BENTONVILLE — Eighteen cents of every dollar in the Bentonville School District’s $128 million millage proposal would go to athletics, according to figures.
District officials know athletic facilities are a divisive issue in the election, said Superintendent Michael Poore. The top concern district officials hear about the proposed millage is the athletic facility cost at the proposed second high school, he said.
“We always knew it would be a problem, whether we put it in there or not,” Poore said of the sports segment of the millage proposal.
“I think those concerns are alleviated when they hear how many teams will use it,” Poore said. “We have been able to say, ‘Here are the facts,’ and I think that has changed some minds.”
A similar portion of athletics went into a package rejected by Springdale voters in 2010. The same district passed a measure without the athletic facilities the next year. Rogers and Fayetteville have also had to deal recently with athletics in high school expansions.
The Bentonville School District is asking voters for a 6.7-mill tax increase June 26. Early voting starts June 19.
The increase would pay for a $94 million second high school and $23 million in athletic facilities. Also included are renovations to the current high school, operating costs and upgrades to technology and heating and cooling systems districtwide.
By The Numbers
Breakdown of costs for athletic facilities at a second high school in the Bentonville School District:
• $21.9 million: Combined football, track, soccer stadium with indoor facilities
• $1 million: Baseball and softball
• $793,000: Practice synthetic turf
Source: Staff Report
The 2,000-student second high school would be built in Centerton. The new athletic facilities would include a 5,000-seat stadium for football, soccer and track; baseball and softball fields; an indoor synthetic turf practice field; and a weight room.
District growth means more space for athletics is needed, Poore said. The 14,123-student district is projected to grow by 540 students next year, he said.
“We are adding in additional kids to the system all the time,” he said. “That puts pressure. Then you go and add a new junior high and hopefully a new high school. We are using those (current athletic) facilities in a very thorough way in the fall and the spring. We have a need just based on the number of kids.”
A junior high school is under construction and set to open by summer 2013. It will be the third one in the district, joining Lincoln and Washington.
The athletic facility schedule is stressed, said Scott Passmore, athletic director. Eight football teams will use the stadium when the third junior high school opens, he said. Six of those eight teams also would practice at the stadium.
Varsity, junior varsity, sophomore and two junior high football teams use Bentonville’s Tiger Stadium on J Street. The high school band also gets in some practice time there. The Tiger soccer teams also use Tiger Stadium from time to time in the off-season.
An indoor practice field and the weight room at the Tiger Athletic Complex also have a packed schedule, Passmore said. The complex opened in 2005.
Eleven teams from baseball, softball, track and soccer use the indoor facility in addition to the football teams, Passmore said.
“All of these teams have a schedule and rotate through this facility. That rotation starts at 6:30 a.m., and the last group rotates out at 6 p.m.,” he said.
Passmore said if the current and second high schools shared facilities, the district would have to put a substantial amount of money into additional facilities at Bentonville High School to accommodate growth.”
Chris Roehl, a parent with students in the district, said separate athletic facilities are needed at the proposed second high school.
“It would be like if a second high school opened, and you didn’t offer drama, band, student council,” Roehl said. “It is just the full service of a high school.”
Athletic facilities
See http://media.nwaonl…">the past, present and future of athletic facilities at the area’s four largest school districts.
Roehl has five children. Four of his children will graduate by the time a second high school would open if the millage increase passes.
Samantha Macartney has four children, three of them in the district. She said separate athletics are needed.
“Our kids are not into athletics, but when you look at opportunity, the athletics center is part of the whole package,” she said. “I feel like the positives outweighs the negatives.”
Robson, Macartney’s son, will be in eighth grade next year. He thinks athletic facilities are needed.
“I don’t play football, but I know it is important to other people,” Robson said.
Jerri Carter plans to vote against the millage increase for several reasons, including separate athletic facilities.
“I think it is wasteful,” Carter said. “We have fantastic football, track, soccer, softball and baseball fields. I think it is redundant to duplicate what we already have when it’s not necessary.”
Carter had a son who played football in the Bentonville School District and understands the importance of sports.
“I have had several people tell me that Rogers has two football fields,” Carter said. “Yes, they do. That doesn’t mean Bentonville has to have two. Bentonville is a leader not a follower.”
Travis Riggs, a Bentonville School Board member, called athletics an important high school experience.
“I don’t want to have a high school that doesn’t have athletic facilities and one that does,” he said. “I think you create inequities when you do that. We don’t want to have the haves and have nots.”
The School Board has tried to limit the cost of a second athletic facility by combining football, soccer and track into one stadium, Riggs said.
The Tiger Athletic Complex has separate fields for baseball, football and softball. Soccer and track share a stadium.
“We are trying to be economically responsible,” Riggs said. “One set of lights, one stadium.”
The district won’t build a football stadium comparable to 6,000-seat Tiger Stadium. A stadium with 5,000 seats will cost the district $120,000 less than building one at 6,000 seats.
Private donations could play a part in any new stadium, Poore said.
“Many people think the current facility was all done with private donations,” Poore said. “It wasn’t. It was a collaboration of funds.”
The district received $1,067,738 in donations to build the Tiger Athletic Complex. Donations paid for equipment and furnishings, said Mary Ley, district communications director.
The district will have to find a solution for overcrowding at Tiger Stadium soon, Poore said.
“We haven’t nailed down specifically what we would do,” Poore said. “You would have to shorten our junior high season or find and build another field at the junior high with basic metal-type bleachers.”
Springdale Learns From Past
Springdale school officials have seen both sides of a millage election in recent years. Voters rejected a 2.7-mill increase in 2010 that would have put about $20 million into new sports facilities such as a football stadium at Har-Ber High School and renovate existing spaces.
The next spring, voters narrowly approved a second, smaller ballot issue that brought in enough money to build two schools, but no athletic improvements. That allowed the district to accept a $16 million grant toward construction of a junior high and middle school. The money was restricted to academic uses but did free up other money to tackle some athletic projects. School leaders dedicated $3 million from existing revenue to build a track and a multiuse indoor track facility at Har-Ber. The indoor track should be finished by the beginning of the school year, according to district estimates.
“We still had several enormous needs in athletics, even though people didn’t vote to support those needs with tax dollars,” said Jim Rollins, district superintendent. “While a lot of people focused on Har-Ber’s lack of a football stadium, our biggest need was definitely a second track facility.”
Every high school and junior high school track team in the district, along with teams from Shiloh Christian Academy, share the track at Southwest Junior High School. The facility is “saturated,” Rollins said.
A football stadium, however, would run $6 million or more. The original plan to pay for a Har-Ber stadium through private donations fell apart as the economy tanked not long after the school opened in 2006. Private donations are still the only way Rollins sees a stadium getting built there. “We didn’t have then and still don’t have today, the ability to fund a project the size of a football stadium,” Rollins said.
Six football teams use Springdale’s Jarrell Williams-Bulldog Stadium. Three of those teams also practice there. Three junior high Schools rotate use of the stadium. The Springdale Youth Center uses the facility on Saturday mornings.
Springdale High School’s stadium also needs extensive renovation, but those are unlikely to happen soon, Rollins said. The failed 2010 millage included $3 million for that project.
Springdale also has identified a site for a future third high school, on 80 acres off Hylton Road on the southeast side of town. The site plan calls for part of the land to be set aside for athletic facilities, but no specific plans have been developed for the school. With growth in the district slowing, that high school may be a decade or more from opening, Rollins said.
Expansion, Renovation In Rogers
When Heritage High School opened in 2008, the district spent $5.8 million expanding and renovating Gates Stadium and other athletic facilities. Heritage was built on the old Rogers High campus, and Rogers High School moved to a new location. The district later built a $15.5 million athletic complex at the school including a football stadium, track, field house and tennis courts, said David Cauldwell, finance chief for the district.
A second tennis facility opened at Heritage last year.
The tracks, stadiums, gyms and indoor practice facilities are still congested, with varsity, junior varsity and junior high teams for boys’ and girls’ soccer, track, volleyball, football, basketball, baseball and softball all competing for practice time and space on both campuses, said Mark Holderbaum, athletic director.
“We have teams stacked up to practice both out of season and in season, often until as late as 10 p.m.,” Holderbaum said. “There is no way I can imagine both our high schools and our four middle schools sharing one stadium, one track, one baseball, softball or soccer field.”
The district avoided building a baseball/softball complex when the city offered to include the project in a planned renovation of Veterans Park. That complex, completed in 2009, has enough room for both high schools, at no cost to the district. The teams did share a facility at Northwest Park for the first year both schools were open.
The second high school also prompted a realignment of the lower-level schools. While Kirksey, Oakdale and Elmwood junior high schools had athletic facilities, and a new complex was put in at Lingle Middle School in 2008.
Crews will begin replacing the artificial turf at Heritage’s Gates Stadium next week, a project that occurs about every 10 years and costs less than $1 million, Holderbaum said.
“Once that’s done, we have nothing officially identified or being planned,” he said.
Fayetteville Makes Improvements
Fayetteville decided against building a second high school in 2008.
“Size was a factor, as was equality between schools, but it was less about athletics and more about the ability to offer a complete slate of AP (advanced placement) classes, support a full range of extracurricular activities and everything else a high school needs,” said Susan Heil, president of the Fayetteville School Board. “Looking back, our growth has flattened out, and I think we made the right choice not to split the schools.”
The decision meant significant improvements were needed throughout every aspect of Fayetteville High School.
The next year, school leaders presented a $115 million plan to voters, who soundly rejected it at the polls.
School officials scaled the plan back to $95 million, broke it into two phases and were able to take advantage of no-interest financing from the 2009 federal stimulus package.
Fayetteville’s first phase, a $45 million revamp of athletic, arts, cafeteria and office spaces, is under way. District leaders cut $2.5 million from annual operating budgets to cover bond payments for the project.
Some aspects, such as remodeling the former Boys & Girls Club building into an indoor practice area and new locker rooms, are completely athletics-related. Other parts, such as the gymnasium complex, also include school administrative offices and other nonsporting components.
“The project was awarded as one big contract, so it’s impossible to define exactly what amount is going to athletics as opposed to other areas,” said Phil Jones, project manager from Nabholtz Construction.
The work also includes off-site tennis courts at Asbell Park and upgrading a track facility at Ramay Junior High School.
The remaining $50 million in bond proceeds will be spent on academic facilities once the first round of projects are complete. School leaders went back to voters in 2010 asking for a smaller tax increase to cover bonds for that phase.
“We had been approved for $31 million in interest-free federal bonds, which was like a gift to us. It’s what encouraged us to try again so soon,” Heil said. “It meant we only needed to issue about $19 million in regular bonds, and saved us a huge amount of money. We didn’t need to ask residents for nearly as much of a tax, and they were good enough to pass it.”
Once the whole project is complete in 2015, ninth-graders will be moved to the high school. Plans are also under way to move fifth-graders out of elementary schools at that time. School officials continue to examine how the middle schools and junior highs should be aligned and filled, Heil said.
“Depending on what happens there, I see our future needs for athletics coming at the lower level. The high school should be in good shape athletically for a number of years,” she said.