ROGERS -- The School District will spend up to $7.8 million to improve Westside Elementary School.
The School Board unanimously approved the cost at its meeting Tuesday. The project will begin shortly after school lets out for the summer and is expected to take about nine months.
New assistant principals
Rogers’ School Board on Tuesday approved four new assistant principals for the 2019-20 school year:
• Brian Anderson at Tucker Elementary School. Anderson is a seventh-grade reading and English language arts teacher at Kirksey Middle School.
• Miguel Flores at Old Wire Road Elementary School. Flores is a third-grade teacher at Mathias Elementary School.
• Carla Gonzalez at Hill Elementary School. Gonzalez is a math and science facilitator for the district.
• Tracy Yocham at Darr Elementary School. Yocham is a counselor at Northside Elementary School.
Source: Staff report
A new secure entry will be added. The office and the counseling and nurse's areas will be moved. The school will get a new roof, new heating and air conditioning systems, and new sprinklers and fire alarm systems.
The entire school will be remodeled to include new millwork, paint, ceilings, doors, floors and improvements to meet accessibility requirements, according to the district's website.
Westside also will see aesthetic improvements to its exterior with the addition of a terra-cotta exterior on the building's south side and the extension of the entry canopy to the north.
Westside is one of three Rogers elementary schools, along with Northside and Lowell, that are about to see major renovation projects over the next year or so. Each of the three schools are more than 50 years old. Westside opened in 1964, Northside opened in 1954 and Lowell opened in 1951.
The board last month approved guaranteed maximum prices of $8.2 million for the work at Northside and $8.6 million at Lowell. Each of the three projects are slated to begin in early June.
Superintendent Marlin Berry thanked the board for supporting the projects.
"What tremendous support this is for our older buildings in the district," Berry said. "Great things happen in those classrooms each and every day, but they are very much aware that they look different from the newer schools."
In other business Tuesday, the board approved the administration's proposal to refund a 2014 bond issue, a move officials expect will save the district about $2.6 million in interest payments.
The district will submit its application for a permit to issue bonds to the state Department of Education. Notices advertising the $59.3 million in bond sales will run twice in the newspaper, and bonds will be sold June 5, according to a timeline provided by First Security Beardsley, the district's fiscal agent. The district may reject the bids.
Particulars of the bond issue, such as its length, will not change, so the district doesn't have to go back to the voters to refund it, said financial adviser Scott Beardsley.
"You're just paying off the old bond holders and hopefully replacing them with people who will loan you the money at a lower rate of interest," Beardsley told the board.
NW News on 05/22/2019