LPSS Looks to Close Comeaux High Again, Wants to Turn It Into a Career Campus
LAFAYETTE, La. (KPEL News) — The Lafayette Parish School System isn’t done with Comeaux High School.
The Lafayette Parish School Board will discuss and vote Thursday on taking Ovey Comeaux High School offline at the end of the current school year, according to the latest board agenda. The proposal, brought by board members Mason and Labue, wouldn’t demolish the campus or sell the property. Instead, it would end high school instruction at the site and convert the facility into a workforce and career training hub.
If approved, the campus would be renamed the Ovey Comeaux Workforce Innovation Academy.
What Would Happen to Comeaux Students?
Current Comeaux High students would be rezoned to three receiving schools: Acadiana High, Lafayette High, and Southside High. Rezoning maps for all three schools are attached to the agenda item, meaning LPSS has already drawn the new attendance boundaries.
You can also find the maps below:
The Navy JROTC Magnet Academy Program, one of Comeaux’s signature offerings, would move to Acadiana High School under the proposal.
The school’s Performing Arts Academy was already voted off the Comeaux campus in May 2025 and relocated to Lafayette High, where a new $100-million campus features a 600-seat concert hall.
What Would the Campus Become?
The proposal lays out a two-part repurposing plan for the Comeaux facility.
The main building would be renovated to house the W.D. & Mary Baker Smith Career Center and E.J. Sam Accelerated School, with a target of serving students no later than the 2028-2029 school year. The Career Center currently operates out of a facility on 18th Street in Lafayette and offers hands-on training in fields like automotive technology, welding, cosmetology, culinary arts, and medical certifications.
The existing sports facilities on the Comeaux campus would be converted into the Lafayette Parish Schools Sports Complex, a centralized athletic complex for use by all Lafayette Parish schools.
The district estimates taking Comeaux offline would save the General Fund approximately $2,069,976.
This Isn’t the First Time LPSS Has Tried to Close Comeaux
The proposal marks the latest chapter in a fight over Comeaux’s future that dominated Lafayette Parish politics in late 2024.
In October 2024, Civic Solutions Group, a strategic planning firm hired by LPSS to review district operations, recommended closing Comeaux High outright and rezoning its students to surrounding high schools. The recommendation was one of 14 the firm made as part of a district optimization plan aimed at addressing declining enrollment and budget shortfalls.
The proposal sparked fierce community pushback. Students, parents, alumni, and staff packed a community rally at the Comeaux Recreation Center and organized under the banner “Save the Meaux.”
When the board voted on Nov. 20, 2024, Comeaux’s supporters packed the boardroom. Students delivered emotional testimony about what the school meant to them. In a narrow 5-4 vote, the board rejected the closure, keeping Comeaux open. The vote came on the same day the state Department of Education released school performance scores showing Comeaux had earned an “A” rating and demonstrated the greatest academic growth in the district.
But that decision came at a cost. The board’s choice to keep both Comeaux and Duson Elementary open eliminated roughly $3 million in projected annual savings, prompting LPSS to announce a district-wide hiring freeze. Superintendent Francis Touchet warned at the time that the district couldn’t continue operating the way it had for the past decade.
LPSS has continued losing millions to charter schools each year, with losses growing from $3.5 million in 2022 to a projected $7 million in 2024.
A Different Approach This Time
The new agenda item takes a notably different tactic from the 2024 closure recommendation. Rather than simply shutting down Comeaux and scattering its students, the proposal repurposes the facility with specific plans for workforce education, career training, and centralized athletics.
It also carries a different framing. The agenda language says Comeaux would be “taken offline,” not “closed,” and the campus would retain the Ovey Comeaux name as the Ovey Comeaux Workforce Innovation Academy.
Comeaux’s enrollment has declined steadily since the 2018-19 school year, dropping by roughly 500 students. That decline accelerated when about 900 students were rezoned to the newly constructed Southside High during the 2016-17 school year. Only about 66% of families zoned for Comeaux actually choose to send their kids there, a significantly lower rate than other parish high schools.
The school was built in 1965 and has long needed significant facility upgrades. Community members have pointed to years of deferred maintenance and high administrative turnover, with Comeaux cycling through five principals in eight years at one point.
What Happens Next
The board will discuss and potentially vote on the proposal Thursday. Given the fierce community response the last time Comeaux’s future was on the table, the item is likely to draw significant public attention.
Parents of current Comeaux students face the most immediate impact. If approved, their children would need to enroll at one of three receiving high schools for the 2026-27 school year, with rezoning maps already drawn.
Historic Lafayette Photos You've Probably Never Seen
Gallery Credit: TSM Lafayette
