HSSD extends timetable for millage construction
The major projects approved by the 2016 millage increase vote in the Hot Springs School District are planned to be in place for the start of the 2020-21 school year, if not sooner.
The measure to increase the district’s millage by 4.4 mills and to extend 10.8 debt service mills for 15 more years was approved by a narrow 51-49 percent margin, 1,087 votes for and 1,041 against, during the annual school election last September. It was Hot Springs’ second millage increase proposal in 16 months after a request for a 2-mill increase was rejected by a vote of 627-563 in May 2015.
The larger 2016 proposal included plans for a more than $14-million new main structure for Langston Aerospace and Environmental Studies Magnet School on the former site of historic Langston High School. The older structure will be razed once the new building is in place.
A junior high school complex is planned to cost almost $32 million and be constructed next to the Hot Springs World Class High School campus. The complex will include a
2,200-seat multipurpose arena and a 1,000seat auditorium.
The two projects account for about 85 percent of the estimated $54,212,880 in costs of new construction. The district originally intended to have all work completed with time to transition into the new structures and alter the district configuration before the 2019-20 school year.
“It’s just a much longer process than I ever thought it would be,” said Hot Springs Superintendent Stephanie Nehus. “I thought we would have broken ground in December. We passed the millage in September. It just takes a lot longer than that to get all of those drawings and all of those specifics.”
Nehus began as superintendent this summer following the resignation of the former superintendent, Mike Hernandez, in April.
Hernandez accepted the position of superintendent of the state office of coordinated support and service for the Arkansas Department of Education in conjunction with the Southeast Arkansas Education Service Cooperative.
“It is a process, I have learned very quickly,” Nehus said. “You work with architects, the construction manager and get everybody on the same page around the same table.”
Nehus said the planning group meets every two weeks. All designs were developed by French Architects and the district’s construction manager is Hill and Cox Construction.
The district intends to submit the Langston designs to the Arkansas Division of Public School Academic Facilities and Transportation no later than Aug. 31. Approval in September would allow the district to break ground on the project in October.
Work on the larger junior high project is expected to be several months behind Langston. Nehus said the planning team has focused more on plans for Langston so far.
Designs for the junior high could go to the state by the end of the calendar year. A simple approval process would allow the district to break ground in February or March.
Both projects are expected to be completed within 18-24 months.
“That puts us into the school year of 2019-20,” Nehus said. “That official switch would happen, more than likely, August
2020.”
Work at Langston could still be completed in time for the
2019-20 school year. The district’s realignment cannot occur until the completion of the junior high school.
All of the district’s elementaries of Langston, 120 Chestnut St.; Gardner STEM Magnet School, 525 Hammond Drive; Oaklawn Visual and Performing Arts Magnet School, 301 Oaklawn Blvd.; and Park International Baccalaureate Magnet School,
617 Main St., serve kindergarten through fourth grade.
The four magnets will transition into K-6 schools after the middle school, now Hot Springs Junior Academy at 701 Main St., for grades 7-8 moves to the junior high to become a 7-9 school. The high school campus will then house grades 10-12 instead of 9-12.
Park will inherit the rest of its own campus currently used for Hot Springs Intermediate School, which will no longer be an entity in the future configuration. Oaklawn will move to the middle school building on Main Street and Gardner will move to the current Oaklawn location.
“We are still in works having some more really pointed conversations about the current Gardner building,” Nehus said. “We are going to pursue the opportunity for that to be a vocational center in conjunction with National Park College, Henderson State University and the other school districts in the county. I am really looking at that as being an extension of the tech center that is already at National Park College and seeing what we can do there.”
A major goal of the configuration was to restrict the district’s transportation costs and make it more efficient with a decreased number of campuses located closer together. The switch will also allow students to attend two major campuses in school instead of four.
The district is working with Stephens Systems for security designs and Arkansas Security for cameras. Nehus said the district is holding discussions about needed security and technology to most efficiently build them into the new projects.
“We respect those millage dollars and we thank the community for supporting us,” Nehus said. “We are monitoring and making cuts where we can to make sure we do not go over in other places.
“We are going right on track to finish those projects we promised the community, our kids and our families. We are really excited about that. There have been no big changes from what we proposed for the millage.”
The remainder of the more than $54 million generated by construction bonds was allocated to renovations on multiple campuses. A band shell and a visitors parking lot were added to the high school football field during the summer, as was a road from the main parking lot to Panama Street.
“All of those little projects are either in progress or completed actually,” Nehus said.
Bathrooms at the high school were remodeled earlier in the year and a set of bathrooms were remodeled at the Junior Academy during the summer. Plans for other renovations are in place for when the magnets become K-6 schools.