BOONEVILLE -- The Booneville School District is turning buses into billboards and is getting paid for it.
In a kickoff ceremony Friday at the high school, the school district began displaying decals on five of its buses that promote a program called "A Hope and a Future," started by the Booneville Rotary Club to raise money for scholarships for Booneville students.
Superintendent John Parrish said the Rotary Club came up with the idea to raise enough scholarship money to pay for the first year of college for every graduating Booneville High School senior.
"So we tied that in to putting the signs on the buses," he said.
The decals were paid for by area businesses, which get their logo printed on the decals, and 75 percent of the net proceeds go to the school district to help repair and maintain its 18-bus fleet.
Parrish said everyone will win under the program. Businesses will get exposure through the use of the decals, while the Rotary Club and school district will promote the scholarships throughout the district.
"To me it's simple," Parrish said. "We have a traveling billboard."
He said the more decals backers sponsor, the more buses the district will use.
The four sponsors are Roberts Heating and Air Conditioning, Tyler Ford and CVS pharmacy, all in Booneville, and Harry Robinson GMC Buick of Fort Smith.
Crosswalk Marketing of Springdale created the decals and recruited sponsors.
Don Young, managing partner of Crosswalk Marketing, said the promotional decals were not for advertising. Sponsors were allowed to use their logos but no phone numbers, price points or slogans.
"It's just a sponsored public service announcement program," said Young, who presented a check to Parrish for $2,700 at Friday's ceremony.
Arkansas is one of 10 states in the country that allows advertising on school buses.
Authorization for advertising on school buses came up two years ago. State Rep. Dan Douglas, R-Bentonville, sponsored House Bill 1495 that was passed and became Act 941 of 2015.
A brief bill, it said a school board may allow on school buses advertising that meets the requirements of the Commission for Arkansas Public School Academic Facilities and Transportation, and revenue generated from the advertisements would be used for school transportation purposes.
"The program will give districts the opportunity to supplement their transportation funding, and I applaud Booneville and Superintendent Parrish for taking the initiative to launch the inaugural fleet," Douglas said in a news release Friday.
The legislation had the support of then-Bentonville School Superintendent Michael Poore, who is now heading the Little Rock School District. Poore said last year, when Bentonville was considering advertising on buses, that the practice had been used to generate money for schools in Colorado since 1993.
Current Bentonville Superintendent Debbie Jones said Friday that district officials have interviewed several companies but have not pursued the advertising because of limited potential for financial gain and concerns that advertising would distract drivers.
"The district won't pursue bus advertising further until we have credible, proven results to satisfy our concerns of safety, and data that indicates considerable financial return for the district," Jones said.
Crosswalk partner Tony Cristee said that, after seeing opposition to bus advertising in Northwest Arkansas, the company decided to drop advertisements and instead market public service announcements.
"We are about finding sponsors to help subsidize, but it's all about the school system," Cristee said.
Young said Crosswalk Marketing is working with about 14 other school districts. The districts have shown interest in their proposal but have made no commitments so far. Young said he believes the districts are waiting to see how the program in Booneville works out.
Information for this article was contributed by Dave Perozek of the Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.
State Desk on 04/10/2017