School growth evaluated

Touring the four campuses and many buildings that house Pea Ridge Schools provided School Board members insight into the accomplishments and needs of the district. Board members toured the facilities recently, then met for lunch and the October School Board meeting.

Informally, board members discussed various possibilities for meeting the growth needs of the district. The district owns land adjacent to the current facilities on Weston Street as well as land on Hayden Road (Arkansas Highway 265).

"When we think about moving buildings and facilities," Rick Neal, superintendent, said referring to property on Weston and Pickens, "we're saturated on this land here."

Currently, Pea Ridge High School, Middle School and Primary School, as well as the administration building, are about 30 acres of on the southwest corner of Pickens Road and Weston Street. A joint City Hall and school administration building are planned for the 16.2 acres on Weston Street purchased in January of this year.

"We all agree, the ALE and the other building are not super conducive to where it's sitting," board member John Dye said, asking what the costs would be to either re-purpose or demolish the older facilities downtown.

"We need to alleviate traffic situations," Neal said, explaining to board members that he and community leaders have been meeting regularly for "vision" meetings to address needs created by the increased growth in the city and school. "We need a traffic light there (at the intersection of Hayden and Pickens roads) right now."

Various configurations of schools were discussed including putting fifth and sixth grades and seventh and eighth together. It was agreed that creating a "freshman" center, putting ninth grade in a separate building was a "band aid" and wouldn't solve long-term problems.

"Everywhere I've seen a ninth-grade center pop up, it gets transitioned back," Jeff Neil, board member, said.

Neal said that Springdale is the only school district in the area that hasn't combined ninth through 12th grades into one school.

"Reconfiguration would be something we'd have to look at," Ryan Heckman said. "I'm not sure you'd want to invest dollars into a 30-year-old asset... do you want a 50-year-old house or build new?"

Neal and assistant superintendent Keith Martin said repairs are already needed on the high school structure which is the oldest structure on the campus on Pickens. The building, constructed in 1999, needs roof work, Martin said.

Neal said the board needs a three to five year plan; he said he had applied for partnership money for the 2017-2018 year, but won't know if Pea Ridge will get it until after the first of the year.

School Board member Sandy Button said one of the biggest issues downtown is the parking as well as access.

"When we talked about it in the past," Board member Jenny Wood said, "Some of the concerns were what to do about revamping the K-2 property."

Heckman said knowing the capacity of the buildings would help so that, even with building again the district wouldn't be behind in five years.

Primary School principal Aaron Gaffigan said the Primary School can house 700 students as far as classrooms, but common areas could not accommodate that size of population.

"Rooftops and school choice," Neal said, "Rooftops are what you've got to have ... assessed valuation, so you don't become a commuter school."

"The school can only be a draw for so long," Neil said.

"Houses and bedrooms fill classrooms," Martin said. "They don't do a a very good job of building them."

After lunch, board members had a brief meeting, then received one hour of financial training from Dan Lovelady of Beardsley and Associates.

In other business, board members:

• Approved the transfer of Addison Latham, Vanessa Latham and Ethan Latham into the school district;

• Approved an out-of-state trip to College of the Ozarks for Pea Ridge Manufacturing and Business Academy associates.

General News on 11/04/2015