BENTONVILLE — The School District opened its doors Monday night to share with the public the progress being made on the second high school.
Attendees browsed through several exhibits that provided a glimpse at how the school will look inside and out. School Board members, district administrators, architects and construction specialists were on hand to explain the plans.
At A Glance
Rollout And Boundaries
A team of Bentonville School District administrators researched the grade configuration issue and is recommending the school open with grades nine through 11, then add a senior class the following year. The School Board will make the final decision on that.
Another issue yet to be settled is attendance boundaries that determine which students will attend which high school. Administrators are recommending doing a study that looks at feeder patterns, economic balance and transportation costs. The study could be completed by this summer and a boundaries recommendation presented to the board in September.
Source: Staff Report
Those plans show the two-story school in an L shape, anchored at one end by a gymnasium and at the other end by an auditorium and fine arts rooms. At the building's elbow, located on the northeast side, is the main entrance that also will include a commons area and main office.
In between are the classrooms, grouped by subject area. Each group of classrooms includes career learning zones that will be closely connected to the subject area of the wing. The medical professions career program, for example, will be adjacent to the science wing, and pre-engineering classes will be next to physics classrooms.
There also will be "collaborative learning zones" where students and teachers can work together in large groups.
The school is designed with a freshman learning community on the second floor. Giving freshmen their own community will help with their transition from the junior highs, said Andrew Van Leeuwen, an architect with DLR Group.
The auditorium is tentatively designed to hold about 1,000 people, but architects haven't finalized those details, Van Leeuwen said.
Monday's event came nearly six months after voters agreed to pay for the school, which will be built off Gamble Road in Centerton. A name for the school has not been chosen, though the School Board is expected to discuss that at its meeting today.
Michael Poore, district superintendent, said he was pleased with the open house turnout.
"We're getting a lot of real positive feedback," Poore said. "There's an efficiency to the building. There's a flow to the building."
The district is still on track to begin construction in July, he said.
There was no exact count of attendance at the open house, but more than 80 people signed the sign-in sheet at the door.
Jennifer Perkins of Centerton came with her grandson, Payton Summers, a seventh-grader at Lincoln Junior High. Payton will be a sophomore at the time of the second high school's expected opening in August 2016.
Payton said he looks forward to playing baseball and basketball at the school.
"It's going to be fun," he said.
Perkins said she voted for the second high school. Her youngest daughter graduated from Bentonville High four years ago and it was crowded back then. Since then the high school has added several hundred more students.
"I am very excited," Perkins said. "I do like what I see. It definitely looks like facilities will be comparable to what they have at (Bentonville High)."
The district also invited the public to post comments on easels answering the question, "What is the single most important thing that will make this high school successful?" Answers included "A lot of AP classes," "FEMA grant for community storm shelter," "A lot of easily accessible (wide) staircases" and "Great teachers!"
Michelle McGuire of Bentonville attended with her two sons, a sixth-grader and a freshman. She said it's unlikely either of her kids will attend the new high school because of where they live, but they wanted to come check out the plans anyway.
"I think it's great," McGuire said. "I think they've done an excellent job laying it all out. They've put a lot of thought into it."
NW News on 03/11/2014