ROGERS -- The School Board unanimously agreed Tuesday to spend nearly $1.5 million on a church property officials said would be used for professional development meetings and office space.
The 17,000- square-foot Calvary Chapel in the Ozarks sits on 2.5 acres on Perry Road adjacent to Rogers High School. The building includes two large meeting rooms with the possibility of 12 to 15 areas for offices and conference rooms, according to School District officials.
Meal price adjustments
The Rogers School Board on Tuesday approved 10-cent increases in school lunch prices for the 2017-18 school year. Here are the new prices, effective this fall.
Elementary schools: $2.45
Middle schools: $2.95
High schools: $3.10
Source: Staff report
The asking price was $1.8 million. The board agreed to a price of $1,475,000.
The district's Professional Development Center is inside the Annex building, which also is home to New Technology High School and the Crossroads alternative education program.
Crossroads is moving to new space on Second Street this fall, allowing room for New Technology High School to expand. District officials want to leave as much space as possible to the high school.
The Professional Development Center is "used a great deal," Superintendent Marlin Berry said.
Berry first discussed with the board the possibility of buying the property at the board's meeting on March 14.
The district got an appraisal of the property, which came out to $1,650,000.
Sterling Wilson, a board member, asked whether any remodeling would be needed on the building. The interior needs some paint, Berry said.
The purchase price came out to $86 per square foot.
"We couldn't begin to build something like this" at that cost, Berry said.
In other business, the board approved refunding bonds from 2011 and 2012 that will result in a combined savings of about $1.2 million to the district.
The savings will be put into the district's building fund for future use as needed, said Jake Haak, chief financial officer.
The board also approved removing 11 buses from its fleet of 102.
Eight of those buses are between 14 and 24 years old and have between 120,000 and 230,000 miles on them. All have hydraulic brake systems; air brake systems are required on all new bus purchases, Haak said.
Two buses are special needs buses with wheelchair lifts. The buses are from 2003 and 2006. Both have hydraulic brake systems and are smaller than what the district uses, Haak said.
The final bus being removed is the model and body style of the first eight. It has been used as a "parts bus" and already has had the engine, transmission and some windows removed.
The buses will be sold for between $1,000 and $5,500 each. Proceeds will go toward purchases of new buses, officials said.
NW News on 05/10/2017