FAYETTEVILLE — Could there be room for compromise in the growing dispute over Bentonville school plans?
A school board member, Bryan Vernetti, broached the subject last week in a Friday meeting of a school board committee. Vernetti is one of the members who voted in favor of a ninth-grade center, as did a majority of the Bentonville School Board.
The board initially voted against a second high school, then for a ninth-grade center. Both votes were divided. The board turned down a second high school 4-3 and approved the ninth-grade center 5-2.
Their action has been met with well-organized opposition by people who would prefer that the district instead build a second high school to address what everyone agrees is a serious overcrowding problem in Bentonville schools.
“Since our last board meeting, I have spent countless hours on the phone with people,” Vernetti said.
“I am concerned that if we came forward with a ninth-grade center or a second high school it would be a hard hill to climb.”
The suggestion was either option, both of which would require buy-in by voters, including a tax increase, might fail unless the two sides can find some grounds for compromise.
“I am concerned about gettingsomething passed the way things are now,” Vernetti said. “I hope there is some room on both sides of the issue so that we can come to some sort of a compromise.”
Vernetti didn’t offer anything specific, and it is hard to see where there can be compromise when the talk is of two different concepts and there is such division in the community.
Remember, 500 people, most of them in favor of a second high school, turned out for a school board meeting on this issue. Plus, 3,400 have signed petitions for a second high school and pledged to vote against a ninth-grade center.
If anything, in the time since, the lines seem to have hardened.
Then, the board stirred things up a bit more, approving spending up to $1 million on design of the ninthgrade center before the public gets to vote on the issue.
The meeting on Friday was of the school board’s FacilitiesCommittee, which seemed to have some second thoughts about that $1 million expenditure before an April election.
“I have thought about this a lot, and I feel it may be premature,” Vernetti said. “I would like to hold off on it right now.”
Board President Becky Koonce agreed, although waiting until April may mean a later opening for the building.
April is when a vote is planned on what is expected to be a 4.79-mill property tax increase to pay for the ninth-grade center and other district improvements.
The Facilities Committee will meet again Dec. 16 and could formalize a recommendation not to do the planning yet. Or, the committee might perhaps try to explore that compromise Vernetti is hoping to find.
The full board will meet again Dec. 19. With or without a recommendation from the Facilities Committee, it’s hard to imagine some aspect of this continuing debate won’t be part of the agenda.
As illustrated by what happened last week, district decision makers seem to understand now that they have some major fence mending to do with the district’s patrons before they ask for any millage hike.
BRENDA BLAGG IS A COLUMNIST FOR NWA MEDIA.
Opinion, Pages 5 on 12/06/2011