BENTONVILLE -- To invigorate downtown elementary schools, Superintendent Debbie Jones wanted the Bentonville School District to leave its comfort zone.
So the district is working with a federally funded organization to create a model school plan for downtown, starting with Jones Elementary School.
"I was insistent that we get a consultant in this process because I want all of our leadership to be forced outside of what we already know," Jones said Friday on the Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette's Know the News podcast. "I want us to create the best national model. Sometimes, we always go back to what we know. I didn't want the opportunity to do that."
Jones said a third-party outsider could "force us into getting the voices of all our community -- parents, students and internal staff as well."
The reason for the initiative is that student growth is expanding outside the district's downtown area, creating enrollment challenges there. The district is forced to bring students in from miles away because of the limited population within the heart of the city, Jones said.
"We see ourselves as a district creating some artificial zones for the downtown schools with small enrollments by having to go way out and bus students in," Jones said as she outlined the plan during Tuesday's School Board meeting. "Many times, families pass one or two schools before they get to their assigned school."
Aside from Jones Elementary, other centrally located elementary schools are Apple Glen, Baker, Sugar Creek and Thomas Jefferson. Jones said the focus is on beginning the process with Jones and perhaps Baker elementary schools.
"We are looking at, over the next year, doing a really deep study and trying to create a model school downtown, starting with Mary Mae Jones Elementary, maybe R.E. Baker," Jones said. "We want to take both through the whole discovery process. If we can open both as model schools, that'll happen in 2024. We will at least open Mary Mae Jones in 2024."
To guide the project, the district teamed up with the Region 14 Comprehensive Center. It's one of 19 Regional Technical Assistance Centers in the country and provides customized and adaptable support at no cost, according to the Region 14 website.
Kristin Nafziger, director of the Region 14 center, addressed the School Board on Tuesday and said the center is funded by the U.S. Department of Education to help states and local agencies advance federal priorities. Region 14 serves school districts in Arkansas, Louisiana and Texas, Nafziger said.
The Bentonville project started with introducing the plan and visiting schools this month and in June, according to Nafziger's presentation, and is expected to conclude in 2024, after a final model is selected and the "playbook" from the selection process is shared with districts in the state.
"Our goal is to improve instruction, education distribution, education effectiveness and to really close achievement gaps," Nafziger said. "We see this as a project that's right in that sweet spot for us. How do we take the best of what's out there and apply it to Bentonville?"
Jones and board members see the community's desires and opinions as the keys to developing a successful and sustainable model.
"I think this will only be as good as the community engagement," board President Kelly Carlson said.
Nafziger said one goal is engaging the public to help expand choices while increasing enrollment and achievement at the schools. Possible ways to spark involvement include focus groups and surveys for parents and students, Nafziger said, noting the center is determining which outreach strategies work best in Bentonville.
It's not available yet, but the district will have a site to receive community responses, Jones said.
"The community will really design this school," Jones said. "Board, I hope what you hear out of all of this is that we're trying to address our enrollment issue but also provide parent choice."
The district has to gather parent input before moving forward with a model, which is why officials are allowing a year for this to happen, she said.
Officials hope to identify exemplar schools this summer and visit those schools by October.
Jones hopes to have the model identified by November and to convert Jones Elementary into that model in 2024.
Regarding the costs of visiting the exemplar schools, Jones said the district was invited to request a grant from the Walton Family Foundation for funding.
"Those inspirational tours to travel to model schools, where we hope to take parents or board members, principals, teams of people, will not be cheap," Jones said. "We wanted support. So we are writing a grant to support that effort. So that's the role they play within this."