ROGERS -- Three firms were hired Tuesday to work on the School District's 16th elementary school, expected to open in August 2019.
The School Board approved Hight-Jackson Associates, Crafton Tull and Flintco as the companies to work with the district on the project.
Moment of Silence
Tuesday’s Rogers School Board meeting began with a moment of silence in honor of Linda Allen, a Heritage High School teacher who died June 11 while visiting her sister, Chrissy Hughes, in Florida. Firefighters discovered the bodies of Allen, Hughes and Hughes’ son after responding to a fire at Hughes’ home.
Source: Staff Report
Hight-Jackson Associates, which provides architectural services, and Flintco, a construction management firm, both worked on Darr Elementary School, the last elementary school the district built.
The new elementary school essentially will be a replication of Darr Elementary School, which opened in 2013, Superintendent Marlin Berry said.
"That allows us to use the same drawings, which is a good savings for us," Berry said.
The district will seek advice on ways to improve upon those drawings, particularly from those who work at Darr.
"It's a great opportunity to say, 'Yeah, if I did it over, I'd make this little change,'" Berry said.
The district plans to build the school on the southern portion of 80 acres it owns at West Garrett Road and South Bellview Road, Berry said.
"Until they tell us that that wouldn't be a good location in terms of infrastructure, that's where we're going to be," he said.
It's been estimated the school will cost about $20 million. The project will be financed through a 3.5-mill tax increase voters approved last month. The same millage increase will pay for another elementary school to be built at an undetermined date, as well as improvements to other schools.
In other business, the board approved expulsions of 18 students, which one administrator acknowledged was an unusually large number. The district recommended and the board approved seven expulsions in May.
"It's a high number. We had a rash of incidents in May," said Charles Lee, assistant superintendent for secondary curriculum and instruction.
Those expelled included seven middle school students and 11 high school students. Most will be allowed to enroll in August. Two will be allowed back in January and two will be allowed back in August 2018, according to information provided by the district.
Sterling Wilson, who's been on the board since 2012, said he couldn't remember seeing that many expulsions for one month.
"And I don't remember it being as many middle school students, either," Wilson said.
Lee is working on a three-year study of the number of expulsions in the district to see if any trends can be identified, "so we're not bringing large numbers of students to the board for expulsion," he said.
NW News on 06/21/2017