ROGERS -- The School District's new superintendent took his place at his first board meeting Tuesday, stressing the importance of maintaining school facilities.
"I like the fact that we are a district that takes care of the investments our community has made," superintendent Marlin Berry said.
Rogers School District dates to remember
• July 28: first day at Eastside Elementary School
• Aug. 15: first day of school
• Sept. 13: early voting for School Board election at county offices
• Sept. 20: school board election, polls open from 7:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m.
For more information, visit http://rogersschool….
Rogers High School will be getting new roofing in phases over the next three years, he said. Other work includes fixing parking lots and ceilings, upgrading heating and air software and putting in new, more durable floors in many of the buildings in the district.
The board is also looking at other projects such as replacing the stage in the Heritage High School auditorium, Berry said. "It's going to be a nice change."
The Crossroads building on Second Street, which was purchased in April, will be gutted and an addition added, Berry said. Construction is set to start in October and finish October 2017.
At the start of Tuesday's meeting, Berry -- who replaced the retired Janie Darr -- wanted to "clear out a few misconceptions," he said.
First, he reassured everyone there were experienced people left in the central office despite the turnover of five top administrators, including Darr, and two School Board members who will not seek re-election in September. "There is a tremendous team that's here ready and willing to work," Berry said.
He didn't take his position to "totally change the way we do things," Berry also said, but to learn and listen and build on the wonderful things already happening in district.
However, he said now is a great chance to review the way things are done and what can be improved, but didn't mention any specific changes.
At this point, the board has hired 109 employees. Tuesday, the board welcomed Tricia Murray as an assistant principal at Rogers High School.
Murray has 20 years of education experience and served as the principal of Huntsville High School last year. Murray has also worked as the dean of students, a social studies teacher and a coach at Bentonville High School and said she's excited to return to the area she calls home.
"What I wanted to do leaving Bentonville is gain as much as experience as I could, because ultimately I did want to come back to the Rogers-Bentonville area to serve our community," she said. "It's a very successful academic school, and I just want to be a part of it."
New student enrollment took place Tuesday and numbers aren't yet in, said Virginia Abernathy, assistant superintendent of elementary curriculum and instruction. Rogers has about 15,000 students, and the district projects its enrollment will grow 4.4 percent over the next 10 years.
It didn't see as much growth in the 2015-16 year as in the past few years, said Jake Haak, chief financial officer.
"This previous year we really didn't see the growth that we had, which was 300 to 350 students," Haak said in Tuesday's meeting. "This past year we saw a growth of about 100 students. So as we look at the budget, that's why you see the difference and you see a little bit more money still left out there."
NW News on 07/20/2016