GARFIELD -- The Rogers School District is expected to decide in November what to do with Garfield Elementary School.
The most likely result is Garfield Elementary -- which opened in 1941 -- will close and its students will attend a bigger school scheduled to open in 2024 about 11 miles to the west, community members heard at a public forum in the school's gymnasium Tuesday night.
Close to 100 people turned out for the meeting. District Superintendent Jeff Perry spent about 90 minutes taking questions from the audience, all while standing in front of the gym's "Home of the Hound Dogs" mural.
Perry told the crowd he wanted the community's feedback before making a decision on the school's future.
"We understand the passion for this school," he said.
The district recently formed a Garfield Steering Committee to discuss options for what to do with the school. It met for the first time Sept. 6. The committee includes Perry; Charles Lee, assistant superintendent; Stephen Bowman, the school's principal; Gary Blackburn, mayor of Garfield; two parents and two teachers.
That committee is supposed to help provide feedback to the School Board from the community. The board is expected to decide at its Nov. 15 meeting what to do with the school, which is on the National Register of Historic Places.
The crowd at Tuesday's meeting was polite, though frustration was evident in some of their questions and comments to Perry. A couple of people told Perry it seems like the decision already has been made to close Garfield. Perry insisted no decision has been made.
Facility challenges
Perry noted several challenges to the building, including bringing the school up to Americans with Disabilities Act standards. A facility review the district published in January 2019 noted it would be "beyond expensive" to make the building fully compliant with the law.
Other improvements would be needed, such as adding a sprinkler system and upgrading the electrical system, Perry said.
The district doesn't yet have a firm grasp on how much it would cost to renovate, but it has asked an architect to determine what structural improvements are needed and put an approximate cost to it, Perry said.
Another question came up Tuesday about an alternative site for a new school in or near Garfield. A property owner in Garfield has offered to give the district 20 acres for a new school, Perry said.
"I think that we are open to looking at other land options if it has the necessary infrastructure to be a viable site," Perry said Thursday. "And some of the things we're going to need would be gas, water, sewage, high-speed internet and then the road system into that."
The site identified for the district's 17th elementary school sits at North Second Street and Stratton Road in Rogers, just west of the municipal airport. It meets all of the district's infrastructure needs. The proposed site in Garfield doesn't have all of those things, he said, though that doesn't necessarily eliminate it from consideration.
Still, Perry said it would take "considerable incentive" for the School Board to shift from the North Second Street site because it is more centrally located for the district's overall student population.
Garfield Elementary's enrollment is about 105 students, Perry said. The district's 15 other elementary schools had an average enrollment of 461 as of last fall, according to state data.
Parents at Tuesday's meeting said the small classes -- in some cases, fewer than 20 students per class -- are what make Garfield's school so appealing.
The school proposed for North Second Street is planned to be 87,457 square feet and would accommodate more than 500 students, but probably won't open with that many, Perry said. Garfield Elementary consists of three buildings that total 16,436 square feet, according to Lee.
Exactly what the new school would cost in Rogers hasn't been determined, but Lee said earlier this year he expects it will top $25 million.
The district is hoping for some financial help from the state on its next elementary building. State education officials have approved giving the district $2.4 million in partnership funding for the school, but whether that comes through depends on how much money the state Legislature decides to put into the partnership program during next year's legislative session, Lee said.
To be eligible for state partnership funding, there must be a minimum cost of $150,000 or $300 per student -- whichever is cheaper, Lee said. Also, a new building must be at least 10,000 square feet.
'It's really sad'
Candace Sims, one of the two parents serving on the steering committee, said she's had three children attend Garfield Elementary. The youngest is in the fifth grade there; the other two now attend Lingle Middle and Heritage High schools.
"Out of all the schools I've been involved with in the Rogers school system, Garfield is 100%, hands down my favorite," Sims said. "I think that's why the community is upset. We don't want to shut it down because it's a special experience having a kid there and being involved in it."
She said she's resigned to the idea of Garfield Elementary closing.
"I'm just making the best of it. It's really sad. I wanted my grandkids to go there," she said.
Jenny Setzer, the other parent on the committee, has a first-grader at Garfield. She's deeply opposed to busing students -- especially the youngest ones -- from Garfield to Rogers.
It pains her to lose Garfield Elementary as a school, but she said a decent compromise would be to build a new elementary in Garfield.
There are thoughts of repurposing Garfield Elementary into City Hall if the building is closed as a school, Setzer said.
Don Toepfer has lived in the Garfield community for 50 years. He has three children and two grandchildren who attended Garfield Elementary. He also attended and spoke at Tuesday's meeting.
He said the School Board proposed closing Garfield Elementary some 30 years ago. A meeting was held then with the board members in the school's gym. About 500 people showed up, he said.
Board members "felt the heat" then, and the school remained open, Toepfer said.
He said he thinks the board should strongly consider the land offer to build a new school in the community.
"It's free land, and we're all taxpayers. That's a pretty good way to take care of our tax money," Toepfer said.
All teachers and staff at Garfield would be offered jobs at the new school, Perry said.
Nona Rogers, now in her fourth year teaching at Garfield, spoke at the meeting. She said as special as the building is, it's the staff, students and parents who make the school what it is. If they move to a new building, the staff are committed to bringing Garfield's culture with them, she said.
"It's going to be the same as it is here, but if you think about it, with all of your help too, we really could impact even more people than Garfield. We could show those kids what it's like out here," she said of other Rogers students.
Bowman, the principal, expressed similar optimism.
"We're going to be as awesome there as we are here," he said. "You have great people leading your children. Those same great people all are going to go to this new facility, and they're going to be great there as well."