SUGAR LAND, Texas (AP) - A Houston-area school district will avoid building on a site where century-old remains believed to be those of 95 African-American prisoners were discovered last year.

Jason Burdine, president of Fort Bend Independent School District's Board of Trustees, said Thursday that the plan to build a portion of a career and technical center within the burial area in Sugar Land has been canceled. He also said the district is halting legal action.

School district officials had sought to move the remains to a nearby cemetery.

Fort Bend County commissioners and the district this month agreed to negotiations to possibly convey the land to the county for preservation.

The remains are believed to those of state prisoners contracted out to perform cheap labor in the decades after the Civil War.

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