BENTONVILLE -- The Helen R. Walton Children's Enrichment Center seeks a revised lease agreement with the School District that would allow the center to build a new facility.
The center at 1701 N.E. Wildcat Way sits just east of Washington Junior High School and south of Apple Glen Elementary School. It has leased the land from the district since 1982. It renewed its lease for 25 years in 1995 at a rate of $1 per year.
At A Glance
Enrichment Center
The Helen R. Walton Children’s Enrichment Center provides early childhood education to 250 children ages 6 weeks old to prekindergarten. It opened in 1982.
In 2009 it launched the Early Childhood Initiatives Center to support the hundreds of childhood programs in Northwest Arkansas.
Source: Staff Report
The center has a plan to improve its services by using two acres immediately to the east to build a new 35,000 square-foot facility. That land is also district-owned and has been assessed at $260,000, according to Michelle Stephens, the center's executive director.
A portion of the center's existing facility would be torn down to make room for additional parking. The remainder of that facility could be used by the district.
The School Board has heard details of the plan twice in the past month. At its meeting Tuesday, the board signaled a willingness to let Superintendent Michael Poore work on details of the agreement with center officials. A tentative agreement then would be presented to the board for its consideration later this year.
District administrators see several things about the plan that benefit the district, Poore said.
One has to do with traffic flow. The center would move over toward Martin Luther King Jr. Parkway and have an entrance and exit from that road. That would take pressure off cross streets Brave Lane and Wildcat Way, both of which become heavily congested in the mornings and afternoons with school traffic, Stephens said.
The building left behind also would allow the district to expand its preschool program and storage space, Poore said.
"If you look at those two acres they're going to develop, that's tough for us to have a plan for," Poore said. "With them having a plan for it, and then us being able to utilize the area they're leaving, that makes sense to us."
Grant Lightle, board vice president, expressed concern about getting fair market value for the land.
"I'm just not sure we've thought about everything we need to think about before making that kind of decision," Lightle said.
Lightle asked at Tuesday's meeting if the property would be large enough for the district to build another school. It would not be, according to Paul Wallace, director of facilities.
Stephens said the city of Bentonville has expressed a willingness to extend a conditional use permit for the new facility. The city's main concern was whether it would add more traffic to the area.
"We are not increasing the number of families we will be serving," Stephens said. "We are just creating a new facility to better serve those families."
The center determined recently it needed a new facility with advice from outside experts. Much of the space is not conducive to the educational process, Stephens said.
"We looked at renovation versus a new build. The cost differential is minimal," she said.
Options the center has suggested to the district include a 100-year lease on the land, with the stipulation that if the center closes, the land is returned and the building is given to the district. Another option would be for the district to donate the land in return for ownership of a portion of the old building.
Brent Leas, board member, said he liked the center's plans.
"I think it's a great concept of collaboration," Leas said. "It also eliminates a brown, dead field from sitting there and staring at us."
NW News on 09/08/2014