SPRINGDALE -- A $3.5 million project will provide Springdale High School with a competitive track and practice fields for baseball and softball within the next year.
Superintendent Jim Rollins told the School Board on Tuesday that he is prepared to sign a contract for the construction.
Fast facts
Springdale High School
Principal Pete Joenks
Grades 10 — 12
2,347 students
Source: Staff Report
About $700,000 will go toward the baseball and softball fields, with the rest going toward the track, which will have a competitive soccer field in the center. The project also includes renovating the tennis courts.
The additions will complement improvements across the street at Murphy Park, Rollins said.
"That whole area is going to take on a major face lift," Rollins said.
School Board members also on Tuesday unanimously approved extending Rollins' contract through Dec. 31, 2019.
The track and athletic fields planned for the Springdale High School campus will like facilities are on the Har-Ber High School campus, Rollins said.
"You want to give the kids at Springdale High School a comparable experience," Rollins said.
Springdale track students now run around campus or take a bus to Southwest Junior High School, Principal Pete Joenks said. Baseball and softball athletes leave campus to practice at the Randall Tyson Recreational Complex.
"We're going to have a track," Joenks said. "This will reduce the amount of time they have to travel to different locations."
Track and baseball and softball involve about 200 Springdale students combined, Athletic Director Wayne Stehlik said. The facilities will benefit students in physical education classes. Band students also will have a level surface for rehearsals.
District officials have spent several years designing the track and athletic fields because of the limited space around the Springdale High campus, Stehlik said.
The project has included many designs and work with many companies over the past two years, Rollins said. A drainage ditch was an obstacle on the north side of the campus, but the baseball and softball fields will fit there. Another issue was working with the cost of the projects.
On the south side, the tennis courts were a limitation, but some tennis courts will be moved to make room for the track, he said.
Construction is expected to begin within the next 45 days and will finish in about eight months, Deputy Superintendent Jared Cleveland said.
NW News on 01/11/2017