BATON ROUGE -- The Northdale Superintendent's Academy on Cletus Dr. in Baton Rouge will now move to a new location for the 2026-2027 school year.

The move to the Belfair campus on Fairfields Avenue was finalized Thursday evening by the EBR School Board.

"I think that right now, the district is in a place where it's trying to put its best foot forward, and the relocation? I think it's best for our kids, best for our community, and is best for parents," EBR School Board Member Dadrius Lanus said.

Northdale is the latest EBR school that has been affected in some way by realignment. For the 25-26 school year, 28 EBR schools were affected in some way by realignment. Four schools changed locations completely, including Belfair Montessori Magnet on Fairfields Avenue.

Board members say Belfair recently received $3 million in upgrades to the campus to address infrastructure and the learning experience. They added that the Northdale facility has issues with spacing. According to EBR Schools, Northdale was rated a "C" school under the Louisiana Department of Education's accountability metrics for alternative schools.

"There were updates needed at the Northdale campus, and so the spacing for them to provide more of the agriculture, which Northdale has an agricultural program, so that would allow them to enhance that as well," Current School Board President Shashonnie Steward said.

One question that's been asked of the board is why the move is happening so close to the start of school.

"Well, we've been planning. Our facility teams have been working with the school leaders, and actually I have no doubt that the first day of school, you can show up and everything will be in place," Deputy Superintendent Adam Smith said.

With school just a few weeks away, it will be a quick turnaround.

"Now that things have been approved, they've got a couple of weeks to start transitioning and getting things moved over, so I think they'll still be able to do it," Steward said.

WBRZ asked what will happen to the Northdale Academy building.

"I think a lot of the discussion we will have around how to re-envision what we do with that building is going to be similar to some of our other buildings as well," Lanus said.

The board was also asked if the building would be demolished.

'Well, I can't say. I can't say what is in and what is out until we start to have those conversations," Steward said.

The board also says that the relocation should not negatively impact school buses, since the school accepts students from around East Baton Rouge Parish.