Riverview High School’s environmental-science class has not only identified a want for the school community but has also identified a need.
On Jan. 5, representatives from the class proposed to the Searcy City Council the construction of a sidewalk along North Poplar Street, connecting it to Moore Street and East Race Avenue. The class, which has about 40 students and utilizes project-based learning, spent about two months researching and preparing the proposal presentation, which included pictures of the current lack of a sidewalk and a diagram of the proposed one.
Sheila Morgan, biology and environmental-science teacher, said she thought the sidewalk proposal would be a fitting project for the class, which covers environmental issues such as pollution and the decrease in the bee population.
“I’ve taught here for 12 years, and we have a lot of after-school events, and when I’m leaving school or coming in, I see all these kids walking that route and going to get food at the nearest fast-food places because they can’t drive,” said Morgan, who is in her first year of teaching environmental science. “There’s nowhere for them to walk. They’re in the street.”
Dalton Pruitt, a junior, and Dylan Brown, a senior, who both presented the proposal to the council, also said the sidewalk is needed because students often walk down the street for after-school meals.
“After band concerts, we’d usually go get food, so we’d walk down to Taco Bell or Hastings. People don’t stop. If you walk across the road, they just keep going,” Pruitt said.
Morgan said the students were informed early on that the project might be presented to the City Council. In order to present the proposal to the council, Morgan said, she simply called the mayor’s office and asked.
“[The students] knew going into it that it was going to be not just for us; it was going to be for other people who would view it,” she said. “That puts a little more pressure on [the students] to do a good job, and they did. They really stepped up.”
Mark Lane, city engineer, visited the class to explain the construction and the cost of a sidewalk — anywhere from $65,000 to $75,000, Brown said.
“We had to look up grants. She (Morgan) said we weren’t about to go up there and present a problem to them and not have an answer to what we could do with it,” Brown said. “We had to find all the funding for [the project]. Then we had to find out what is all done to a sidewalk, how to build it and everything — the steps to do it.”
The class researched an Arkansas Highway and Transportation Department grant that would assist with the project and also help with drainage issues in that area of Poplar Street.
“It’s where they want to put sidewalks where kids walk all the time to and from school, and we have kids in the morning who walk to school, and we have kids in the afternoon who walk back home,” Brown said of the grant. “This grant fit right to our description.”
Brown and Pruitt volunteered to present the proposal to the council after school. It was a little scary having several “grown adults just staring you down,” Pruitt said.
“It was kind of nerve-wracking,” Brown said, “but once you start talking, it kind of calms you down.”
Brown said he and Pruitt received positive feedback from the council.
“I felt like it was going to get done right then and there because they told us, ‘We should have seen this earlier and should have fixed this,’” Brown said.
Morgan said the mayor’s assistant, Lillie Cook, said the sidewalk construction is likely to happen.
“[The City Council] had already called the Department of Transportation to inquire about the forms for the grant. She said that when [the council] called the Department of Transportation, the new forms don’t come out until Feb. 1, so [the department] told [council members] to wait until the February meeting to do the resolution, in case something changed, so they don’t have to go back and revote,” she said. “But she pretty much told me it was a done deal. They were all in favor of it, so we were very, very thrilled.”
Brown said he’d advise other students to seek a solution for problems they have identified.
“If you think you can do something, just go out there and try to do it because anything can happen,” he said. “If you see a problem, you might take it to your teacher.”
Morgan said project-based learning has also led to the implementation of a recycling program in the district and to helping students become more comfortable with public speaking.
“That’s what I like about project-based learning — it allows the kids that freedom to stretch their wings, I guess you could say, and it pays off,” she said.
Staff writer Syd Hayman can be reached at (501) 244-4307 or shayman@arkansasonline.com.