A NEW CHAPTER
CMS breaks ground on new high school, arena
The Cutter Morning Star School District and its patrons gathered Monday to break ground on a new high school and basketball arena.
Voters approved an 8.4-mill increase in September, and the total budget for the project is around $15 million, according to Superintendent Nancy Anderson. The district received $6.266 million through the Academic Facilities Partnership Program by the Arkansas Department of Education.
The project was designed by Jackson Brown Palculict Architects in Little Rock, and Hill & Cox Corp. is handling construction.
Students of the graduating class of 2020 led much of the ceremony, thanking the community for its efforts in building the new facilities.
“This school has such a wonderful legacy with many alumni here today,” 10th-grader Colby Heaton said. “We’d like to acknowledge the many memories that have been made here from walking the halls of the many buildings to the illustrious nights we’ve all spent waiting on the final buzzer of an exciting game. I believe I speak for all of the students and staff when I say we are all excited for you to be here to witness this new chapter in Cutter Morning Star’s history.”
Grace Slick, 10th-grader, said her class is excited to be the first to graduate from the new high school and play sports in the new arena. She thanked the teachers in the district for the work they do each day.
“All our teachers work so hard for us and now they’re getting all the new technology and the space that they really need to make all of it possible,” she said. “Again I just want to thank everyone who put so much work into doing this.”
School board Vice President Eddy Slick said the new facilities are “a result of many years of hard work, planning and savings by countless individuals who worked tirelessly to accomplish a common goal.”
“I’m truly amazed by what our community continually achieves when working together for the betterment of our children,” he said.
State Sen. Alan Clark, R-District 13, said 40 years ago was the last time he made a speech at Cutter Morning Star — the valedictorian address in 1978.
“Our keynote speaker was a state senator who was also a former graduate,” he said. “Who would have thought 40 years ago from that night I would be standing here talking about the future again?”
Clark said he loves community schools like Cutter, because in a community school “is a piece of each of us, and each of us are a piece of it.”
The student council president for the Class of 2018, Esmeralda Ramirez, dedicated a bench the class had purchased before graduation which will be placed in the new building.
Darin Beckwith, director of Dawson Education Service Cooperative and an alumnus, said he was not surprised to see the community rally behind the millage proposal in September.
“Cutter has always had that kind of community. When they see a need for a kid, they get on it and they make it happen,” he said.
“I am extremely proud of you and for you. I can’t wait to see the things that are going to grow out of this,” Beckwith said.
“In my current position I have 22 schools that we’re affiliated with, and I’ll tell you it does my heart good to see that Cutter is keeping up with the times and in a very short time, you’re going to be passing folks, I promise you.”