Prairie Grove Submits Plans For New School

PRAIRIE GROVE — The School Board gave its support last week for a plan to build a new building for middle school students.

The new school is part of the district’s six-year Facilities Master Plan. The board approved a resolution to show the school is willing to dedicate local money to pay its share of the expenses for a new school and other projects on the Master Plan list.

Prairie Grove had planned to apply for state partnership money to build a 48,400-square-foot school. The number of kindergarten students is up this year, compared to last year, and the district has decided to apply for funding for a new building with 51,000 square feet.

Superintendent Allen Williams said this would increase the cost of the building by $500,000 but at the same time, the school would qualify for another $350,000 in state partnership funds.

Prairie Grove’s application will show it is proposing to build a new school for seventh- and eighth-graders but an actual decision on grade configuration will be made later. It’s possible the school will put fifth- and sixth-graders in the new building, based on student enrollment.

The district will not seek a millage increase for the new building but would consider paying its share of the costs by issuing second-lien bonds.

The application for state partnership funds will be reviewed by the Facilities Division of the Arkansas Department of Education but school officials will not know until May 2018, if the application is approved. Then, the district will have to wait until May 2019, to find out if the Arkansas Legislature will fund the projects approved by the education department.

Other projects on the Facilities Master Plan are a new roof over the cafeteria area of the middle school, tearing down the old administration building, a new career tech shop and lab for Prairie Grove High School and a canopy for the high school’s outside dining area.

Some of the projects listed are a wish list for the district. These include a turf football field, dressing rooms and a press box for the football stadium, a performing arts center and a new baseball field.

The master list also includes bleachers for the band at the football field, replacing part of the roof at the high school and additional parking and storage facility at the high school.

The state requires schools to submit a Facilities Master Plan to show their strategy for maintaining and improving current facilities and plans for new construction for the next six years. The facilities division evaluates projects to determine which ones are eligible for state partnership funding.

In other business, board members indicated they will support moving the annual school board election to May next year.

Annual school board elections have been on the third Tuesday of September but now must be either on the same day as preferential primaries in May or the general election in November. Act 901, passed by the Arkansas Legislature this year, requires the change.

Whitney Bryant, the board’s newest member, said she preferred having the school board election in May.

“November might be a downside because there’s so much on the ballot,” Bryant said.

Board member Jerry Coyle agreed with Bryant and was willing to go ahead and take a vote on it.

“We’ve talked about it,” Coyle said. “I think we all want to do May.”

The board will vote on it next month.

Board members also discussed a plan for alternative education days to be used to make up missed days in case of inclement weather or other reasons.

Williams said the education department has asked districts to turn in their plans for making up missed days.

He told board members he believes face-to-face instruction is always best but alternative learning days could have benefits in some instances.

The plan was very general and board members had many questions about it.

Williams said if the state approves the plan, he would bring it back to the board to discuss it and make changes to fit the district’s needs.

Prairie Grove has five snow days built into its calendar. It’s possible, Williams said, the plan would not go into effect until more than five days have been missed. Alternative days could be online work, work sent home by the teacher or possible live-streaming. It would not involve any new ideas but would be review work, Williams said.

“I have questions before we vote on it,” board President Shawn Shrum said. “I would want it to be finetuned.”