Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
New elementary school rises in east Springdale
SPRINGDALE — A new, blue roof now peeks from behind J.O. Kelly Middle School on Oriole Street south of Robinson Avenue in east Springdale.
The home of Springdale School District’s next elementary school rang with activity Wednesday. Between 75 and 90 construction workers report there daily, said Justin Spafford, a project manager for Flintco Constructive Solutions, the construction manager for the project.
Walls of cinder block mark main corridors. Crews are installing wall board in a classroom wing on the north side, and it’s almost at a point where it can be heated, Spafford said.
Another crew worked Wednesday on framing along the cafeteria roof line on the west side of the building. Metal framing outlines the exterior of the gymnasium. Wood sheathing was going up on the roof of a standalone prekindergarten center located on the south end of the campus.
The $16.9 million campus is set to open in August and
will provide an elementary school for about 650 children and a prekindergarten center for about 300 children, said Gary Compton, assistant superintendent for support services. The prekindergarten center will be the district’s second for early childhood programs. Prekindergarten classrooms now are housed in campuses across the district.
Springdale School District also plans to move its School of Innovation in August to a permanent home under construction on Hylton Road in east Springdale. The Baldwin & Shell firm is managing the $24 million project.
The School of Innovation will include Grades 8 through 10 this fall.
District officials are expected to name the principal of the elementary
school at the next Springdale School Board meeting Tuesday, Compton said. A name for the school has not been announced.
The opening of the new school will require the district to redraw geographic attendance zone boundaries for elementary schools east of Thompson Street. Compton will begin discussing plans for shifting students with parents at affected schools in about a month, he said.
The elementary school is expected to impact attendance zones largely for Harp and Turnbow elementary schools, as well as for Parson Hills and Sonora elementary schools, Compton said. The new boundaries will have minimal effect on families with children at Bayyari, George and Monitor. No effect is expected at Jones and Lee elementary schools.
The new elementary school will be the ninth school built based on the design template developed for Bernice Young Elementary School, which opened in 2002, said Brad Chilcote, architect for Wittenberg, Delony & Davidson Architects in Little Rock.
“Every time you do a project, a different set of questions get asked,” he said. “We update our drawings.”
The new elementary
school was designed with wiring for high-tech white boards in each classroom, Chilcote said. The updated design for the new school includes more wireless Internet capability and computer labs set up for portable computing, he said.
Designing a school requires architects to think about how children, teachers and parents will interact with the building, Chilcote said.
“You have to get in that mindfulness of a child,” he said. “You have to remember the teachers, some of them are going to be here 20 years.”
Designers also are interested in making schools flexible enough to adapt to changes in curriculum, he said.
“It’s something that’s going to be there 50 to 60 years,” Chilcote said.