BATON ROUGE - McKinley High School students and staff will have a new home for two years while the school undergoes renovation.

Flyers on doors at the school have notified many of the upcoming move, and it is something Principal Robert Webb says has been a long time coming.

"McKinley has been here since 1961 ... McKinley is the oldest Black high school in the state of Louisiana and they have been around since 1907. This has not been the facility since then, but we have been here long enough that we need a new facility for our students," Webb said.

Webb says the new facility would benefit the staff and students.

"All kids should have an opportunity to go to school that's uplifting, that's motivating to them, and that's just a great place for them to come to school," he said.

The renovation will include tearing down some parts of the school while building new ones and adding on to others.

McKinley students and staff will move to the former Kenilworth Middle School campus, which currently houses the Baton Rouge Center for Visual and Performing Arts. While they are moving out, McKinley will be moving in.

As for transportation, Webb says he has been working with Superintendent LaMont Cole to ease the transition for parents.

He says the two years of being gone will be worth it once the renovation is complete.

"We're leaving for a couple of years and we want to invite, when we come back, all of our alumni, anybody who took part in making sure we were successful," he said. "Whenever we have our ribbon cutting, we want you to be a part of it."

The last day for McKinley staff at the current school is June 18.