SPRINGDALE -- The School District's next elementary school will be built in Tontitown.
The school is slated to open in August 2022 on 20 acres at the corner of South Barrington Road and East Fletcher Avenue, about half a mile south of the Tontitown Grape Festival site.
The district's 19th elementary will become the only public school in Tontitown. Ozark Catholic Academy opened last year at St. Joseph Catholic Church.
Wittenberg, Delony & Davidson Architects will design the building and Flintco will manage the construction project, Superintendent Jim Rollins said after Tuesday's School Board meeting.
The School Board bought the property in 2010 for $700,000, or $35,000 per acre, in anticipation of growth. Jared Cleveland, deputy superintendent for personnel and support services, said that growth is happening. Tontitown grew by more than 63% from 2,460 people in 2010 to 4,003 in 2018, according to U.S. Census Bureau estimates.
Cleveland added the district's property there is ideal for a school because it's flat and has easy access to utilities.
"Tontitown has done an excellent job of preparing the area because they've known we own that place and really would like to put a school there," Cleveland said.
The district already has secured state partnership funding of $8.2 million toward the school, which is expected to cost about $19 million. The district has the money for its share of the project, Rollins said.
The elementary will be a school of innovation, modeled after the district's Tyson School of Innovation, a district-operated charter school that serves grades six through 12.
NW News on 09/11/2019