In Youngsville, Southside High School is nearing capacity. Already 1,400 students attend classes at the school and that’s without a senior class.
Next school year, Southside is expected to exceed that number so the board will bring in temporary portable buildings to alleviate the crowds.
The thought of temporary buildings is not sitting well with some parents like Craig Spadoni, who has a daughter at the campus. Southside is a multi-million dollar facility and has only been operating a little over a year.
“First of all, they say temporary buildings and I don’t believe its temporary. You have a state of the art multi-million dollar facility and you’re going to put butler buildings.. it just doesn’t make any sense,” Spadoni said.
Spadoni said he took his daughter out of private school so she could attend the brand new school. He says the temporary buildings shouldn’t be needed so soon. He believes there is a bigger problem.
“I know there are a lot of children that attend Southside that is not zoned for Southside so that’s part of the problem and I know the school board is trying to alleviate that. We don’t even have a senior class yet, but we are already talking about butler buildings in the second year,”
One Youngsville resident, Carleigh Davis, says she grew up in Lafayette Parish with butler buildings. She doesn’t think adding them to Southside’s campus is the best option.
“I think its a very bad investment just because I went to a high school that had portable buildings and a majority of my classes were in these buildings. The conditions that they end up in after a few years is just terrible. Like mold in the light fixtures, the desks are broken, the floors come up after a couple of years, there is no AC,” Davis remembered.
The school board says it is not planning on rezoning right now. There is no word on when the temporary classrooms will be installed. Still, the idea of those portable buildings is concerning.
“I think its really ridiculous. I think its unfortunate I believe that all students deserve a state of the are facility and I know they all want to come here. It’s heartbreaking that not all the schools are … they’re substandard. I understand them wanting to come here, but it’s not fair to the students who are zoned here to have to go to butler buildings,” Spadoni expressed.
