If we were the betting types, we’d have lost money predicting where the Bentonville School Board would decide to building its next high school. If it gets built, that is.
The hope is Bentonville, the latest of Northwest Arkansas school districts to go through a wrenching debate over a second high school, can be successful at the polls later this year and get this tumultuous question settled. It has lingered for too long, creating hurt feelings and frustrations along the way. It’s work that must be done for the children of Bentonville, and we remain confident the people of Bentonville have the wherewithal to figure this.
We wouldn’t have bet on Centerton and remain unsure the decision to build the new high school there helps the school board’s odds for a favorable vote in September.
This isn’t the school board’s first rodeo, as they say. Last June, voters rejected a 6.7-mill increase in property taxes to support a $128 million bond issue, which included $94 million for a second high school. The plan was to put a 2,200-student school in Centerton, on the same district-owned site the school board favors again this year.
The concerns about the Centerton site focus on the lack of infrastructure in the small community - essentially the lack of a road that can reasonably handle more than 2,000 students plus teachers, staff and visitors fl owing that direction. Of course, one can overcome that with time and money. The question is whether the school district or Centerton have enough of either to overcome the shortcomings.
But the school board was convinced, voting 7-0 for Centerton over the Bright Road location also owned by the district. They have a lot of work to convince voters why Centerton makes the most sense. At this stage, the case hasn’t been made, at least to the public. In the summer months ahead, advocates for the Centerton site will need to clearly detail the data that made the decision so compelling. The Centerton site is unlikely to become a major positive to the campaign for the high school election, but we hope advocates can explain the choice well enough it’s not perceived as a negative.
The Centerton choice, in our view, is not so egregious it merits opposition to a high school plan that’s desperately needed - years ago. The district has reworked the finances and will ask voters to back a 2.91-mill increase at the ballot box. Financially speaking, the district has done its job.
Some are no doubt flustered that notions of a survey of residents were rejected at the most recent meeting, but we’ll give the school board credit for resisting the finger-in-the-wind approach. There is not a soul in the district who can say they haven’t been invited to provide feedback in recent weeks. Once the feedback is collected, it falls to the elected school board members to put their best judgment to work.
A survey would have served only to delay a decision.
If nothing else, we hope everyone can agree a delay is the worst outcome of all.
Opinion, Pages 5 on 05/27/2013