Board Approves Zones

BENTONVILLE — The Bentonville School Board approved new attendance boundaries that will impact more than 1,000 students during a meeting Monday.

Poore said the addition of a new junior high school along with 20 new elementary classrooms has forced the district to look at rezoning.

“We tried our best to look at how we can divide our population equally, leave room for growth and cut transportation costs,” Poore said.

The board voted 2-5 against a proposed elementary school map. Travis Riggs and Willie Cowgur voted in favor of the measure. The board followed that vote with a 5-2 vote in favor of another map with Brent Leas and Rebecca Powers voting against.

Powers noted before the vote that she didn’t see a strong enough need to rezone elementary schools for the second year in a row.

The approved boundaries changed the zoning for a portion of undeveloped land next to Lochmoor neighborhood. The land is expected to be developed as an addition to the neighborhood, Rudy Upshaw, board member, said.

The portion of the land was zoned for Willowbrook Elementary School in the proposed map. The approved map zoned it for Central Park Elementary School with the rest of Lochmoor neighborhood.

Jay Sawyer represented the property owners association for Cornerstone Ridge Subdivision near the Walmart Distribution Center on Arkansas Highway 112. He spoke to board members before the meeting.

“It appears the map bisects our neighborhood,” Sawyer said. “All we ask is that you zone us as a whole.”

Sawyer added that his daughter is in second grade and in her fourth elementary school in the district. He added the new zones would change her schools once more. However, he said the most important thing is that she stays with her neighbors.

The board did not address Sawyer’s concerns in the meeting.

The board approved building four new classrooms at Cooper, Willowbrook and Centerton Gamble elementary schools earlier this year. Eight new classrooms will be built at Central Park Elementary School. Poore has said this is the reason there is a need for new elementary zones.

The proposed attendance maps for the elementary level will move 627 students to a new zone. Students attending Willowbrook, Thomas Jefferson, Sugar Creek, Mary Mae Jones will see the largest impact.

The approval of junior high school lines were approved 7-0 by board members.

“This makes sense as far as transportation,” Grant Lightle, board member, said about the junior high zones.

The approved changes geographically group students for each junior high zone. The junior high school attendance map now used geographically divides the attendance zones for the schools.

Brad Reed, district student services director, previously said 559 seventh-graders will be impacted if proposed junior high boundaries are approved. More than 340 of those students will go to the new junior high school under construction on Gamble Boulevard.