Facility plans dominate Bentonville School Board talk

BENTONVILLE -- Lincoln Junior High School will be renovated to the tune of nearly $5 million, and the Student Services building on Southeast 14th Street will be sold if the School Board approves the plans.

The board is likely to vote at its next meeting Feb. 4 whether to proceed with the administration's recommendations.

The plan for Lincoln includes redesigning the front entrance, upgrading locker rooms and restrooms, replacing furniture and gym bleachers, and painting the entire interior. The estimated project cost is $4.85 million.

Superintendent Debbie Jones presented that option Tuesday night after board members quickly dismissed the notion of a "large-scale" renovation that would cost between $26 million and $37 million.

The less expensive approach would add between eight and 10 years to the building's lifetime, according to facilities director Paul Wallace. Some board members expressed surprise at how little extra time they'd get from such an investment.

"That just almost chokes you right there," said board member Travis Riggs.

Lincoln is the oldest of Bentonville's three junior high schools at 44 years old. It has been renovated twice. A fourth junior high is scheduled to open in Centerton in 2020.

Jones said all of the improvements are necessary. Board members have commented the school is "not up to our standards," she said.

"I think it's a reasonable plan. It's not overboard," she said.

The building is also scheduled to receive an upgrade to its heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems in the near future, which is projected to cost another $1.2 million.

Jones said administrators would bring a plan to pay for the Lincoln project to the board next month, with hopes of starting the project this summer. The project could be done over two summers and students wouldn't have to be displaced, Wallace said.

Lincoln has 825 seventh- and eighth-graders.

Meanwhile, the district is studying its facility options as the Helen Walton Children's Enrichment Center prepares to move out of a district-owned building next to Washington Junior High School this summer.

Administrators are proposing moving the student services and child care enrichment departments, as well as some prekindergarten students to the building. That would require $500,000 in renovation.

The Student Services building -- which shares its site with the high school alternative learning environment program, known as Gateway -- then could be sold for an estimated $3.5 million. Gateway would return to Bentonville High School, where it was before it moved to the Southeast 14th Street location in 2013.

Bentonville High School, with a capacity of 4,000 students, has 3,000 students and can easily accommodate Gateway, which has 102 students, Jones said.

Board member Rebecca Powers argued in favor of keeping Gateway in a stand-alone facility, saying the students would hate to leave it and they benefit from having a place separate from the high school.

Gateway students would have a special entrance to the high school's north building, and care would be taken to ensure they have their own space away from the school's general population, Jones said.

Riggs said he was struggling with the idea of selling any building.

"The one constant we've had in this district is a lack of space," Riggs said.

Jones offered the board an option B, which involves keeping the Student Services building and renovating it to allow Gateway to expand at that location. Student services staff still would move. The cost of renovating the building would be about $1 million.

The district is looking to expand capacity in its Gateway program. There are 33 students on the wait list, Jones said.

NW News on 01/24/2019