville Elementary, while Arnaudville Middle will house 1st through 8th graders.
The decision followed hours of debate, with several board members expressing frustration over last-minute changes to the rezoning proposal.
"We did ask for a map, but this is not the map we asked for," one board member said during the meeting.
District 6 representative Renee Aymond and District 10 representative Hazel Sias said the map presented Wednesday differed from previous discussions because it included rezoning students to Arnaudville, a change they said was only shared with board members earlier that morning.
"We had talked about sending the kids from Grand Coteau to Leonville or Cankton — those were the only two schools," Aymond said.
Sias also criticized the revised proposal, saying it departed from the board's original plan.
"Those first through fourth kids were supposed to be divided between Leonville and Cankton, and here we go now creating another school with added grade levels—and that was not in the plan," Sias said. "We need to stick to the plan."
Other board members defended the consolidation, arguing the district's financial challenges required difficult decisions.
"We're not reducing — we're working toward keeping another school open," one board member said during the discussion.
Another questioned whether the changes would produce meaningful savings, saying, "We are not saving money."
Superintendent Milton Batiste acknowledged the emotional nature of the decision but said the district must take steps to stabilize its finances while continuing to serve students.
"Our ultimate goal is, number one, to put students in a great situation, but also to close the gap financially," Batiste said.
Following the vote, Batiste said district leaders are prepared to begin implementing the changes before the start of the new school year.
"The moves we made, no matter how painful they may be, are all toward right-sizing the district," he said. "We made some progress. We made some decisions, and that's good government."
The rezoning is expected to take effect for the upcoming school year.
