Schools bursting at their seams

How full is full?

With the rate of growth currently being experienced in the Pea Ridge School District and new houses being built almost daily, the population at Pea Ridge High School could exceed 700 students in the next couple of years.

“We’re going to talk about full,” Rick Neal, school superintendent, said.

During a special work study session Monday afternoon, Neal and assistant superintendent Keith Martin showed board members a video illustrating traffic concerns at the downtown campus for the Intermediate School and student crowding in the hallways at the Middle School.

“We shared a lot of hope, a vision. We talked about facilities,” Neal said. “I hope you see the need. We need to be moving forward.

“We want to look at what we can afford, what we can build and make sure we’re being good stewards of our community’s funds,”

Neal said as he asked to instruct school architect Steve Elliot to move forward on drawings for a new high school.

Board member Sandy Button, who is also the city clerk, said there were 14 certificates of occupation issued this past August as compared to one the previous year.

“They’re selling homes before they even get started building them,” she said.

“And those homes bring children,” Martin said.

Richard Johnson, director of business development wiht C.R. Crawford Construction, told board members that the state ranks each district and its requests for partnership funds based on space available in the district. He said Pea Ridge was wise to demolish any space that can not be used or it will count against them.

“We have been approved for partnership money,” Neal said. “We need a new high school.”

Johnson explained that the school is basically landlocked on the campus on the corner of Pickens and Weston.

“You’ve essentially used up all usable space. You can not add any more electrical connections,” he said, adding that with the city’s infrastructure, no more hard surface may be added to that campus.

A proposed design for a new high school was presented for construction on the property on Hayden Road (Ark. Hwy. 265) north of the City Park.

Neal said reconfiguring the grades at each building, placing sixth and seventh grades in the Middle School and moving eighth and ninth grades to the current high school building, will alleviate some of the crowding issues at the Middle School. He suggested the new high school house 11th and 12th grades as well as an auditorium.

Rick Neal, school superintendent