Population growth in Sherwood and the demolition of the old Sylvan Hills Junior High classrooms are prompting the Pulaski County Special School District to shift the grades served at schools in the area.
Superintendent Charles McNulty has told the district's School Board that, ideally, Sylvan Hills High School at 484 Bear Paw Road in Sherwood would house students in grades nine through 12.
"We can't," McNulty said. "We don't have the space -- especially since we lost 15,000 square feet with demolition of the old junior high," he said.
"We have brainstormed every alternative we possibly can on how we can structure it." he added. "The solution we see as best for students right now is using the current Sylvan Hills Middle School as the eighth- and ninth-grade junior high."
Sixth- and seventh-graders in the area -- now assigned to the 1,122-student Sylvan Hills Middle at 10001 Johnson Drive -- would be assigned to what is now Sylvan Hills Junior High but also known as the Northwood campus. Northwood at 10020 Bamboo Lane, currently serves 370 ninth graders.
Kindergarten through fifth grade schools such as Sylvan Hills Elementary would be left with their current grade structures.
McNulty said the advantage to having the eighth- and ninth-graders at the current Sylvan Hills Middle School would be the access the ninth graders and even eighth graders would have to the high school and its programs in the arts.
School Board member Eli Keller asked whether the district five or six years ago had under-projected the enrollment numbers when it constructed a new classroom building, a multipurpose arena and a performing arts center at what is now the 1,017-student Sylvan Hills High campus. That three-story high classroom building opened to students in August 2019. The new construction is used in conjunction with the older Sylvan Hills High building, referred to as Building I.
Up to and during the construction, ninth graders were housed not on the Sylvan Hills campus but at the Northwood facility. District leaders had planned to return the ninth graders to the main campus, but they were left without enough room when the old middle school classrooms were demolished to make space for the new spaces.
Tracy Allen, Sylvan Hills High principal, told Keller that the high school had used classrooms from the old junior high for as many as 400 students until the structure was demolished to make room for construction of the multipurpose arena. Additionally, some of the classrooms in the original 1960s-era high school building -- Building I -- have become unsuitable for use because of ventilation and water issues.
Curtis Johnson, the district's executive director of operations, said that Building I needs as much as $10 million in repairs and renovations. Johnson also suggested that the district is going to eventually need a fully renovated Building One and an additional middle school in the area because of growth in the Sherwood population.
"To get to where everyone really wants to be, which is nine through 12 at the high school, it's just more money than we have right now to make it where the entire administration -- academics side, facilities side, human resources side -- where all can feel comfortable using it for a nine through 12," Board President Stephen Delaney said in summary.
McNulty said that the next steps for the district is to communicate the grade shift plans to parents and others in the Sherwood community. He said that the changes can be done by the start of the 2023-24 school year.
"We will come back with monthly updates to see where we are," McNulty told the board about the reorganization. That includes planning for transportation route changes, as well, he said.
Board member Shelby Thomas of Sherwood thanked the administration for its focus on the issue, saying that the number one question he gets from constituents is what will the district do about the overcrowded Sylvan Hills Middle School.
"We've been talking about it for three years. I'm glad to see that you have done this," Thomas said.