St. Charles School Board members are expected to vote to tear down the Old Killona Elementary School at the July 2 meeting. The subject first arose at the Capital Improvements Committee meeting on June 4 when they met to discuss whether to repair or demolish the dilapidated building at the cost of $562,000. Estimates to repair the school were sought after board member Ellis Alexander requested the figures citing the school was run down and needed to either be repaired or demolished entirely.
School Superintendent Rodney Lafon said that they will continue to monitor the educational needs of that community, but for now tearing down the school is the best possible alternative.
“If we find that there is a need later for us, whether it be classes or something that we have to set up then I would suggest we use something along the lines of modular classrooms to see how it goes and if there really is a need in this area,” Lafon said
At the June 20 board meeting it was announced that they would vote to approve the demolition of the Killona School buildings and also vote to approve a resolution to approve a designer to prepare the demolition documents that meets the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality Standards.
A statement released by the schoolboard said that since Killona has been closed, serious structural damage has occurred to the buildings on site that was further escalated by Hurricane Katrina. The buildings also contain friable and non-friable asbestos that would both be very hazardous to work with or around.
The board is expected to vote to tear down the eyesore as opposed to repair which would require a myriad of improvements to make the building operational again, the most costly repairs would include new electrical wiring at $170,000 and a new air conditioning system at $200,000.
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