The president of the Little Rock School Board said Monday that the board is moving as rapidly as it can to put a new middle school in west Little Rock.

Greg Adams told about 100 parents and others at a community meeting at Roberts Elementary School that he thinks there is a consensus at the board level for a new middle school. There has also been a $3 million land purchase made for the school and a nearly completed districtwide facility study.

"That was not true when I went on the board three and a half years ago," Adams said. He added that district leaders know that more facilities are needed in the growing northwest part of the district.

"We are further down the road," he said about a new middle school. "I respect that it is not quick enough for many, many people, but it is going about as fast as we can go."

Adams said that it was his hope that the district would be ready to ask voters for a millage increase to pay for building improvements throughout the district at an election in the first half of next year. He said that "there is no way in the world" the district can afford any of the scenarios put forth so far by facility consultants without raising the district's current property tax rate.

The scenarios presented to the board last month start around $500 million.

Adams made the comments at a session conducted by Troy Glover, an education planner for Fanning-Howey, an architecture and engineering firm that is leading the team that will conclude its nine-month study of the district's building needs with draft recommendations to the School Board later this month.

Glover asked audience members about their preferences for enrollment size of a new middle school and distances they would be willing to travel to a middle school. He also asked whether the middle schools throughout the city should continue to include sixth grade or whether sixth-graders should be assigned to elementary schools. Elementary schools are projected to have vacant seats over the next 10 years, while middle schools are projected to be over capacity, even with an additional campus.

Audience members wanted to know from Glover whether the consultants would specifically recommend a middle school and even a high school for west and northwest Little Rock that would be large enough to serve the current public school population plus all the private, charter and home-school students who would choose to attend new public school campuses.

"It's not just about capacity, it's about location, location, location," west Little Rock resident Kellyann Thornton told Glover about a need for public secondary schools west of Interstate 430. "You have a population that is a little bit fed up and a little bit frustrated that leaves the district -- that hemorrhages the district -- [when their children reach] middle school."

The Fanning-Howey team will hold another community meeting at 6 p.m. today at McClellan High School to solicit input on what parents and residents in the area would like to see in a possible replacement high school for the McClellan campus.

Metro on 06/10/2014