Pea Ridge School Board looks at options to help school crowding

The Pea Ridge School District has been approved by the state for matching funds of $10.6 million to construct a new school.

PEA RIDGE — Options to alleviate school crowding are being considered by the School Board after the first option — constructing a new high school on 77 acres on Hayden Road — was struck down when voters denied a 5.1-mill increase in a special election May 9.

The Pea Ridge School District has been approved by the state for matching funds of $10.6 million to construct a new school.

A second option — extend the middle school south onto property on Weston Street and reconfigure the student population through that and other buildings — was presented to the board at a recent study session.

A third option — the possibility of constructing a new middle school on 20 acres on Hazelton Road, then re-configuring grades between the existing buildings — also was presented.

Those two options involve RLP Development, which owns land at the corner of It’ll Do and West Pickens roads. RLP officials have expressed a desire to purchase or trade for land owned by the district on which the baseball and softball fields sit. In exchange, RLP will construct new ball fields.

The ball fields are to be constructed on land approved for purchase recently by the board — 10 acres from Ron Bray and five acres from Inthavone B.Ratsachak and Saengthavy. That would put the ball fields south of the multi-purpose facility on the school campus. The cost of the two pieces of land is $385,000.

Officials at RLP are offering to trade 20 acres of a 55-acre tract on It’ll Do Road. School officials said they could construct a middle school to house sixth- and seventh-grade students with a 450-student capacity, then reassign grades eight and nine to different buildings. The estimated cost for the project is $11 million, according to school officials.

Also as part of the third option, the district would build an auditorium on the Weston Street property, relocate the focal point of the existing high school, add a new roof and new HVAC in classroom areas and sell 77 acres on Hayden Road.

The board authorized superintendent Rick Neal to negotiate the trade agreement with RLP, including the construction of the ball fields as part of the trade, and approved the land purchase adjacent to the Weston Street property.