NewsLocal NewsIn Your Parish

Actions

Building planned for TM Landry expansion donated to Opelousas

Posted at 2:31 PM, May 16, 2019
and last updated 2019-05-16 15:31:54-04

The Opelousas City Council on Wednesday accepted the donation of a historic building that at one time was planned as a TM Landry expansion.

The building was going to be an Opelousas campus for the school, said board member Greg Davis.

“We had planned on going into Opelousas. We had people who wanted us to go there,” Davis said.

But after a New York Times article was posted, accusing the founder of abuse and cheating, that ended hopes for an expansion at this time, Davis said.

“Our numbers have gone down,” he said. “There is no way we’re in a position to expand right now. We can’t use the building now, there’s no way for us to pull that off economically.”

School officials met with economic development, state and city officials and worked out a donation to the city instead, Davis said.

Opelousas Economic Development said the city accepted the building, which had been donated to TM Landry by the Diocese of Lafayette. The building is located in an opportunity zone, but as of now there are no formal plans for it.

The school is operating in a Moss Street building in Lafayette. To read our stories about the school, click here. The school hired a former state education superintendent and attorney to conduct an internal investigation, which contradicted the allegations in the NYT article. To read that story, click here.