Oaklawn school reborn as Main Street magnet

The Hot Springs School Board on Tuesday approved changing the name of Oaklawn Visual and Performing Arts Magnet School to Main Street Visual and Performing Arts Magnet School to reflect its move to its future home.

“I think it’s exciting. It is a new chapter for us. New campus [and] new doors open for us. We are really sad to leave the Oaklawn name, but we are glad that Gardner is going to take over that building and keep the name,” said Kristen Gordon, principal of the newly named school.

The district conducted surveys about the new name over Thanksgiving break.

“The highest votes received were Main Street, Hot Springs and Southwest from the latest survey that we did,” Superintendent Stephanie Nehus said.

Nehus’ recommendation was not to include “Hot Springs” in the new name because all the district’s schools fall under the Hot Springs umbrella, so it would have been confusing to have one school named Hot Springs at the exclusion of the others.

“That is what is important about our magnets is that it is identifiable and separate,” Nehus said.

Beginning in August, the Oaklawn Boulevard school will relocate to the Hot Springs Junior Academy building on Main Street and the name change will take effect.

The name “Oaklawn” will remain with the school on Oaklawn Boulevard, Adriane Barnes, communications coordinator, said in an email.

Gardner STEM Magnet School on Hammond Drive will move to the Oaklawn building. To continue honoring the rich history of the Oaklawn neighborhood, the school will be renamed Oaklawn STEM Magnet School, according to the district’s website.

The seventh- through ninth-grade students from the Hot Springs Junior Academy building on Main Street will move to a new three-story complex, which includes an auditorium and indoor sports arena, being built next to Hot Springs World Class High School on Emory Street, Barnes said in the email.

The new school’s name will be Hot Springs Junior Academy, she said.

“Students in grades 10-12 will remain at the Hot Springs World Class High School,” Barnes said.