The fate of Comeaux High School will be decided June 11 at the Lafayette Parish School Board’s regular meeting.
Tracy Wirtz, chief communications officer, confirmed Thursday that the school closure vote will be on the board’s agenda for that meeting..
If the board votes as is expected, Comeaux High will no longer exist as a traditional high school effective June 30, according to a legal notice posted May 31 in advance of Tuesday’s public hearing on the proposed closure.
The campus will be repurposed as a career center and accelerated school as well as a schools sports complex to be used by schools throughout the district. Students will be dispersed among Lafayette High, Acadiana High and Southside High.
School system officials cite low enrollment at Comeaux High, a long waiting list and limited capacity at the W.D. Smith and Mary Baker Smith Career Center and aging facilities as reasons for the change.
A consulting firm in 2024 recommended closing Comeaux High School but the board didn’t do it at the time.
In March, the closure was resurrected with little notice, and the board voted 5-2, with two board members absent, to close Comeaux High at the end of the 2025-26 school year.
A parent, Suzanne LaJaunie, filed a lawsuit that stopped the administration from proceeding with the closure. She alleged the board did not follow its own policy for closing schools, such as holding a public hearing prior to the vote.
The board in April, trying to remedy the error, rescinded its March vote to close the school, apparently in violation of a judge’s order that they take no action until the lawsuit was decided.
Before a hearing on the lawsuit could conclude, a state appeals court ruled that the lawsuit was moot because the board had rescinded its closure order. That ruling cleared the board to restart the process to close Comeaux High School.
The board conducted a public hearing this week.
The June 11 meeting is at 5:30 p.m. in the central office at 202 Rue Iberville.