BATON ROUGE — The East Baton Rouge Parish School District has scheduled meetings over the next six weeks to discuss possibly merging schools as it has more space than is needed for its 40,000 students.

"The district currently has around 20,000 more seats than students, leading to under-enrolled schools, inefficient resource allocation and inequitable access to academic opportunities," the district said in announcing the meetings. "Realignment ensures that all students have access to high-quality learning environments."

Superintendent LaMont Cole said community meetings set March 12 at Magnolia Woods Elementary, March 27 at Capitol Elementary and April 10 at Broadmoor Elementary would go a long way in determining how to best serve students.

"We recognize that some schools may need to be reimagined, and others may benefit from joining forces to provide students with stronger academic and extracurricular opportunities," Cole said in a statement.

The review will assess the conditions of district buildings, enrollment figures, school performance and the cost of operations.

The district says that if a school is closed, students would transfer to one with stronger academic programs and better facilities. The district hopes to have a realignment plan ready at the end of this school year.