A new high school in northwest Little Rock and a classroom addition at Central High are an early step closer to fruition.
The Little Rock School Board voted on architect contracts for the two projects late into a nearly seven-hour meeting Thursday during which the board also:
• Approved a resolution to refinance a 2017 bond issue as a way to generate about $3 million in interest savings.
• Learned that the buyer of the old Franklin Elementary School, 1701 S. Harrison St., owes the district about $500,000 for its purchase.
The board approved a contract with Polk Stanley Wilcox Architects of Little Rock that provides a payment by the district to the company of 5.5% of what is expected to be a $50 million addition of new classrooms and a field house at Central High.
Superintendent Mike Poore and Kelsey Bailey, the district's chief deputy for finance and operations, described the Central project as "complex" in light of aged infrastructure -- including plumbing -- at the landmark school.
The district will pay a 4.5% fee to Lewis Architects/Engineers of Little Rock for the design of an $85 million traditional high school for 1,200 students. That school is to be adjacent to Pinnacle View Middle School on Ranch Boulevard in the northwest part of the district.
The board approved the fees and contracts at a meeting in which members earlier voted to close two district elementary schools -- Booker Arts Magnet Elementary and Meadowcliff Elementary. Booker will be merged into Carver Elementary School, and a majority of Meadowcliff students will be assigned to Western Hills Elementary.
Greg Adams, president of the School Board, acknowledged that the board actions to close campuses and build or add on to others could be confusing, but that different funding sources are at play.
The closing of the two schools will free up money in the district's operating budget for other purposes, he said.
The construction funds are the result of a voter-approved 19-year extension of the district's 12.4 debt service mills. The extended levy of the tax mills will enable the district to finance some $300 million in building projects.
In addition to the Central and west high school projects, the district is building a replacement school on the site of the vacant McClellan High and replacing roofs at various schools.
Also Thursday, Poore told the School Board that the former Franklin Elementary building is going to be put up for auction by its owners -- Community Health Centers of Arkansas Inc. -- on March 11 with the goal of raising the more than $500,000 it needs to pay off its purchase from the school system.
Poore told the board that the organization had stopped making payments for a time, which he had allowed. He said payments have resumed in the past nine months.
LaShannon Spencer, executive director of Community Health Centers of Arkansas at the time it purchased the Franklin site, went on to serve as a state-appointed member of the Little Rock School District's Community Advisory Board. The advisory board served as a lisiaon between the district and the state when the district operated under state control without an elected school board. Spencer resigned from the Community Health Centers organization in 2021.
Bailey said Thursday that the Community Health Centers purchased the Franklin school for $895,000 with plans to make $179,000 in payments annually. A 10% interest rate is being charged for the late payments, Bailey said.
Board members questioned whether the district -- which currently owns multiple vacant or soon-to-be vacant schools -- is likely to be forced to take back the property.
"We would cross that bridge if they stop making payments," Bailey said. "I don't want to foreclose and take the property back," he also said.
The board on Thursday approved a resolution asking the Arkansas Board of Education to authorize the district's plan to refinance about $68 million in bonds at a lower interest rate and generate about $3 million in savings.
That savings would likely be used for capital improvement projects, Bailey said.
The original issue of second-lien bonds was in 2017, he also said.