High School Renovation Moving Forward

— The Fayetteville School District will ring in the new year moving full steam ahead toward a major renovation of Fayetteville High School.

A trio of architectural firms, led by Hight-Jackson Associates of Rogers, will present three scenarios for proposed changes to the high school to the Fayetteville School Board on Jan. 14.

That presentation will be followed just days later with three public forums at which parents and patrons can weigh in, Superintendent Vicki Thomas said Monday.

The forums are scheduled for Jan. 18, 19 and 20, each starting at 6 p.m. The first one is at Woodland Junior High School; the second at Ramay Junior High School; and the third at Fayetteville High School.

The school board will decide which scenario to pursue at its regular meeting Jan. 28.

DLR Group of Overland Park, Kan., and Marlon Blackwell of Fayetteville are working with Hight-Jackson on the designs.

“We’re moving fast,” Thomas said.

With no glitches, construction work is to start the day after school lets out in late May. Students will come back to high school in August in the midst of a construction zone.

“Hopefully (architects) will incorporate some of the important things identified in the charrette process,” Thomas said of the forthcoming designs. She mentioned specifically upgrades to the cafeteria, performing arts space, gymnasium and classrooms.

“This is making lemonade when you’re handed lemons,” she said.

Patrons last September overwhelmingly voted down a 4.9-mill increase in the property tax rate to pay for a new $110 million high school. Soon after, the state approved the district’s earlier request for $52.3 million in Qualified School Construction Bond credits, of which $45 million will be spent for the high school renovations. The other $7 million will be applied to construction of a new Happy Hollow Elementary School.

The construction bonds are a mechanism for financing made possible by the federal government’s stimulus funding. They are intended to give school districts access to funding with little or no interest by giving bondholders tax credits instead.

The charrette process, a series of public input sessions, was conducted last spring by a New Orleans design firm hired by the district to develop a campus master plan. Much of the design was suggested by patrons during the charrette process.

The district plans to sell the bonds in February and will have three years to spend the money. The bonds are repayable in 16 years, according to Lisa Morstad, chief financial officer.

The bond program does not anticipate another request to the public for a tax increase. Rather, district officials plan to pay off the bonds with existing annual operational revenue.

INFOBOX

MEETING INFORMATION

Contract Finalized

The Fayetteville School Board will hold a special meeting at 11:30 a.m. today to finalize a contract with architects Hight-Jackson Associates, DLR Group and Marlon Blackwell for the high school project. The meeting will be in the Ray Adams Leadership Center, 1000 W. Stone St., Fayetteville.

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