Springdale school to draw from 4 others

SPRINGDALE -- Early discussions about rezoning elementary attendance zones to accommodate an 18th elementary school involve moving students out of four other elementary schools.

Springdale School District's next kindergarten-through-fifth-grade campus under construction near J.O. Kelly Middle School likely will take in students from George, Harp, Parson Hills and Sonora elementary schools, said Gary Compton, assistant superintendent for support services.

School Board members got their first chance to hear from district-level administrators on zoning for the new elementary school during a workshop Tuesday. The meeting also included an update on the new School of Innovation campus.

Compton hopes the new geographical boundaries for attendance zones will be formalized with Superintendent Jim Rollins and the School Board in February or March, he said.

Nine elementary schools sit east of Thompson Street. The new elementary school due to open in August is expected to open with about 560 pupils in kindergarten through fifth grade, Compton said. The $16.9 million campus also will be home to a prekindergarten center for 300 children.

The school being built on Oriole Lane is on track to finish in time for the 2016-17 school year, said Bradley Chilcote, architect for Wittenberg, Delony & Davidson Architects in Little Rock.

The School of Innovation, with 400 eighth-graders and freshmen, will outgrow its temporary home at the Jones Center in the 2016-17 school year when it becomes a school for about 600 eighth-graders, freshmen and sophomores next school year. The school will add a grade each year until it becomes a school of up to 1,000 eighth-graders to seniors.

The school is set to move to a $24 million, 143,172-square-foot campus in August on Hylton Road, though construction is expected to continue several months after school starts, Rollins told the School Board. District officials are working to finalize a bid, he said.

Metro on 11/13/2015

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