POINTE COUPEE — Students in Pointe Coupee Parish will return to school on Aug. 10 with new classrooms, updated security and a brand new academic program waiting for them.

The district has added new STEM classrooms, new furniture and 116 artificial intelligence security cameras across campuses through a Louisiana Center for Safe Schools grant.

Some seventh and eighth grade students will take part in a new STAR Academy program that focuses on project-based learning rather than books and rote learning.

"We are looking for the possibility of the hands-on learning that this provides," Livonia High School Principal Rosie Courville said. "We have a lot of students that they don't know what science can look like in real life, and they don't know that science is literally all around them."

Construction is also underway on a welding classroom and a smaller space for more focused personal instruction.

For years, ninth through twelfth grade students and staff learned in temporary buildings. That changes this school year.

"So we will actually have two buildings," Pointe Coupee Parish Schools Superintendent Kim Canezaro said. "The first one will be a 10-classroom building, along with restrooms, and right behind it will be a new welding shop with 15 welding bays."

"We are so excited to finally get these temporary buildings out of here that we've had for years," Canezaro said.

Teachers return to campus Aug. 4 before students arrive Aug. 10.