By Monique Roth
L’Observateur

RESERVE — The schematic design plans for the new Lake Pontchartrain Elementary school building have been accepted, marking another step forward in construction of the school.

The St. John the Baptist Parish School Board voted unanimously Thursday to approve the plans.

All South Consulting Engineers’ Cindy Janecke, the project manager for LPE’s build, said the schematic design plans by Yeates and Yeates Architects of New Orleans will be finalized this week after the Board requested minor adjustments, including removing some outside-access doors for security concerns.

She said the plans, which depict what the school will look like and give a general layout, represent input from Superintendent Kevin George and the Board, as well as staff and administrators from LPE.

The new building, which will be located on the same footprint at 3328 Highway 51 in LaPlace, is slated to open at the beginning of the 2017-18 school year.

Janecke said the next step of the process in building the 95,927 square foot school will be the drafting and approval of construction design documents, which will specify all dimensions and materials and develop the floor plan.

Creating the construction design documents, which she said was the longest phase of pre-construction planning, will take several months, and will be an “interactive process” with school district authorities, including the Board.

Janecke said she anticipates the drafting “going on well into the spring” as the “nuts and bolts of designing the facility” take place.

Documents for the demolition of the old school building — which was flooded in 2012 during Hurricane Isaac — will go out to bid before the end of the year, Janecke said, adding the demolition should be done around April after required bid processes.