The old Jennings Elementary and West End schools will soon become things of the past.

The Jeff Davis Parish School Board is moving forward with plans to spend $1.5 million to demolish the vacant structures, remove asbestos from the buildings and remove old portable structures from the campuses.

Demolition of the Jennings Elementary School on Florence Street is scheduled to begin within the next two weeks. The old West End School on West Jefferson Street is expected to be demolished in early 2024.

School officials agreed that restoring the old schools would be far too costly, according to Superintendent John Hall.

“Whenever we moved out and moved into the new Jennings Elementary School, we already had a plan to not use the old Jennings Elementary School based off the condition of the building,” Hall said. “It was just not the condition of the roof. It was the condition of all the structures.”

About 50 percent of the campus is old portable buildings that are in need of repair and 75 percent of the campus had asbestos that needed to be addressed, Hall said.

Hall said the portable buildings are not efficient, require a lot of maintenance and don’t offer a safe environment during severe weather.

“So there were structural concerns, there were some roofing concerns and the amount of money we would have to put into it to make it work for another purpose would have been too much,” he said. “In addition, we didn’t have anything to repurpose it for since the new elementary school was built.”

The new Jennings Elementary School was a win-win for the community, Hall said.

“It’s a very positive experience to see our kids get into new and safer structures with a better learning environment,” Hall said. “At the same time we are not sinking money into structures that tend to become a money pit. At the end of the day we are just using our money a lot more efficient to provide a better learning environment for the students.”

The School Board already had plans to move a smaller population of students from what was the West End Instructional campus and repurpose the old James Ward Elementary campus on Shankland Avenue for the new instructional center, he said.

“So we could spend a little bit of money on a smaller campus that is not in as bad of a condition as the old Jennings Elementary School,” Hall said. “We choose to put more money and attention into the old James Ward campus. It would have been a waste of taxpayer money to try to improve a building that we wouldn’t have a purpose for.”

Asbestos abatement has been completed at the old James Ward school and crews began removing the portable buildings from the campus this week, Hall said. The next phase will be to do dirt work to level the land with other improvements slated before the start of the new school year in August.

“Now that we have removed the portable buildings and exposed other buildings, we are going to start making improvements to the gym and the older cafeteria to get it to look more like the original structures that were there,” he said.

When West End Instructional opens its doors at the new location this fall, it will be renamed the James Ward Center for Excellence (JWEC).

The new location will allow the center to expand its programs to give students better opportunities than just traditional classroom settings, according to Administrator Lori Lemons.

As for the demolition sites, Hall said the School Board will decide what to do with the cleared properties once the schools are torn down.

“The board can decide if they want to hold on to it or sell it,” he said. “But those decisions haven’t been brought to the board’s attention yet.”

Any money from the sale of any land will go back to Ward II to provide revenue for all schools in Jennings. Funds from the Ward II account are being used for the demolition and asbestos abatement projects.