BENTONVILLE -- "So imagine this," Michael Frayser started.
It's about 9 a.m. in the Gateway bike shop class, he continued. The students are loading up bikes and the repair tool kit onto a trailer to take to Slaughter Pen Trail. Meanwhile, students at another school are loading on a bus to meet the Gateway students at the trail.
At A Glance
Bike Repair
Gateway implemented its bicycle repair shop class in 2013 after the program moved into its new building, 1002 S.E. 14th St. The district received more than 500 bikes the year before. Gateway students repaired more than 150 bikes at the shop last year.
Source: Staff Report
Frayser, a junior Bentonville High School student in the Gateway program, described what it would be like if his class' idea to host trail rides was implemented.
Gateway is an alternative learning environment providing unique teaching methods and classes, two of which are bike shop and entrepreneurship.
Frayser and some classmates created business models for two services they would like to engage all Bentonville Public School students in.
For the trail ride service, a physical education teacher would contact the Gateway class about hosting a ride for his class. There would be a determined fee. Teachers could pick between a one and three-mile ride either on-road, off-road or a combination of both, Frayser said.
The ride would be chaperoned by four to six Gateway bike mechanics. The class would need a truck and trailer to transport people, bikes and the repair tool kit to offer the service, Frayser said.
His peers Jon Salinas and Jeremy Clark, both Gateway seniors, explained the second service, a "rolling repair lab" that could travel to schools when bikes needed to be repaired.
A physical education teacher would just have to call to request the repair service, they said.
It would require a bus or van that could fit six people and the tools. It would service 18 schools, Clark said.
"The reason we should do this is that Bentonville Public Schools has spent a lot of money on these bikes, and we can't afford not to use the bikes," Salinas said. It also "provides a good experience and skills that students can use later in the jobs and careers that they want," he added.
The students pitched their ideas to district administrators and a couple of business owners Thursday to garner support in hopes of making the business models a reality. Four students presented their ideas with PowerPoint.
They didn't include cost projections as it was more of a feasibility presentation to see if there would be interest in it, said Jessica Imel, their teacher.
"Our goal here is to engage every Bentonville Public School student from grades kindergarten through 12th grade," senior Brent McCollom said. "Our services could grow to serve the community."
They could set a tent up at the downtown farmers market and have people sign up to get their bikes repaired at home or set up trail rides for community members, he said.
The students answered questions and received feedback from the small audience of less than 12 people.
"I love how you guys are thinking of how to protect the investment the schools already made," Tim Robinson, Walmart executive, Phat Tire co-owner and alderman elect, said. "I also like how you're community minded in that you want to engage other kids in the school, but also other people in the community."
Robinson and Scott Schroen, Phat Tire general manager, provided some feedback on how to make the programs run more efficiently, how to decrease the needed costs and how to reach a broad audience.
Schroen said after the presentation he thought the services were a great idea.
"If anything I was kicking myself for not thinking of it," he said. "That's brilliant to have a mobile repair station going around."
The biggest challenge the students have is being first to create programs, Schroen added. There isn't anything to model it after, but they can be the model for other districts.
"They're on the forefront of this, and other schools are catching on," he said.
Robinson said he will be able to help students connect with other key players in the biking community who could help with funding, both monetarily and with supplies.
Imel said the goal of the project was to get students to communicate with impact. Each student is going to choose a different career path once they graduate.
"They're all going to have to be able to communicate their ideas, so I'm hoping that working on this will translate no matter what they want to do," she said.
NW News on 12/20/2014