Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Board approves facility costs
ROGERS — The School Board on Tuesday approved spending more than $43 million on athletic facilities at its two biggest high schools.
Administrators presented the guaranteed maximum prices for a competition gymnasium at Rogers High School and an auxiliary, multipurpose gym at Heritage High School, as well as baseball and softball complexes at both schools. The costs came to about $17.4 million at Heritage and $25.7 million at Rogers High.
The board voted 6-1 to approve those costs in separate votes on both schools’ projects. Curtis Clements, the only board member who voted no both times, said he felt some “sticker shock” in relation to the costs for the ballfields.
“Personally I would like more information before I’d be ready to vote on the baseball and softball fields,” he said.
The board last month approved spending about $1.2 million for site work to prepare for construction of the Rogers High gym. With that, the total cost of all the projects comes to about $44.3 million.
The board agreed in June to issue second-lien bonds to pay for the work. No tax increase will be required.
Charles Lee, assistant superintendent for general administration, and representatives of the architectural firm Hight Jackson Associates shared renderings of each project with the board.
Rogers and Heritage baseball and softball teams have no place to play on their respective campuses. The new complexes will change that.
Lee said administrators about four years ago began considering how they could keep the teams on campus. They contacted a construction company that provided a bare-minimum cost, which was based on a field the company built in Springdale, he said.
Since then, the district has expanded the baseball and softball projects to include things such as dugouts, dressing rooms and an outfield wall as opposed to a chain-link fence. Conversations with coaches, the athletic advisory committee and board members led administrators to seek these kinds of things, Lee said.
“We felt like we could raise the bar,” he said. “It’s a significant amount of money, but I will contend that our kids deserve it, our community deserves it.”
Superintendent Marlin
Berry acknowledged they are “huge” projects, but added they’re needed.
Mountie Arena at Rogers High School, the most expensive of the projects, will cost about $16.4 million. The gymnasium is being added to the school’s west side. Site work already has begun.
Each of the projects is expected to be completed by next November.