Board OKs spending $600,000 for upgrades

ROGERS — The School Board on Tuesday approved spending $660,222 for building upgrades to the Virtual Learning building.

The board voted 6-0 in support of the upgrades.

Suzanne Spivey, board member, was absent.

The district purchased the property at 605 W. Dyke Road in March for $575,000, said Ashley Siwiec, communications director. The property was purchased to provide a location for the district’s online learning program, according to supporting documents.

The building will house staff supporting K-12 students participating in online learning and a location for on-site testing for students, said Marlin Berry, superintendent.

Building upgrades will include new flooring, a new heating, ventilation and air conditioning system and extensive technology upgrades, according to supporting documents.

The building upgrades will be paid for through district building money and federal Elementary and Secondary Emergency Relief money provided through the American Rescue Plan, Berry said.

The work will be completed by Milestone Construction of Springdale, he said.

Work on the building will begin this month and will end in mid-August, Siwiec said.

The board likewise unanimously voted to reelect Nathan Gairhan as board president, Curtis Clements as board vice president and Amy Horn as board secretary.

In other news, Margie Bowers, Rogers’ child nutrition director, provided an update on the district’s free summer meal program.

“We’re providing nutritional support for our children during the summer that they otherwise may not have,” Bowers said. “We consider this our mission,” she said, noting the district wants students to return to school healthy and ready to learn.

Rogers is providing breakfast and a hot lunch Monday through Thursday through July 30 at six locations, Bowers said. Cold meal packs for Fridays will be provided on Thursdays, she said.

Breakfast and lunch are also provided for free daily to all summer learning programs and athletic camps in the district, she said. About 20 different locations are being served with meals, she said.

The district is providing more than 2,800 meals daily throughout the district, Bowers said. Heritage High School is the primary location for preparing the meals, she said.

Free meals are being offered for those 18 and younger, according to administrators. Youth don’t have to attend the district to receive the meals, administrators said.

“Food insecurity is an issue throughout Northwest Arkansas,” Gairhan said.

Food insecurity refers to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s measure of lack of access to enough food for an active, healthy life and limited or uncertain availability of nutritionally adequate foods

Free summer meals are funded through a waiver by the Department of Agriculture, which allows districts to provide meals when students aren’t in school through June 2022, administrators said. Meals are provided at no cost to the districts, administrators said.

About 60% of Rogers students qualify for free and reduced-price meals, a common gauge of poverty in school districts, Bowers, said.