Cutter Morning Star to break ground on new high school, arena
Eight months after voters approved an 8.4-mill increase, the Cutter Morning Star School District will break ground on a new high school and basketball arena.
A public groundbreaking ceremony will be held at 8:30 a.m. May 21 at the site of the new facilities. Students who will graduate in 2020 will lead in several capacities throughout the ceremony, according to Superintendent Nancy Anderson.
“We kind of focused on the graduating class of 2020, because they’ll be the first ones that will graduate from there,” she said. “We kind of focused on those students to give speeches and talk about how excited they are. Those students are who are leading the pledge (of allegiance). The ceremony is really kind of focused around them, not because they’re any more important but because they will be the first ones that actually get to graduate from this facility.”
The school board will be introduced by Vice President Eddy Slick. Building plans were designed by Jackson Brown Palculict Architects in Little Rock, with Hill and Cox as construction manager.
Anderson said the total budget for the project is “around $15 million,” and the district received $6.266 million in state funding through the Academic Facilities Partnership Program.
“My vice president is going to introduce the board and say a couple of things. (Slick) has served on the committee with me. He’s pretty much been at every meeting with the architect and the builders, so he’s very familiar with the project.”
Anderson said state Sen. Alan Clark, R-District 13, will be the opening speaker, and Darin Beckwith, director of Dawson Education Service Cooperative, will give closing remarks. Both are alumni of the district, she said.
Anderson credits the work of the community for making this new facility a possibility.
“We have a steering committee that really helped with the millage,” she said. “They met from maybe June to the end of September at least weekly, and we would meet up here after school and different places. They actually were the ones that got out the message, and then they started their own committees.
“In no way are we saying that these are the only five that helped because it was truly a community effort. We just can’t recognize and list everyone because we know we’re going to leave someone out. It was just such a community effort that really showed in the voter turnout, and that really showed in the results of the election.”
Student council members, including the 2018 student council president, will be present for the groundbreaking, Anderson said.
“They wanted a part of the ceremony because they are not going to get
to be here, but they have purchased a bench that they are dedicating back to the school to be placed somewhere in the building,” she said.
Anderson said that, to her knowledge, the current high school was rebuilt in 1960, and the gymnasium in 1969.
“This is a big deal for the community and I’m very happy that the community has supported it,” she said. “We’re very excited that we’re getting to break ground so quickly, and I attribute that to the team that’s been working on this.”
The district took into consideration the needs of students and faculty in designing the new facilities, she said, including three public meetings. The new arena will have space to accommodate graduation ceremonies.
“We have gotten input from everyone at the high school; they have been invited down in departments,” she said. “We made a huge effort to try to get everyone’s input because this is for the community, it’s for the teachers, it’s for the students. We wanted to accommodate (teachers) to give them the best teaching environment as possible.
“We also got some student input — I met with different groups. The funny thing they were saying is they were really concerned about the cafeteria and how it was going to be designed and they were also concerned that they had plenty of places to charge their devices.”
Safety is a concern in schools across the country, and Anderson said she has submitted the plans for the new facilities to the Criminal Justice Institute for review and feedback.
“We believe that we are building a structure and facility that we can all be proud of,” she said. “We feel very blessed at Cutter, and so appreciative to the community’s support. People have gone above and beyond, and none of this would be possible without their support.”