ROGERS -- The School Board agreed Tuesday to a maximum price of about $3.5 million to build a facility for the Crossroads Alternative Learning Center.
The center, now at the Annex building on South First Street, is expected to open in its new location at the corner of Second and Maple streets next fall, said Ashley Siwiec, director of communications for the School District.
Course changes
The Rogers School Board on Tuesday approved secondary curriculum course changes that will show up in the 2017-18 course catalogue. Here are the courses being added and deleted.
Additions
• Childcare guidance, management and services
• Key code
• Project Lead the Way automation and robotics
• Project Lead the Way medical detectives
• Advanced photography (New Technology High School)
• JAG Multi-Year II (Crossroads)
• Statistics
• Pre-AP physical science
• Pre-AP sixth grade science
• Dance IV
• Travel destinations
• International travel
Deletions
• Mass media webpage design
• Mass media broadcasting
• Drafting and design
• Architecture CAD I
• Engineering CAD I
• Lodging Management I
• Office education cooperative
• Office education work-based learning
• Math ready
• Linear systems and statistics
Source: Rogers School District
The district agreed to buy the property at 305 N. Second St. earlier this year. Last month the board approved a $64,650 contract with Milestone Construction, a Springdale-based firm, for partial demolition of the building on site, formerly a grocery store.
The board on Tuesday agreed with Milestone on a guaranteed maximum price of $3,448,831 for construction of the new center, a move allowing work to begin immediately. Money for the project will come out of the district's building fund.
The new property allows Crossroads to move so New Technology High School, which also is at the Annex building, can expand.
New Technology High School's enrollment has more than doubled since it opened in 2013, from 291 students to 637 students as of Oct. 1.
Crossroads has a capacity of 150 high school students and 30 middle school students. Students in the program meet multiple criteria, such as the need for a smaller environment, being behind in credits, discipline issues and trouble adjusting at one of the traditional schools.
In other business at Tuesday's meeting, the board approved replacing a heating, ventilation and air conditioning roof unit at Kirksey Middle School. The 12-year-old unit is failing, Superintendent Marlin Berry said.
The district will install a new unit from Trane at a cost of $37,574.
The board got some good news on the financial front. Renewal of the district's property insurance policy with Rogers Insurance, effective Feb. 1, comes with a premium cost of $317,500, which is unchanged from the district's current rate.
The district's budget for this school year included a 5 percent increase in that policy. Jake Haak, chief financial officer, attributed the unchanged rate to the hard work of the district's facilities and maintenance departments.
The board also recognized Kim Meyer, a teacher a Tucker Elementary School in Lowell, for being selected this year as one of four state finalists for the Presidential Awards for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching.
The National Science Foundation, on behalf of the White House, oversees this award program, which recognizes outstanding teachers who have demonstrated a commitment to professional development, innovative teaching techniques, and technology use in their classrooms, according to the Arkansas Department of Education.
A total of 100 Arkansas teachers were nominated for the awards. Meyer was chosen as a math finalist.
NW News on 11/16/2016