The Performing Arts Academy will move from Lafayette High to Comeaux High, beginning in the 2017-18 school year.

The Lafayette Parish School Board unanimously approved the change Wednesday night.

The board rejected all other proposed changes for Lafayette High, including moving the health careers academy, gifted services or changing its attendance zone.

There are 441 students in the academy this year. Chief Administrative Officer Joe Craig said 27.5 percent of those students are zoned for Comeaux.

Board member Justin Centanni said it “breaks my heart” to have to make such a change, but that it was necessary as part of a way to address facilities issues and the high enrollment at Lafayette High.

“If we move performing arts, we’re putting the programs at Lafayette High back to the way they were in 2008,” Centanni said. “It’s the smallest change that accomplishes our goal. It’s an opportunity to support a program and to let it grow, because it can’t grow where it is.”

Board member Jeremy Hidalgo said he hoped students, teachers and parents held the board to a high standard to ensure the academy thrives at Comeaux.

Several Lafayette High teachers said they were concerned about a lack of performing arts space at Comeaux, particularly the fact that it does not have an auditorium.

Greg Robin, director of the performing arts academy, said the Lafayette High auditorium was used more than 200 times, often by academy students, last year. Some board members said they had figures that showed it was used less than that.

Craig, who spent 10 years as the Comeaux principal, said choir students there have used UL’s Angelle Hall and The Bayou Church on Kaliste Saloom Road for performances. Auditoriums also could be made available at other schools.

Robin said it is important for students to rehearse in the same space in which they will perform. Others said the district will have to pay transportation costs for academy students to use other facilities.

Superintendent Donald Aguillard said the board can allocate money for venue rentals, but suggested that any major changes to Comeaux, or other campuses, might not happen without a new tax.

“There’s no easy solution to build an auditorium or to build out practice areas,” Aguillard said. “Long term, the answer would be this board would need to make a decision about the readiness of Lafayette to consider a bond proposition … We want the programs to have state of the art facilities.”

The board meeting is still taking place, with votes to come on charter school applications.