Bentonville Schools introduces new logo

Design meant to reflect ideals of integrity, opportunity, excellence

BENTONVILLE — The School District has adopted a new logo meant to represent integrity, opportunity and excellence.

The logo consists of three pieces — two dark blue, one light blue — arranged in the shape of a shield, with “Bentonville Schools” below that.

Adair Creative, a Bentonville firm, designed the logo for $ 3,750, according to Leslee Wright, the district’s director of communications.

Wright unveiled the new logo at the School Board’s work session Thursday. She said she and Superintendent Debbie Jones began discussing the current logo — what appears to be a rising sun behind three wavy lines — when Wright joined the

district in March.

“We wanted something that would better reflect our narrative and help us to own our narrative,” Wright said. “We kept coming back to a few words over and over, and that was that we strive for integrity, opportunity and excellence in all we do.”

Each of those three ideals are represented in the logo. The district’s long-term goal is to build equity in the logo, Wright said.

“What that means is that whenever someone sees our logo on the back of a car or on the breast pocket of a T-shirt, they know that represents Bentonville schools,” she said. “They don’t necessarily have to know each of those tenets, but they know it represents something really fantastic and it represents a fantastic school district.”

Wright also introduced a new tagline for the district: “Where excellence lives,” which she said may replace the current tagline, “Excellence with every step.”

School Board members each received packets of stationery featuring the new logo. Jones asked them to use the stationery to send encouraging notes to district employees who personify excellence, opportunity and integrity.

Board members generally seemed to like the new logo. Rebecca Powers said she appreciates the shield shape, adding that it conveys a sense of royalty.

“A shield represents you’re ready to battle,” Powers said. “That’s kind of like what all of our schools have to do right now, is to find the best method of learning and keep trudging uphill for what we need.”

Matt Burgess, a board member, asked about the colors, saying they reminded him of what the Rogers School District and Springdale’s Har-Ber High School use.

Wright said district officials saw numerous mock-ups of the logo in different colors and they liked the blues the best. There is no hidden meanings in the colors, she said.

“We thought it looked nice. It looked scholarly. It was clean,” Wright said. “From the beginning we said this is about Bentonville students at every school, not necessarily at West (High School), not necessarily at (Bentonville High School). We wanted to create something that represents 17,000 people.”

Board member Joe Quinn said he liked the emphasis on excellence in both the logo and the tagline.

“I think we’re in a new

“We kept coming back to a few words over and over, and that was that we strive for integrity, opportunity and excellence in all we do.”

— Leslee Wright, director of communications, Bentonville School District

world where we’ll be competing with a new kind of private school and different types of charter schools, and I think our message of excellence has to be front and center,” Quinn said.

Quinn also urged Wright to ensure each school uses the logo the same way.

“I don’t want to see every school using it slightly differently. And that will happen,” Quinn said. “You’re going to have to bring the consistency across all schools, and I think you’re going to have to say to principals, this is where you use it, and this is where you don’t use it. This is how you use it and this is how you don’t use it.”

Administrators have adopted the logo and will not seek formal approval from the board, Jones said.

Some Bentonville graduates may be reluctant to let go of the sunshine logo, but administrators felt it was time for a change, she said.

“Logos have a life, and it was time for a new life within the school district,” Jones said.