BENTONVILLE -- Construction crews might return soon to the campus of West High School in Centerton under a plan pitched by School District administrators.
West High School, which opened in August, is being targeted as the site for a $3.2 million facility dedicated to the district's Ignite Professional Studies program. The building's opening is slated for the 2018-19 school year.
Millage history
The Bentonville School District has made six attempts for millage increases since 2002. Here’s a summary of those attempts:
DateRequested millageResult*New millage rate
September 20132.9 millsPassed, 70 percent in favor*46.6
June 20126.7 millsFailed, 58 percent against*43.7
April 20102.2 millsPassed, 60 percent in favor*43.7
March 20083.99 millsFailed, 59 percent against*41.5
September 20034.9 millsPassed, 74 percent in favor*41.5
May 20024 millsPassed, 63 percent in favor*36.6
Source: Bentonville School District
It's part of a 10-year facility plan administrators unveiled this month. The plan also calls for building six more schools, including a third high school, by 2025. It provides a schedule of major maintenance projects at existing schools.
Administrators have recommended paying for the plan through a combination of a 1.7-mill tax increase and refinancing bonds. The tax increase would be put to voters some time next year.
The School Board must approve the administration's facility plan and financing method. The board is tentatively scheduled to vote on those Nov. 14.
Ignite immerses students in real experiences in a professional environment with support from a facilitating teacher and professional mentors. The district launched Ignite last year with one information technology class and expanded it this year to include construction professions, creative arts and production, and medical and health sciences classes.
About 100 students are enrolled in Ignite, but Superintendent Debbie Jones said it's realistic to believe enrollment will grow to 250 by the 2018-19 school year.
Ignite's classes meet in different places: West High School, Northwest Arkansas Community College, Tata Consultancy Services' Bentonville office and the University of Arkansas Global Campus in Rogers.
"The point of having Ignite on our campus is it provides greater access for our kids," Jones said.
Placing the Ignite building at West High School takes advantage of existing infrastructure. The location also is ideal for students coming from other school districts on Benton County's west side -- particularly Decatur, Gentry and Gravette -- to join Ignite, Jones said.
Ignite doesn't have students from other districts, but it's something Bentonville officials welcome. The Gravette and Decatur school boards voted earlier this year to join the program.
"All three of us are partnering together," said Richard Page, Gravette's superintendent. "Bentonville is the flagship. We would fall under their umbrella for Ignite."
Page said he has no problem with placing Ignite at West High School, which is about a 15-minute drive from Gravette High School.
The Bentonville, Gravette, Gentry and Decatur districts also have been discussing another facility that would serve as a hub of career and technical education in western Benton County. Officials haven't settled on a location for such a building, Page said.
Each district is developing programs that someday could be a part of that facility.
"It's kind of like starting a business. You start it small, you get your clientele. We're trying to build it from the inside out," Page said.
Teresa Hudson, Ignite's director, said having a single location would provide opportunities for cross-collaboration on projects among the program's different strands, or career focuses.
"That's a lot like a business environment, where there are multiple departments working together," Hudson said.
The strands come together once every two weeks at Grit Studio near downtown Bentonville, usually to hear from a speaker who talks about entrepreneurship or professional skills, "things that affect all the career strands," she said.
Exactly where on West High School's campus the Ignite building would go is still undecided. West High School is home to more than 1,200 ninth- through 11th-graders. It will gain several hundred more students when a senior class is added next year. The school's capacity is 2,250 students.
Brent Leas, a board member, asked during the board's last meeting whether an Ignite facility would hinder expansion for the general student population at West High.
"We've accommodated for high school growth within this 10-year plan with the third high school," Jones replied. The third high school is planned for a 2025 opening.
Leas said he wasn't necessarily opposed to putting Ignite at West High.
"I always like options. I know there are a lot of buildings sitting out there that are vacant or maybe lightly used that potentially could be used as a resource for an Ignite program that's not on our campus, that doesn't take away from the expansion needs of Bentonville West," he said.
Other board members pressed for more details about the Ignite building and other aspects of the facility plan. Board member Rebecca Powers said she'd need more information before she could vote for it.
Jones explained the plan is not set in stone, and the board would vote on each individual project and contract. The facility plan is a shell that gives administrators a starting point to project how much money will be needed and when each building will open, she said.
"This whole plan has to be fluid. It has to be, because if we had a major boom in our demographics, we're going to have to move things up in the plan," she said.
District enrollment has grown more than 17 percent in the last five years to about 16,609. Using an average growth rate of 3.5 percent per year, officials project enrollment will surpass 22,000 by 2025.
The financing method administrators have proposed would provide enough money not only for the buildings, but the land they'd sit on. Finding land that fits the district's needs is a big task.
"We have made offers," Jones said. "We haven't finalized any of the negotiations, but we are actively looking for land."
Overcrowding is an issue at some of Bentonville's schools, including Willowbrook Elementary School, which had 933 students as of Oct. 1. Willowbrook is using every square inch of space, going so far as to hold art classes in an alcove of the hallway, Jones said.
Some relief will come next year when the district's 11th elementary school and fifth middle school open on Featherston Road in southwest Bentonville.
"We're not building out of luxury or to be extravagant; we're building out of need," she said.
NW News on 10/31/2016