New school building within reach

FORT POLK – South Polk Elementary School is on its “final tour” as next year students move into a new building with a new name.

The school, located on Fort Polk, is being replaced with a new building off-post through a $21 million project. The new school, located on La. Highway 467 near Leesville, is expected to be completed in August 2016, just in time to start that school year in a new place.

“At this time next year, we’ll be in that school,” South Polk Principal Charlie Balthrop said.

One of the school spirit shirts for this year features a patriot holding a flag that reads, “Final tour 2015-2016” to mark the occasion.

The new building is located south of the Fort Polk campus of Northwestern State University, but it will no longer be south of North Polk Elementary, meaning a new name was in order. It will be called Parkway Elementary School after University Parkway, another name for Highway 467.

Parkway will serve the same current population, which is nearly 100 percent military dependents, and then some. Balthrop said his school has about 420 students from second through fourth grades. The new school will absorb the first grade from North Polk, which then will be left with pre-K and kindergarten only.

“We’re looking at 700 to 800 students, we hope,” he said. “The school can hold 1,000.”

The current South Polk building will be used for other military services.

The project has been years in the making and includes federal, state and local school district dollars.

In July 2012, area leaders announced that $20 million in funding had been secured for the new school, with $16 million of that to come from the federal government. The state of Louisiana and Vernon Parish School District each are contributing $1 million to the project. The school district is contributing $2 million in additional in-kind construction services.

In 2011, the state also committed $25.2 million in capital outlay and Community Development Block Grant funding for the expansion of a water and sewer system along state Highway 467 as well as construction of a parkway connecting the highway to La. 468 and La. 468 to La. 28.

Construction continues, with regular meetings with partners to monitor the work.

“We’re very satisfied with the progress,” Vernon Parish schools Superintendent James Williams said.