The Commission for Arkansas Public School Academic Facilities and Transportation voted Wednesday to provide $44.5 million for 49 approved school construction, replacement and system repair projects across the state.
The projects that will receive state funding include a new elementary school in Rogers and a new middle school in Bentonville.
Rogers's district plans to open another elementary school by 2020. The state approved contributing $2.29 million to the project.
The district has not settled on a specific plan regarding the project. Administrators will meet soon to discuss the matter and Superintendent Janie Darr likely will present a recommendation to the School Board at its June meeting, said Jim White, chief operations officer.
White said in November administrators believed they would need a new elementary building some time between 2018 and 2020.
Rogers has space at the elementary level for two to three more years of enrollment growth; however, when compared to the state's recommended square footage, Rogers is short of space in several buildings, according to a narrative included in the district's plan.
In May 2014, the board opted not to accept $2.7 million from the state to construct an elementary school. The board agreed the district didn't need another school.
The Bentonville School District received $3.65 million for construction of Creekside Middle School, which is being built along with Osage Creek Elementary School on Featherston Road. Both schools are scheduled to open in August 2017.
"It's kind of what we anticipated, but it's good news to get that official," said Paul Wallace, Bentonville's director of facilities.
The district had been approved for about $3.9 million in state partnership money for Osage Creek, before district officials decided to move ahead with attaching a middle school to it.
Other statewide projects receving money are a new elementary school in Arkadelphia and a new high school in the Cutter-Morning Star School District. Some of the other projects to receive state money are a district-wide electrical upgrade and building additions at four West Memphis elementary schools and renovation of Malvern High School and its gym.
The state money for the projects ranges from as much as $5.2 million for the Malvern, Arkadelphia and Cutter-Morning Star campuses to as little as $17,462 for work at Sylvan Hills High and $8,794 for work at Baker Elementary School -- both in the Pulaski County Special School District.
The West Memphis district is slated to receive $7.7 million for the overall electrical upgrade and the building additions at Richland, Faulk, Maddux and Weaver elementary schools.
The state's Academic Facilities Partnership Program, created by Arkansas lawmakers a decade ago as a way to equalize educational opportunities in the state's more than 230 school districts, reimburses districts for a percentage of the cost of their state-approved construction projects. The state's share of the building projects varies from district to district, depending on the local property tax wealth of a school system. Districts with greater local property tax revenue qualify for a smaller share of state aid than does a district that generates little local property tax revenue.
"I'm surprised you didn't hear me scream 'hallelujah' this morning when we got notification," Jon Collins, superintendent of the 5,700-student West Memphis district, said after the commission meeting.
West Memphis has one of the state's lowest property tax millage rates at 29 mills. The district is paying for its share of the capital project from its savings and without asking voters for a property tax increase.
NW News on 05/26/2016