ROGERS -- Heritage High School's property is poised to grow after the School Board agreed Tuesday to buy 4 acres across the street from the football stadium.
The School District will pay $475,000 for the land, or $118,750 per acre, which Superintendent Janie Darr called "a very reasonable price." The property had an appraised value of $525,500 as of last month, according to information from the Benton County assessor.
New administrators
The Rogers School District announced three new assistant principals on Tuesday:
• Michelle Wright for Westside Elementary School. Wright was most recently a counselor at Westside.
• Halley Parsons for Tillery Elementary School. Parsons was a third-grade teacher at Jones Elementary School.
• Jodi Mears for Kirksey Middle School. Mears was an instructional facilitator for the West Fork School District.
Source: Staff report
The property will connect two other chunks of land the district owns on the block defined by South Eighth and South Sixth streets and West Ash and West Olrich streets.
"This (purchase) allows us to close that piece in," said board president Jerry Carmichael. "It will be a good investment long term."
The block also contains a few homes on the north side and a Casey's General Store on the south side.
Buying the 4 acres will increase Heritage's property to about 47 acres. Rogers High School, in comparison, sits on about 60 acres, according to Jim White, the district's chief operations officer.
The land is being sold to the district by longtime resident Addison Rife and his daughter, Deborah Rife Reynolds. The district has been interested in the property for a long time, White said. A broker representing the family approached the district in the spring about selling the property, he said.
"We're just excited to work with the Rifes on this," White said. "This is a very important acquisition for the district."
He said he hopes to have the deal finalized within the next month.
The district doesn't have any definite plans for the property, but White offered some potential uses, including parking and athletic fields.
The block on which the property sits is on an incline. There are drainage issues preventing the district from making full use of the land it has on that block currently. But the district couldn't address those drainage issues without access to the property its acquiring.
The money for this purchase will come from a district fund of $1 million which has been earmarked for land acquisition, White said.
In other news from Tuesday's board meeting, the board approved a policy change making foreign-exchange students eligible for services from the district's English for Speakers of Other Languages department. Students from other countries will be assessed for English language proficiency upon enrollment.
Also, Darr said district administrators attended a professional development session Monday on safe and secure schools. The presenter reviewed the district's bomb threat procedures and preparation for shooters on campus.
"The main thing is to be proactive, be prepared, and train our staff so they know what to do," Darr said. "So we will work with our staff when they get back to set up (safety) drills for our students."
NW News on 07/22/2015