SPRINGDALE -- Plans are proceeding for a new $16.9 million elementary school and pre-kindergarten center and a $24 million high school campus, all set to open in fall 2016.
The School Board on Tuesday voted 6-0 in a series of motions to hire construction management firms for the projects and to begin the process of issuing bonds to help pay for them.
"The new elementary school, just immediately, is going to give us some relief," School Board President Mike Luttrell said. "With the School of Innovation, it brings some of that, too."
The design for the School of Innovation campus will provide creative instructional space different from the classroom space at Har-Ber and Springdale high schools, he said. The design includes lots of open spaces, as well as smaller rooms for groups of students to meet.
The School of Innovation opened with about 200 eighth-graders for the 2014-15 school year in the Jones Center. The school will add another class of 200 students and will continue at the Jones Center for 2015-16.
The new home for the school will be built on district land at Hylton Road, east of Lakeside Junior High School, said Gary Compton, assistant superintendent for support services. The 143,172-square-foot facility will start with a student body of 600 students in the eighth through sophomores and will add juniors and seniors the following two years to become a campus for 1,000 students.
The project is the first phase of building a third high school on the district's east side, Superintendent Jim Rollins said. Rollins anticipates in about five years needing to expand the space to fit 2,000 students.
A new elementary school is planned to open in fall 2016 on district land on Oriole Lane, south of J.O. Kelly Middle School, Compton said. The project includes construction of a separate 16-classroom building for a pre-kindergarten center.
The school is intended to ease student populations at Monitor, Sonora and Turnbow elementary schools, Compton has said.
"We have a lot of work to do and a short amount of time to do it," Compton said.
Baldwin & Shell will manage construction of the School of Innovation at a maximum price of $24 million, a price the administration had expected last month. The Flintco firm will manage construction of the elementary school for $14.9 million and a the pre-kindergarten center for $2 million.
The district plans to pay for the projects with state money, bonds and with money set aside in a building fund, said Kelly Hayes, the district's comptroller.
The projects were approved for state partnership funding through the Arkansas Division of Public School Facilities and Transportation, Hayes said. The district received $9 million in state money for the School of Innovation campus and $7.7 million for the elementary campus, Hayes said.
The School Board approved of district administrators applying for a permit from the state Department of Education to issue $22.8 million in bonds for the projects.
The district will use second-lien bonds to repay the debt, Hayes said. The district will be able to pay the debt on its current debt service millage of 15.5 mills. The district's total millage, for everyday operations and debt service, is 40.5 mills. A mill is one-tenth of a penny.
The bonds are expected to be paid off in 2041, Hayes said.
NW News on 06/10/2015