Officials mull signs on buses in Bentonville

Board to vote this month on using fleet for advertisements

BENTONVILLE — The School Board will vote this month on whether to make Bentonville one of the first school districts in the state to put advertisements on its buses.

District officials expect the bus signs to bring in revenue of $175,000 in the first year and as much as $300,000 during year five, according to Janet Schwanhausser, the district’s finance director.

Schwanhausser presented details of a bus advertising program in partnership with Crosswalk Marketing at Monday’s board meeting.

Board members asked some questions but otherwise seemed receptive to the concept.

Crosswalk, a Springdale firm, presented the district a “unique vision” that involved signs with a district message sponsored by a business, Schwanhausser said.

Each bus would have two signs measuring 30 inches by 60 inches. They would be located on the rear quarter panels of the bus in accordance with a 2015 state law that allowed school bus advertising. Businesses would pay $2,500 per year to have their logo attached to both signs on one bus, Schwanhausser said.

The signs would actually be similar to large bumper stickers, backed by adhesive material. Though they are designed to last more than a decade, they would be replaced annually, Schwanhausser said.

A mock-up of such a sign was shown as an example at Monday’s meeting. It showed a person on the phone with the slogan “If you see something, say something,” a program aimed at raising awareness of potential security threats at the schools. The logo of the Slim Chickens restaurant was in the bottom right corner.

“We can change our message,” Schwanhausser said. “We can have one message on all of the buses. We can offer different messages that are in place on different buses. It’s something we’ll be able to change as our district needs change.”

The board will vote at its April 16 meeting on whether to negotiate a contract with Crosswalk Marketing for bus advertising services and to approve a policy on bus advertising.

If the board approves both items, signs could be seen on Bentonville buses by the end of this school year, Schwanhausser said.

The policy states the district may reject any content determined to have a “reasonable likelihood of exposing the district to controversy, litigation or disruption.” Political and religious speech is prohibited, as is any content promoting illegal activity or things such as alcohol, tobacco, weapons and adult-only venues, according to the proposed policy.

The Booneville School District, a district of about 1,200 students southeast of Fort Smith, put signs on five of its buses starting last year in the same manner Bentonville proposes to do. Crosswalk sells the sponsorships and creates the signs for Booneville.

Crosswalk takes 25 percent of the ad revenue for its services.

Don Young, a managing partner for Crosswalk, said Monday the firm is about 2 years old. It was started with the intent of assisting districts with school bus advertising. Booneville so far is the only district that has adopted bus advertising.

“We’ve spoken to most of the Northwest Arkansas school superintendents and transportation directors,” Young said. “When they hear our model, they like what we have to say, but everyone around the state has been a little apprehensive about it, waiting for the next district to go first.”

Bentonville explored the idea two years ago. Administrators decided to re-examine the concept as a way to raise money for new security cameras for the buses and additional training for drivers on how to deal with students with special needs and severe behaviors, Schwanhausser said.

By law, revenue from bus advertisements may only be used on transportation-related expenses.

Travis Riggs, board president,

suggested the district should get a discount on the fee it pays to Crosswalk for sponsors with whom the district already has a relationship, considering it’s a sponsor Crosswalk wouldn’t have to recruit. Schwanhausser rejected that idea.

“We don’t want to take a simple program and get into the business of valuing our relationship with others and putting a number to it,” she said.

Superintendent Debbie Jones said she wants to keep the bus advertising program separate from other fundraising efforts.

“I think sometimes we wear out some of our community businesses,” Jones said. “I want to stay very focused on what we do with them already. I don’t want to make the lines gray with this program. We don’t want to get into the bus advertising business. If we hire a company to do it, that’s one thing. They’re going to approach the vendors. … We ask enough for other reasons, and we’ll have to continue to do that.”