More Portable Buildings Coming To Bentonville High School

Friday, April 11, 2014

BENTONVILLE -- The School District plans to install five portable classroom buildings along with a portable restroom outside the high school this summer to accommodate anticipated growth next school year.

Each portable building has two classrooms. The additions will bring the high school's portable classroom total to 13.

By The Numbers

Enrollment Projection

Projected enrollment this fall at each grade in the Bentonville School District:

• Kindergarten: 1,296

• First: 1,292

• Second: 1,308

• Third: 1,242

• Fourth: 1,254

• Fifth: 1,219

• Sixth: 1,246

• Seventh: 1,226

• Eighth: 1,182

• Ninth: 1,248

• 10th: 1,126

• 11th: 1,059

• 12th: 912

Total: 15,610

Source: Bentonville School District

The portable buildings will be on grass on the east side of the South Building. They will not take up any parking spaces, said Paul Wallace, facilities director.

The 10 new portable classrooms will be able to accommodate 300 students and 10 staff members, according to information submitted to the city. The item is on the agenda for the Planning Commission's meeting Tuesday.

The portable bathroom will be half the size of one of the classroom portables and will have restrooms for both men and women, Wallace said.

The transportation and installation of the portables costs thousands of dollars per building. Each building typically costs an additional $1,200 to $1,400 per month to rent, Wallace said.

"We still have to put in fire protection, we have to run electricity, and we have to outfit it for technology just like a (regular) classroom," he said. "There's a lot of setup involved."

But installing several at once will save the district some money.

"Even if the principal said we need three portables this year and two more next year, it's cheaper to put them all in at once," Wallace said.

Lighting is proposed at the entrance to each portable building. Sidewalks, decks and ramps will be built to provide adequate access.

The portables are expected to be necessary until August 2016, when West High School is scheduled to open in Centerton.

Bentonville High's enrollment as of April 1 was 3,945. Enrollment this fall is expected to be 4,345, according to projections provided by Brad Reed, district director of student services. The school's ideal capacity is about 3,700.

Chad Scott, high school principal, spoke to the School Board earlier this year about strategies for dealing with enrollment growth. Portable classrooms was one method. Improving the master scheduling process to maximize the number of students in seats was another method he mentioned, along with expanding summer and night school offerings.

Reed has projected the district's overall enrollment for the 2014-15 school year to be 15,610, a 3.5 percent increase from October. Growth was 1.3 percent last year and 5.4 percent the year before.

The high school is the only school that will need portable classrooms next school year, though there are a couple of buildings that will approach that need, Reed said. Central Park Elementary School is projected to have 888 students, a 7 percent increase from this year.

Reed said his annual enrollment projection has been 99.2 percent accurate on average over the past six years. His lowest accuracy rate of 98.2 percent came last year, when he projected an Oct. 1 enrollment number of 15,360. Enrollment on that day was 15,081.

Last year's projection was made more complicated by Northwest Arkansas Classical Academy, the charter school for grades kindergarten through eight that opened in August, Reed said.

Reed is projecting a kindergarten class of 1,296 students, which would be 25 more than the district reported in October.

District enrollment has grown about 35 percent since 2006. Reed and Sterling Ming, finance director, told the School Board this week enrollment growth is leveling off.

"I think you're always going to have growth, just not the crazy on-steroids growth that we've had," Reed said.

NW News on 04/11/2014