Officials with the Fort Smith School District plan to open a third high school in about five years because of consistent growth across the district.
“If we did everything right on schedule and never had a bump in the road, it would be 2018 or 2019 before we occupied another campus,” Superintendent Benny Gooden said.
A third high school will require the district to get voters to approve increasing the property tax millage above the current 36.5 mills, Gooden said. He anticipates putting a millage increase on the ballot in 2015.
The district first will apply for state aid for the project from the state’s Public School Academic Facilities and Transportation Division, he said.
State lawmakers established the division in 2005 in response to a 2002 Arkansas Supreme Court decision that the state’s public school system was unconstitutional because it was inequitable and inadequate. The division was created to help remedy the inequities.
Districts apply for state aid for building projects through the Academic Facilities Partnership Program. Projects fall into two categories: keeping students dry, safe and warm; and providing adequate space for instruction.
The Fort Smith School Board is working with a design team on a basic layout for a new high school, Gooden said. The design will be included with an application that all districts must submit to the division by March 1. The design team includes MAHG Architecture Inc. in Fort Smith and Wittenberg, Delony & Davidson Architects, which has offices in Little Rock and Fayetteville.
The district will not know what funding is approved for at least 15 months, Goodensaid. The amount of state partnership funds for school facilities will be determined during the 2015 legislative session, he said. The district will determine the necessary millage increase after it learns what amount of state partnership money is approved for the project.
The millage figure is used to calculate property taxes by multiplying the millage by a property’s assessed value.
RECONFIGURING GRADES
Enrollment in the Fort Smith School District is up by more than 260 students to 14,313 this year, according to records from the state Department of Education. That compares with 13,792 students in the 2009-10 school year and 12,917 students in the 2004-05 school year.
The district’s high schools cover grades 10-12. Northside High School’s enrollment has risen from 1,375 in 2009-10 to 1,581 this school year.
Southside High School’s enrollment is up from the 2009-10 school year, but slightly below last year’s enrollment. In 2009-10, 1,541 students attended Southside, compared with 1,597 students last school year and 1,587 students this school year.
“We finally reached a point that we think it’s time to move forward with some deliberate speed,” Gooden said. “We’ve looked at the number of students we have this year. Growth this year districtwide was the largest it’s been in several years.”
School Board President Jeanie Cole said the Northside High School and Southside High School campuses are landlocked and cannot accommodate much more growth.
District leaders prefer high schools to have enrollments of about 1,500 students, Cole said. A high school of 1,500 students is big enough to provide a wide variety of programs but small enough to give students a sense of belonging, she said.
The School Board and school district administrators have spent several years studying enrollment growth and trends and identifying the best long-term solution, Gooden said. The district’s plans for a third high school involve reconfiguring the high schools to serve grades nine to 12.
Ninth-graders now attend the district’s four junior high schools.
If the district today moved ninth-graders into three high schools, each campus would have more than 1,400 students, he said.
The long-range plans also include shifting sixth-graders out of the district’s elementary schools and into the junior high schools, which now serve grades seven through nine, Gooden said.
GATHERING IDEAS
The Fort Chaffee Redevelopment Authority has set aside 98 acres to donate to the district for a new high school, spokesman Zena Featherston said.
School Board members have visited a half-dozen high schools outside Fort Smith to get ideas for a new high school.
Cole said the high schools that board members visited are built for technology, with features like charging stations for electronic devices.
Planning for a third high school includes discussions among members of the School Board and the administration, educators and community members about what to offer in each high school, Cole said. Officials are evaluating whether to offer the same programs in every high school or specialized programs, such as those for students interested in science, technology, engineering and math.
“We want all schools to be a draw for the students to choose where they want to go,” Cole said.
Gooden said the district has a flexible transfer policy for high school students.
Gooden would want a new high school to pair challenging academic courses with athletics and performing arts programs, he said. Expanding those programs at a third high school opens up more opportunities for students to participate and take on leadership roles.
“People remember opportunities to star in a school play, the opportunities to be featured in the band, to play on the basketball team,” Gooden said. “Those are the things kids talk about when they come back. If you give them more opportunities to do that, that is a simple reason that many of the small schools in Arkansas have such wide support from the community.
Along with pursuing a third high school, School Board members also are considering building an events center that would be shared among all of the district’s schools, Gooden said. Such a center would accommodate bands, choirs and orchestras, as well as graduation programs, sports events and district science fairs, Gooden said.
The center would not be exclusive to any school campus, and the board is studying sites along the Fort Smith riverfront and near the Fort Smith Regional Airport.
Arkansas, Pages 18 on 12/29/2013