Construction projects progress in Farmington, Prairie Grove, West Fork school districts

STAFF PHOTO DAVID GOTTSCHALK Juan Garcia, right, and Jaime Vargas, both with Advanced Concrete Services of Fayetteville, build a form Tuesday for the extension to West Fork Middle School.
STAFF PHOTO DAVID GOTTSCHALK Juan Garcia, right, and Jaime Vargas, both with Advanced Concrete Services of Fayetteville, build a form Tuesday for the extension to West Fork Middle School.

Band, choir and drama students at Farmington High School plan to move into new classrooms and the basketball team will have a new place to play in January when the first phase of a new school is projected to be completed.

Construction projects in West Fork and Prairie Grove school districts are also well under way, superintendents said.

At A Glance

Partnership Program

The Arkansas Division of Public School Facilities and Management partnership program provides financial assistance to school districts for certain building projects. The program doesn’t pay for athletic facilities. The Arkansas Legislature allocates money to the partnership program which in turn is doled out to school districts every two years for projects approved by the division. The amount a district can receive is determined by a mathematical calculation called the wealth index. The priority for allocating partnership money is making school buildings warm, safe and dry; suitability; and growth.

Source: Staff Report

Farmington Superintendent Bryan Law said workers fell several days behind schedule earlier this year when snow and ice blanketed Northwest Arkansas. Since, the work schedule has been smoother and some of the time lost has probably been made up, he said.

Law said he has seen workers at the job site on Saturdays.

The new building contains about 74,000 square feet, consisting of an 1,800-seat sports arena, a 600-seat auditorium, stage and dressing rooms plus classrooms for band, choir and drama. The first phase is projected to cost about $9.5 million, although Law said there could be some savings that will be applied to the second phase. Farmington received about $1 million in state partnership money for part of the project. State money can't be used for athletic facilities.

The target date for completion is Jan. 1, 2015, but completion could be pushed to Jan. 10 or 12, depending on how many days have been made up or will be in the coming weeks, Law said.

"The building is in the dry so we're not as dependent on the weather," he said. "We dodged the rainy spring."

The district will run a shuttle from the main campus on Main Street to the new campus about one to one-and-a-half miles south on Hunter Street. Law said a shuttle schedule hasn't been developed yet but classes probably will be in early morning or late afternoon to control the number of trips.

Once the first phase is completed, planning will continue for the second phase -- a 100,000-square-foot building with classrooms, offices, cafeteria and library. Construction is expected to start in late summer 2015 and be finished in mid-2017.

The district has applied for state partnership assistance for the second phase but that decision won't come from the Arkansas Public School Facilities and Transportation Commission until May 2015, after the winter legislative session.

Law said the state will pay about 55 cents on every dollar or $5.5 million on a $10 million project if the request is approved.

In West Fork, late spring rain pushed the construction back about three weeks on a physical education building and two classrooms and restrooms at the middle school as well as an 3,000 square-foot addition to the band and choir building that is used by high school and middle school students.

The district is also installing air conditioning in the activities building, building a covered walkway from the high school to the agricultural and furniture repair buildings and replacing the 38-year-old wooden light poles on the football field with steel poles, said Superintendent John Karnes.

Two of the West Fork projects are expected to cost $2.3 million, with about $1.4 million coming from the state partnership program. Voters approved a 2-mill increase in the property tax rate and approved a $2 million bond issue to pay for all the projects.

Prairie Grove has three construction projects in various stages, said Superintendent Allen Williams. The projects include replacing the elementary school with a new wing at the intermediate school, building a new high school gymnasium with 1,400 seats and installing a storm shelter at the new elementary wing. The total cost is $15.8 million. The district received almost $2.4 million in state assistance and some $940,000 from a Federal Emergency Management Agency grant.

The safe room is expected to be completed about a year from now, Williams said. Site preparation is in progress at the elementary and footings have been poured for the gymnasium.

NW News on 07/07/2014

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