BOSSIER PARISH, LA (KSLA) -
Bossier schools are running out of seats in the classroom, and education leaders say there is no end in sight for the overcrowding problem.
With more than 400 new students last year than the year before, school administration says they are running out of places to put kids in certain growth areas.
Ten new small rooms were added to Legacy Elementary school but the parish planning and construction supervisor says this is just a temporary fix. The new rooms are not very big and will not offer much teaching space.
"What we did this time is we built some smaller group spaces in the commons area. That freed up about four or five classrooms for next year," says Keith Norwood, supervisor of planning and construction for Bossier Parish Schools.
The final touches are being made to the last room at Legacy Elementary. In all, ten new rooms were added. Each are, on average, only half the size of a regular classroom. The new construction is said to be just a temporary solution to the growing need for more room in the Kingston Road region of Bossier Parish.
"Our plans are to build a new elementary school at the Kingston Road Corridor area school. We've already got some district lines drawn up," says Norwood.
The new elementary school aims to relieve overcrowding at W.T. Lewis Elementary and Legacy Elementary. These projects are being paid for with money from the $210-million taxpayer-supported bond issue, passed last April.
"That is going to enable us to construct new schools as well as expand existing ones over the next ten years," said Sonja Bailes, Spokesperson for Bossier Schools.
In the meantime, if overcrowding becomes too big of an issue at any school, it may be necessary to move some students to facilities with more room.
"I can't tell you where the students would go to school but we would have to look at them going where classroom space was available," says Norwood.
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