Fort Smith School Board hears recommendation to close four buildings

The long-range facility committee for Fort Smith Public Schools recommended at the FSPS school board meeting Monday (April 23) a plan that would close four FSPS campuses over the next five years to improve the district’s facility use.

The plan, which would eventually closing Belle Point, the Parker Center, the Rogers Center and the old Peabody School that is now the adult education center, was unanimously approved by the school board. The committee, which was made up of more than 30 community and staff members was tasked with looking at the next five years and ways to improve the campuses at minimal cost to gain suitability, said Shawn Shaffer, executive director for facilities and operations. The idea, he said, is to “renew and revitalize the district campuses.”

FSPS is the fifth largest school district in the state with 13,750 students. It has 119 buildings under its management, comprising slightly more than 3 million square feet. It has 19 elementary schools, Shaffer said.

Looking at larger school districts, Springdale School District, the state’s largest, has 22,193 students, 100 buildings with 3.9 million square feet, and 18 elementary schools. Rogers School District, the fourth largest, has 15,815 students, 69 buildings with a total of 2.9 million square feet, and 16 elementary schools.

“Bentonville has 20,000 students, 7,000 more than us, and has six fewer elementary schools,” said Dalton Person, school board president.

Guiding principles for the committee in determining the long-range plan included determining the right size for elementary schools in the district, Shaffer said.

“What is the right elementary size? It is not as linear as you might think. Based on this area and this district and talking to consultants, we determined that we wanted to have a 625 building capacity at a minimum with a target utilization rate of 80%. This would put 500 students in our elementary schools. We also looked at our depreciated building values throughout the district,” Shaffer said.

With these guidelines, there will be less class sizing, full-time assistant principals at each elementary school, multiple teachers in same grade level for collaboration, less sharing of equipment, and art, music and PE teachers that are not shared at multiple campuses, he said.

FSPS has six elementary buildings that can handle 625 students. They have several that cannot, he said. Hitting the 80% utilization rate with student enrollment would make it possible for FSPS to have suitability and partnership with the state, Shaffer said.

“Suitability is based on several factors – utilization, building value, and student enrollment along with some other factors. Currently our district is eligible for 62% of construction costs for partnership money by the state once you reach suitability. To reach the partnership funding, we have to address our underutilized space in the district,” Shaffer said.

He said if FSPS was at suitability, the district could have been eligible for state participation in 62% of the $5 million cost of construction of 10 additional classrooms at Morrison Elementary School.

“Meaning we are leaving a lot of dollars on the table when it comes to state money,” Shaffer said.

Darrell Stovall, chair of the long-range planning committee and engineering manager for Riverfront Exploration, told the school board that the committee looked at facilities that were older, had a fallen below 0% depreciation and had low utilization. Belle Point, the adult education center, and the Parker and Rogers centers are all greatly below 0% depreciation, Shaffer said.

Stovall said the committee’s recommendations were to close the Belle Point Building and rezone Orr Elementary School students. Belle Point operations and the Sutton Alternative Learning Environment, now at Sutton Elementary School, would be transferred to the Orr building in 2026-27, Stovall said.

The second building recommended to be closed is the Parker Building. That recommendation includes relocating administrative services housed there, Stovall said. The committee recommended closing the Parker Building in school year 2028-29.

Administrative services housed at the Rogers Building also would be relocated, and that building would be closed. Recommended closing for the Rogers Building is for school year 2029-2030.

Finally the Peabody Building, where adult education is housed, would be closed and those programs would be moved to a site that is accessible to the adult population throughout the community. The plan would be to determine an ideal facility for adult ed and relocate classes and close the Peabody building in 2027-28.

The committee recommended the district prioritize classrooms that meet state standards in all school buildings and study the feasibility of building a regulation track at Northside High School, Stovall said, noting that the track is not part of the suitability process but is something that is recommended.

“The district also should continue to analyze opportunities to right-size other elementary schools if appropriate,” Stovall said.