VILLE PLATTE, La. — Education is being reimagined at the Evangeline Reimagine Academy with a brand new school and learning curriculum. Students can specialize in zones that interest and inspire them to be successful entrepreneurs.
"There's a lot of things about education that we need to reimagine, but to be in Evangeline Parish here in Ville Platte where it's actually happening is exciting for me," Governor John Bel Edwards tells KATC.
Sixth through eighth grade students will be able to cultivate and use their creative energy by participating and learning in five different learning zones.
The zones being offered at the Evangeline Reimagine Academy are the arts, business, gaming and technology, agriculture, and communication.
One art teacher at ERA, says students can work and grow their business ideas together.
"We participate with the other zones, we have farming, communications, education and gaming and we worked together to make products together, " says Kate LaCaze. "So for example if the farming zone makes a hot sauce we design the label."
The Reimagine School Grant was given to sixteen schools across the state by the Louisiana Department of Education.
The grant will fund schools to help increase academic performance, creativity, and attendance.
According to the Louisiana Department of Education website, "Evangeline’s Reimagine Action will reassign sixth through eighth students attending Ville Platte Lower Elementary and Ville Platte High schools to a new middle school campus. These two schools account for a third of all reported absences reported across the district."
State Representative, Rhonda Butler believes the academy will bring more students in and keep their attention.
"Some of them weren't moving fast enough or getting what they needed or feeling insecure maybe feeling like they didn't want to stay in school and we were losing out kids to drop out, " Butler says. "So what happens then is crime and environment takes over, so we wanted to change that environment. We wanted to give them the opportunity to succeed and that's what reimagine is."
Governor John Bel Edwards hopes that this academy will lead to more being funded and built, to enhance the futures of students for generations to come.
"We need to make sure that we are replicating these kinds of programs more broadly across the state so that every student has opportunities for success. That they can go out and achieve better educational outcomes and better outcomes for them in terms of how they support themselves and their families and their communities."
The academy is in a temporary building behind Ville Platte High School, the new facility is expected to open in August 2024.
