Fayetteville Board OKs new school

23-acre property to be used for middle school building

FAYETTEVILLE — The School Board approved building a middle school Thursday in preparation for growth on the west side of town.

The board voted 6-0 in support of the project, which will also involve converting Owl Creek School from a preK-6 school to an elementary school for grades preK-4.

Tim Hudson, board secretary, was absent from the meeting.

The middle school will be for fifth- and sixth-graders and will be on 23 acres along North Rupple Road the district acquired in May, said John L Colbert, superintendent.

The board voted unanimously in May to buy the property, one mile south of Owl Creek School, for $1.8 million, or $78,261 per acre.

The area surrounding the property is largely undeveloped but is growing quickly, administrators said.

Much of the district’s growth on the west side in the next five-eight years is projected to involve its elementary and middle school students, Colbert said, adding it’s important to be proactive to meet the need.

“Since we know that we’re going to have a growth spurt out west, let’s address it now,” he said.

The new school is part of a broader facility plan made possible by voters’ approval in February to restructure some of the district’s bond issues.

The board accepted the sale of bonds that will create $114,665,831 for the projects outlined during that campaign. The district originally anticipated $111 million from the sale.

Next steps for the project will unfold over the upcoming school year and include forming a committee of administrators, teachers, parents and students to work with project architects to help determine what the school may feature, Colbert said.

Parent meetings and public input on the school’s plan will also be done, he said.

The middle school and converted Owl Creek

elementary school will open within the next three years, Colbert said.

In other news, about 10 people provided public comments concerning the district’s intention to implement an education plan featuring an entirely online model of education or a hybrid of in-person and online instruction for the fall.

“I recognize that this is a complex situation,” said Kelly Unger, who has two children in Fayetteville schools.

Unger said the education plan presents challenges for working families who benefit from having students in school five days a week.

Alicia Ledden said she and her husband both work and struggled to balance the responsibilities of work and teaching their children from home at the end of last school year.

“I felt like I was either struggling as a mother or struggling with my job,” Ledden, the mother of two elementary school children, told the board.

District administrators presented information for the

Ready for Learning plan to the board at the meeting, which addressed the 2020 school opening plans for the district.

Included in the plan were details on social distancing practices, daily schedules and learning options for families.

Ensuring students don’t fall behind is a priority for the district, Colbert said.

“This will cause some hardship to some of the parents,” he said of the district’s education plan.

“We will work with you,” Colbert said. “We have not forgotten you.”