The projected cost for building, expanding and repairing schools in the 25,000-student Little Rock School District will approach $500 million, according to draft recommendations to be presented to the School Board on Thursday.
The draft plan includes provisions that have been discussed by the School Board and consultants for months and were anticipated -- a new middle school in west Little Rock, a replacement campus for McClellan High and the relocation of Cloverdale Middle School to the current McClellan site.
The draft also includes proposals to add 38 to 50 permanent classrooms at the landmark Central High, 12 to 24 classrooms to Dunbar Magnet Middle School, and 12 classrooms each to Henderson and Mabelvale middle schools.
It further proposes the replacement of up to three elementary campuses -- Dodd, Bale and/or Meadowcliff -- and the possible closure of one or two other campuses -- Carver and Rockefeller elementaries. The school closures would be a way to address some underenrollment concerns in those or other east Little Rock schools.
"In everything we did, we looked for the most cost-effective approach for the district," said Troy Glover, the project leader for the team of consultants hired by the Little Rock district last year to develop a facilities master plan.
The Fanning-Howey Associates Inc. architecture and engineering firm of Indianapolis -- Glover's employer -- is leading a team of five companies of architects, engineers, educational planners and demographers in the facilities study and development of a long-term school building improvement plan. The draft is 354 pages including its appendixes.
It will be the topic of a School Board work session after the board's 5 p.m. Thursday agenda meeting.
"We're giving the board some things to consider," Glover said Friday. "At the work session, we'll flesh this out some more and incorporate any new ideas before we bring back the final plan."
Final recommendations could go to the School Board as soon as its Aug. 28 monthly business meeting, School Board President Greg Adams said Friday.
"The board will have the choice then about whether we want to act on them at that point or set a time to discuss them further and act on them at a later date," Adams said.
School Board members have said over the past year that they expect to ask district voters to approve an as-yet unspecified property-tax increase to help finance the school building improvements recommended by the consultants and adopted by the board.
The introduction to the draft report states that all aspects of the district buildings were evaluated in recent months, including foundations, roofs, kitchens, electrical and plumbing systems, and athletic venues. The consultants said that the buildings, overall, "have been very well maintained, with most needs being simply a result of age."
In all, seven schools -- including two of the five high schools -- were identified as being in poor condition, 12 other schools were labeled as being in fair shape and 25 schools -- including another two high schools -- were listed as being in good condition.
The facilities master plan is meant to be a "blueprint" for aligning the district's educational programs with its physical structures, the introduction to the draft plan states.
The plan "establishes standards, measures how well the educational facilities meet established standards, identifies where physical improvements and adjustments are needed, provides solutions to address those problems, and determines the potential cost and time line for implementing the solutions," the introduction also states.
The study relies on five- and 10-year enrollment projections that indicate that elementary enrollment will remain virtually flat at 13,572, just 50 more than the count this past year. The district has about 1,400 unused elementary school seats.
No new additional elementary school seats are needed, the study states, but there is a problem with the distribution of pupils among the schools. Twelve elementary schools are at 95 percent or greater capacity while 13 are "well under capacity."
The district may not necessarily have to expand the elementary schools' "physical footprint" to solve overcapacity issues and spend for additions when existing space can be used by relocating students to underutilized schools, the study said.
The study recommends replacing Dodd Elementary, 6423 Stagecoach Road, which is the elementary building in the poorest physical condition, with a new 500-pupil school. It also offers as options the possibilities of replacing Bale Elementary, which is in the Broadmoor neighborhood, and Meadowcliff Elementary off South University Avenue.
Classroom additions of varying sizes are suggested for Forest Park, Mabelvale, Otter Creek, Pulaski Heights and Western Hills elementary schools.
The draft plan includes provisions to ensure that every elementary campus has 1,200-square-foot music and/or art classrooms either as the result of converting one or two regular classrooms or by building additions. The study also estimates it will cost about $34 million to provide a "student activity center" for physical education and other uses at the elementary schools.
The study suggests closing Carver Elementary, 2100 E. Sixth St., and/or Rockefeller Elementary and Early Childhood Center, 700 E. 17th St., and assigning pupils to Washington and Bale elementaries. Carver, now at 72 percent of capacity, is projected to be filled to only 35 percent of its capacity in 10 years. Washington, 2700 S. Main St., is currently at half capacity and that is projected to fall to less than 30 percent in 10 years.
The district's seven middle schools are generally full now and projected to be at 122 percent of capacity in 10 years, making necessary a 1,200-pupil school in west Little Rock, the consultants wrote. The district has already purchased land for a school near the intersection of Cantrell and Katillus roads.
Also proposed is relocating Cloverdale Middle, 6300 Hinkson Road, to the current McClellan site, 9417 Geyer Springs Road, where as many as 1,138 pupils could be served. Cloverdale is in poor physical condition, according to the study. There would also be large additions to Dunbar, Henderson and Mabelvale middle schools and general improvements to the remaining Horace Mann and Pulaski Heights middle schools, which have little room for expansion. Forest Heights Middle has recently been converted to the district's first kindergarten-through-eighth-grade school.
The high schools are expected to be at 105 percent capacity in 10 years. A new McClellan campus, which had an enrollment of 895 last year, would serve up to 1,600. Central High, with an enrollment in excess of 2,400, is already at 173 percent of its 1,460-student capacity. As a result, the campus uses multiple portable classroom buildings to serve all the students. Portable rooms would be replaced with permanent structures if the recommendations are enacted. That could require acquisition of additional property, the consultants said.
Parkview High would be enlarged by eight classrooms as a way to increase capacity by 150 students to 1,200. Hall and J.A. Fair high schools would be subject to improvements but not expansions.
The Fanning-Howey team, to be paid $974,260 plus expenses for its work, includes representatives of local architectural firms Woods Group and Stuck Associates. Other companies participating in the work are Brailsford & Dunlavey Inc. and Remenschneider Design Inc.
A section on 08/09/2014