Lafayette education leaders are taking a new approach to tackling the problem of overcrowding.

The Superintendent of Lafayette Parish Public Schools says no major rezoning projects are anticipated for next school year.

However, the concept of spot zoning maybe more of a closer bet.

In fact, the board and superintendent are looking at moving programs to schools under capacity.

With no tax proposition on the table and sales tax revenue being down in the parish the school board is looking towards other available resources, like facilities.

One school they are taking a close look at is the W.D. Smith Career Center

N.P. Moss Preparatory School and David Thibodaux Stem Academy were among the schools discussed at Tuesday’s school board committee meeting.

The W.D. and Mary Baker smith Career Center that attracted most of the attention.

The principal informed the board that 468 students are enrolled at the center. It has the capacity to house close to 600.

School board Vice President Dawn Morris told KLFY’s Renee Allen that the board needs to re-evaluate its current resources since the tax proposition was rescinded last month.

“Including our staff, our facilities and our programs to see where we are falling short and where we have space available so that we can make the best use of what we have,” Morris said.

There are a number of nursing programs at schools throughout the parish, for example.

Morris believes those programs can be consolidated under one roof and possibly even creating a health services academy at W.D. Smith.

“It’s a good physical building. It’s older, but it’s in good shape,” she added.

“Available space in permanent buildings where we can put some of our students in rather than in temporary buildings,” explained Board President Tommy Angelle.

He said consolidation not only creates space but it could also save money in terms of the cost of busing students to different schools for the same service.

“If nothing else it’s worth looking into there is space available. STEM Academy has space available. We just completed I think 8 or 10 classrooms at STEM.  Not all of them are being utilized.  I think that’s another option we can look at anyway,” Angelle said.