WCSD making push for a new high school
The Arkansas Department of Education has approved a partnership with the Watson Chapel School District for creating funding toward a new high school, but district officials cautioned that more details needed to be worked out to determine how the facility would be paid for.
John Hayden, executive director of support services for the district, told board members at Monday’s monthly meeting that the projected qualifying cost for academic areas is $18,573,147. Funding would come from the ADE’s Division of Public School Academic Facilities and Transportation. Watson Chapel officials say the agency would fund 78.419% of the cost, or $14,564,876.
“There are a lot of things that need to be done to begin a project like this,” Hayden said. “You have to declare what your intentions are for the master building plan, so this discussion started well over a year ago. It takes a long time to kind of work through all the requirements.”
Among the requirements was a resolution supporting the project that the Watson Chapel School Board approved Monday.
The proposed high school is the only project on the WCSD’s facilities master plan. Year 2 funding will be announced May 1, and Superintendent Andrew Curry says that if it’s approved, then district leaders will ask the voters for a millage increase to cover the remainder.
“We will need our patrons to support our project,” Curry said. “First, it depends on how much we are approved for by the state. We’ll have to sit down and say, ‘This is how much it’s going to take to finish the project,’ and then we’re going to have to go to the voters — which I don’t make that deter
mination, the board does.”
The district would have until Nov. 1, 2023, to finalize a construction contract, with a deadline of May 1, 2026, to complete the project if approved for the funding.
The proposed campus was a vision of Curry’s predecessor, Jerry Guess, who urged board members before stepping down June 30 to consider a building campaign.
The new high school would be built where the existing junior high school, which was built in 1945, stands, and the junior high would be housed at the present high school campus, which was built in 1977.
Buildings that would be demolished include special services, the gymnasium and gym annex, and the old focus teachers building.
“The junior high has got to go,” Curry said, citing suitability ratings both the junior high and high school campuses received.
The high school campus, Curry said, was given a 64% suitability rating, which he explained meant that the campus has 64% useful life remaining. The junior high campus, he said, earned a rating of zero.
An on-campus shooting that claimed the life of a 15-year-old student on March 1 rocked the junior high school campus. The suspect, a classmate of the student, was found in a neighborhood near the campus and arrested, according to authorities.
“Your high school is always your flagship,” Curry said. “I think it helps with security because I think we can create a more secure environment. I think definitely for Watson Chapel, it’s going to mean nothing but good things for the future.”
Watson Chapel’s facilities plan was announced four months after the Pine Bluff School District announced a $22 million to $23 million building plan, an undefined amount of which will go toward construction of a new Pine Bluff High School at the present location.