Judge told of changes in Mills High project

Plans for the construction of an arena, a softball field and other features at Wilbur D. Mills University Studies High School have evolved, Pulaski County Special School District leaders told a federal judge last week.

The 12,000-student district sent notice to U.S. District Chief Judge D. Price Marshall Jr. that construction planners are moving the proposed arena from the east side to the north side of the Mills building, Dixon Road, as a way to avoid as much as $1 million in utility expenses.

“The substance of the Multi-Purpose Arena will not change … but there will be a reconfiguration of the spaces inside,” the school district’s legal team headed by Devin Bates told Marshall in Thursday’s building status report.

Additionally, the change in the placement of the arena means changes for the placement of a new softball field and a space for the Junior Reserve Officers Training Corps program, the legal team said.

Marshall is the presiding judge in a now 40-year-old federal school desegregation lawsuit in which the Pulaski County Special and Jacksonville/North Pulaski districts are the remaining defendants.

In May 2021, Marshall directed the Pulaski County Special district to propose to him a plan to “square up” inequities between the Mills campus, which is in a more

heavily Black residential section of the district, and Robinson Middle School, which is in a more affluent, predominantly white residential area.

The two schools were built at the same time and opened to students in August 2019 at a time when the district was obligated in the federal desegregation lawsuit to equalize the condition of its school buildings.

The Pulaski County Special School District responded to the judge later in 2021 with plans to add 10 classrooms, a 2,200-seat arena, a softball field and a renovated JROTC building at Mills at an estimated cost of $19 million. More recently, district leaders tweaked the plans for 10 classrooms to make six traditional rectangular rooms plus a more open space area equal to four classrooms that will allow for flexible use.

Marshall approved the building plans in early November, urging the district to “press on with this good work.”

“PCSSD reports here that the arena space meets the itemized criteria … as approved by the Court,” the district legal team wrote the judge last week. “Thus, there are no subtractions or additions to disclose.

“However, now that further designing and preparation activities have begun, PCSSD has run into some issues with existing utilities and with the ground. To continue with the Plan, PCSSD now intends to move the Multi-Purpose Arena from the east side of Mills to the north side of Mills. This will result in an estimated $1 million in avoidance of additional costs that would otherwise be incurred largely because of the way in which the utilities are set up,” the team said.

The new location for the arena is where the new softball field was going to go. That field will now be moved to a more distant location by the track and football fields, the attorney team wrote.

“This necessarily means it will be farther from the main Mills building, which likely means more walking for softball players,” the attorneys said but added there is a positive: “An upside to this change is also that stray softballs exiting the softball field will end up in the trees, as opposed to wreaking havoc on cars or property,” the attorney team pointed out. That had been a risk to parked cars in the original design of the field.

The attorneys also noted that, with the change in placement of the arena, there is the potential for a newly constructed space for the school’s JROTC program. More details will be submitted to the judge later on the new JROTC space if the district pursues it.

The attorneys also talked about the construction costs, originally expected to be about $19 million.

“PCSSD continues to work diligently to control costs and finalize construction plans in the face of formidable cost challenges,” the team told Marshall.

“Precise figures are not yet known, but the discussion has ranged from $19 million to $33 million. Bidding for this work is anticipated to commence on 20 February 2023, and is expected to be complete by 23 March 2023. Until the bidding is complete and contracts are signed, the cost is still a moving target,” they said.