The Little Rock School Board on Thursday accepted from consultants a comprehensive facilities master plan -- the data and recommendations from which will be used by school system leaders to craft a final plan for upgrading campuses in the state's largest district.
The board's unanimous vote to accept the voluminous facilities plan from a consulting team led by the Fanning-Howey architecture and engineering firm of Indianapolis was followed by a second 7-0 board vote to establish a millage campaign steering committee.
That steering committee will help the board in planning for an election on raising property taxes to pay for repairing, expanding and constructing school buildings. A date for the election or the amount of a proposed tax increase is yet to be decided. The cost of the consultants' recommendations, if all were done, would approach $500 million in the 25,000-student district that has an annual budget of well over $300 million.
School Board President Greg Adams welcomed the results from the year-long facilities study, saying the comprehensive review was necessary to give the board "a big picture view" of all the needs of the district so that the district can use its resources to benefit students and be competitive in a marketplace where parents have many school options.
"We will not be able to keep the students we have if we just sit still and patch up the schools we have to try to keep them going. That will not be good in the long run for our students or our community," he said. "We need a bolder vision than that."
Adams said the board won't let the study, which cost $974,260 plus expenses, go to waste.
"We paid for it and worked with it and we are going to use it to make good decisions -- whatever those good decisions are."
The consultants' recommendations include construction of a new McClellan High School, a new middle school in west Little Rock, the relocation of the existing Cloverdale Middle School to McClellan's current site on Geyer Springs Road, and a replacement building for David O. Dodd Elementary.
The plans also propose "repurposing" Carver Magnet and Rockefeller Elementary, both on the east side of the city, into pre-kindergarten centers.
Still other recommendations call for eliminating the use of all portable classrooms, which means an addition of some 50 classrooms to Central High, and new classroom wings at Parkview Magnet High, and Dunbar Magnet, Henderson and Mabelvale middle schools. At the elementary level, where the district is projected to have little growth over the next 10 years, the planners recommended additions to Bale, Forest Park, Mabelvale, Otter Creek, Pulaski Heights and Western Hills elementaries.
The plans call for the addition of activity space at the elementary schools -- most of which do not have gymnasiums -- along with art and music rooms, some of which would be converted from existing classrooms. The plan also incorporates building repairs, roof and utility system replacements, and more security features. Air conditioning would be installed in cafeteria kitchens at 25 schools.
Thursday's meeting was attended by several who were alarmed by some of the recommendations.
Pam Adcock, a parent and activist in southwest Little Rock, told the board that residents in that part of the city want McClellan to remain at its current Geyer Springs location. She questioned why Cloverdale Middle School would be relocated to a McClellan site that is not satisfactory for the high school.
Carl Baxmeyer, a principal for Fanning-Howey, said later that the auditorium and gymnasium at McClellan are in good condition and could be used in addition to new classrooms by a middle school. He also said that the soil at the current Cloverdale site is unsatisfactory and the school is sinking despite efforts to stabilize it.
Parents, children and faculty members from Carver Magnet Elementary sat quietly throughout the meeting holding paper signs that said "Save Our School: Keep Carver Magnet Elementary."
Rep. John Walker, D-Little Rock, argued to the board that the consultants' study was "incompetent," in part because of its recommendations regarding Carver and Rockefeller, and he told the board not to act in haste.
Superintendent Dexter Suggs said later in the meeting that he would be reluctant to close or even convert Carver into a pre-kindergarten center because the math and science specialty school is one of the higher achieving schools in the district. He suggested that steps be taken to increase the enrollment at the school, which is in an industrial part of the city near Bill and Hillary Clinton National Airport/Adams Field.
In regard to the steering committee, Suggs asked each of the seven School Board members to nominate two people from their election zones to serve on the committee. In addition, representatives of the Little Rock Education Association, which is the teacher and support staff employee union in the district, and the Parent Teacher Association Council will be invited to serve.
Additional committees of community leaders, school district leaders, financial advisers, and media and marketing advisers will be formed to support the effort to raise money for the finalized building plan. The current property tax rate for the school district is 46.4 mills. The last tax increase for schools in the district was in 2000.
Metro on 08/29/2014