JENNINGS — The Jeff Davis Parish School Board’s Buildings and Grounds Committee will hold a special meeting Tuesday to consider potential names for the new elementary school to be built in Jennings.

“I believe the biggest challenge was the community deciding to build a school, so this will just be icing on the cake,” Superintendent Kirk Credeur said of naming the school. “Hopefully everybody will be happy with the name we decide on and we can move forward on building the school.”

The committee will receive public input and discuss the naming of the new elementary school during a meeting at 5:15 p.m., Oct. 22 at the School Board Office in Jennings.

Three names – James Ward Elementary School, Jennings Elementary School and Jennings Ward Elementary School were submitted by the Oct. 7 deadline.

Credeur said two other names — Bernard Marcantel Elementary School and Southside Elementary School — were discussed, but no official nomination application was submitted before the deadline.
 The board began the process last month to name the school asking the public to submit names for consideration. A minimum of 50 signatures of current registered voters were required for each nomination and up to 10 voters from each side will be given two minutes to speak for or against the proposed name during the meeting, Credeur said.

“They will have two minutes a piece to say what they need to say,” he said. “When it’s all done the committee can either defer it to get more information or make a recommendation to bring it before the full board at its next meeting.”

The new school will combine students from Jennings Elementary and James Ward Elementary schools to a single campus to be located on a 20-acre site on the west side of La. 26 south.

Voters approved a $29.5 million bond issue and a separate half-cents sales tax to fund the project in March. The school will be designed for 1,500 pre-K to sixth grade students.

Officials hope to begin onstruction of the new school by April 2020. It will take two years to complete.

Credeur said school officials and employees have been meeting with the architect to discuss furniture, room designs, traffic flow and to finalize layout plans for classrooms and parking lots. Cafeteria and library personnel have also met to discuss the plans for the facility.

“We want to get input from everybody, then select a steering committee to make the final decisions,” he said.New Elementary School graphic