CENTERTON — An empty pasture on Gamble Road may one day be home to the Bentonville School District’s second high school.
That’s the vision of School Board members and some others interested in solving the district’s capacity problem at the high school level.
The district is preparing for its third attempt in six years to gain voter approval of a second high school. The School Board unanimously agreed Monday the high school should be built on land it owns in Centerton. The board also considered land it owns on Bright Road in southwest Bentonville.
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Second High School
Bentonville’s School Board intends to hold an election Sept. 17 on a 2.91-mill tax increase to pay for a second high school. If the bond issue is approved, construction likely would begin in August 2014 with an opening date of August 2016, according to a timeline provided by the School District. Projections provided by demographers show Bentonville High School’s enrollment will be about 5,000 by that time.
Source: Staff Report
The Centerton site consists of 90 acres on Gamble Road, just north of Seba Road. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints sits just to the south; Centerton Gamble Elementary School is about a quarter-mile north on the other side of the street.
The board paid $2.65 million for the land in 2006. At the time, district officials had no specific plan for the site, but knew they probably would need it soon for additional schools.
“We thought this was the direction where the population was increasing, and felt like we needed a school in Centerton,” said Doylene Fuqua, a board member from 1997 to 2008.
Fuqua is pleased the board chose the site for a high school.
“I just think that’s where it needs to be,” she said. “It can serve the area out toward the airport as well as the back side of Bella Vista. It just makes sense to me.”
The board was swayed toward the Centerton site instead of Bright Road in part because of Centerton City Council’s pledge to spend $1.4 million to widen and improve roads in the area. Without that pledge, building at the Centerton site would cost the district an estimated $700,000 more than building on Bright Road.
“That’s huge to me, the cost,” said Travis Riggs, board president, at a meeting May 16. “The No. 1 thing I think we’re charged to do is spend taxpayer dollars as efficiently as we can.”
Rebecca Powers, a board member from Centerton, said she tried to find reasons to support the Bright Road location, but couldn’t.
“Everything to me, from every area, pointed back to Centerton,” she said.
Powers said she was concerned about how adding a high school to the Bright Road area would affect the public’s safety, given the potential for increased traffic. That area already has an elementary school and a middle school, with a junior high set to open in August.
Economic Issue
Few people have pushed harder for the Centerton site to be chosen for a high school than Bill Edwards, the city’s mayor.
Edwards has attended almost all of the School Board’s recent meetings and the public forums to discuss the issue. When the board selected the Centerton site Monday, Edwards proudly announced the decision on his Facebook page, a post that garnered 123 “likes.”
Edwards said it’s one of the biggest things to happen to Centerton.
“This is going to be a big deal,” he said.
A high school in Centerton would bring additional businesses — especially fast-food restaurants — to the city, he said. Edwards plans to hold community meetings to help spread the word about the September millage election.
Matthew Amato, who owns and operates the Beef O’Brady’s restaurant just east of Centerton, said a high school would be “huge” for the community.
“It will bring more growth to the area,” Amato said. “That’s what we need across the board.”
Centerton’s population grew from 2,145 in 2000 to an estimated 10,170 in 2012, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. That rapid growth has spurred some changes. An obvious example is the widening from two lanes to five lanes of a 1.7-mile section of Centerton Boulevard from Greenhouse Road to Main Street. Most of that stretch falls within Centerton.
“We get inquiries (from developers) about that stretch pretty much all the time,” Edwards said. “I look for all of that to fill in with businesses.”
Centerton already has seen 10 businesses open this year, including a Casey’s General Store last month.
This will be the second straight year the board has proposed building a second high school on Gamble Road. Last year voters soundly rejected a 6.7-mill tax increase that included money not only for a high school, but also operational costs, renovation to Bentonville High School and upgrades to technology and heating and cooling systems in the district.
Even Centerton residents rejected the proposal, with about 52 percent voting against it. Edwards attributed that result mainly to the millage’s overall cost.
The board hopes by cutting its request to 2.91 mills this year it will have success at the polls. The state has pledged to contribute at least $13 million for the project.
Opposition Remains
Despite the cost reduction, not everyone is happy with this year’s millage proposal.
Todd Holscher, who lives in southwest Bentonville, has two young children in the School District. He understands why the board made its decision, but he’s not convinced Centerton is right for a high school.
“I look at (the site) and it feels like a very rural location,” Holscher said. “I understand the idea of building for the future, but I also understand the idea of everything in its appropriate time, and if you just put a school out west hoping for growth around it, you might be busing people out there for many years. It’s just not Centerton’s time yet.”
He said he doesn’t think the Bright Road site is ideal, either. He feels a more appropriate site could be chosen to better accommodate students in north Bentonville and Bella Vista. The Centerton site feels like “too much of a compromise,” he said.
Jerrie Carter, a Centerton resident since 1990, said she will vote against the millage increase and believes it will fail. There are better options than building a second high school, she said.
She also believes the Centerton site choice hurt last year’s attempt.
“I believe a lot of the people who wanted a second high school had no intention of putting it in Centerton,” Carter said. “Centerton is not looked on as favorably as (the Bright Road) location. Centerton is not Bentonville.”
Many other Centerton residents, however, are excited about having a second high school nearby.
Alicia Hoyt, the mother of four children between the ages of 3 and 11, said she and her family live about two miles from the Gamble Road site.
“I can see the pros and cons,” Hoyt said. “One of the reasons I love Centerton is that it’s a small town. That will change when the high school comes in. But the boost in local business and the home prices and that kind of thing far outweighs it.”
Hoyt said anyone who scoffs at the idea of building a high school in Centerton should keep an open mind.
“We’ve lived in Centerton for three years. We just built a new house and chose to stay here because it’s a wonderful place,” she said. “We have a wonderful community. There’s more to Centerton than a McDonald’s and a stoplight.”