More teachers hired; bids too high

Facing classrooms at or over capacity, Pea Ridge School Board members met in a special session Wednesday to hire two more teachers, two aides and a bus driver for an additional route.

"The route is growing quite a bit," Keith Martin, assistant superintendent told board members, saying that although buses are purportedly have the capacity for 65 to 70 students, that actually is less when considering the size of the students, back packs and other equipment. "We like to keep the buses at 55 to 60 students max."

Hired were Alexis Wayley, fourth grade; Kim Roesch, sixth grade; David Carlson, bus driver; Ashta Snow, special education para-professional; and Jennivery Spivey, elementary media aide/computer lab clerk.

In other business, the board was told that bids for the fine arts auditorium came in at $190.22 per square foot for a total of $5,473,995, more than $1 million more than anticipated.

Rick Neal, school superintendent, and board members expressed concern about the costs. Board members questioned rebidding the contractor position expressing discontent with Baldwin & Shell Construction Company.

"This is insane," Sandy Button, board member said. "The biggest cost is infrastructure. This already has plumbing and infrastructure. That is wrong."

Button, who served on the School Board previously, said that it was only $47 per square foot for the high school. The most recent construction, classrooms added to the Middle School, cost $148-$150/square foot, Martin said.

Jenny Wood asked about looking at other options.

Ultimately, board members agreed to reduce facets of the facility and build something less costly.

General News on 09/10/2014