Board to discuss capital campaign

By Jamie Smith

Posted: August 4, 2009 at 6:40 a.m.

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ROGERS — A possible funding campaign to construct four new classrooms for the Benton County School of the Arts' middle school will be discussed tonight.

The discussion will be during the Benton County Charter School Organization Founding Board of Directors monthly meeting, at 6:30 in the School of the Arts cafeteria, 2005 S. 12th St. The founding board oversees both of the charter schools in Rogers: the Benton County School of the Arts, which houses kindergarten through the eighth grade; and the Benton County School of the Arts High School, which houses grades nine through 12.

The elementary/middle school campus currently uses portable buildings that need to be removed, Superintendent Paul Hines said last week. The problem is, once those are removed, there will be no place to put the students who use thoseclassrooms, which means the school system will need to construct classrooms.

Charter schools are public schools that receive state funding on a per-student basis but are not allowed to charge a local millage for additional operating funds.

"Since we do not have millage funds, or more importantly, access to sell bonds to raise funds for a building project, our other viable option is to borrow money from a bank," Hines said. "We would prefer to not have to borrow any more money and increase our debt load at this time. So, we are wanting to pursue a capital-campaign building project."

Other agenda items for tonight's meeting will include the following:

◊Discussing the preliminary budget for fiscal year 2010;

◊Discussing the board's reporting format; and

◊Honoring teacher LaVona Cerna for having all of her eighth-grade literacy students score proficient or advanced on the 2009 state Benchmark exams.

News, Pages 8 on 08/04/2009

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