Northwest Arkansas Times: Could one of the area's school districts become the next Jenks, OK?

[mcheiss]

I sorta thought that too, but I wasn't sure. I'm sure I get some bias because I actually live here. I have heard concerns about Fayetteville's school district. It doesn't have a company like Wal-mart that pays lots of taxes that go to it. The big employer here is the university which of course doesn't pay any taxes to the school district.

Yes, but Fayetteville being a college town helps since they're are plenty of college professors that go on to teaching elementary and high schools. Then you have students that earn college degrees in Education that often go on to stay in Fayetteville.

I've heard good things about Fayetteville's AP Program. It's first or second in the state I believe, behind or ahead of Little Rock Mills. Rogers is about 3rd or 4th in the state.

[KJW]

I always thought Fayetteville had the top Public school system in the area.

Bentonville's is pretty good though as well.

Went by the new Gravette high tonight...it's a glittering jewel of a school (I'd expect as much from a Nabholz project).

Bentonville's good as long as it's not overcrowded, which it has been the past few years.

[edensfall]

in all actuality, Springdale was reguarded as the best school district in the state, with the most funding, and the highest paid teachers, i graduated from SHS and believe me, i heard it every day about how we could only strive to do better and compete on a national level, and if you are talking about sports, SHS hes the best foot ball team in the state, if not the USA, they are ranked in the top 5 on the national level, i dont know what it is, but we keep churning them out.

[Mith242]

Seems like everyone has an opinion on which school is best in NWA. From what I've heard all the major school districts are pretty good. As far as Springdale's football team they were ranked 5th last year. I haven't seen anyone rank them that high this year, they lost a lot of players and teh coach.

[Aporkalypse]

As an outside, I would say there's little difference between them. They're all pretty good.

I think in Springdale you'll see the unfortunate effect of splitting schools that Ft Smith saw decades ago -the emergence of a "good school" and a "bad school". Once one school has a better rep everyone will strive to go there and abandon the other school. That won't happen for years.

On the national level I don't know how much you could say Texas schools are regarded. If anything Jenks probably gets a lot of national news due to its sports system.

Considering Highland Park, Southlake, and Plano are are all ranked in the top 15 in national football polls (Southlake Carroll just finished 1st for the 3rd straight year), I think for athletics they are MUCH better known that Jenks. Academically all 3 of these schools usually show up in the national rankings but Highland Park is a regular national top 25 school academically. The average SAT and ACT scores from these schools exceed all but the very best private schools. They get a lot of respect, I assure you.

[KJW]

As an outside, I would say there's little difference between them. They're all pretty good.

I think in Springdale you'll see the unfortunate effect of splitting schools that Ft Smith saw decades ago -the emergence of a "good school" and a "bad school". Once one school has a better rep everyone will strive to go there and abandon the other school. That won't happen for years.

Considering Highland Park, Southlake, and Plano are are all ranked in the top 15 in national football polls (Southlake Carroll just finished 1st for the 3rd straight year), I think for athletics they are MUCH better known that Jenks. Academically all 3 of these schools usually show up in the national rankings but Highland Park is a regular national top 25 school academically. The average SAT and ACT scores from these schools exceed all but the very best private schools. They get a lot of respect, I assure you.

Good point, Aporkalypse.

One thing, though...the differences between FSM and NWA (see the list of NWA 1,000+ metro high schools above).

When discussing the school overcrowding issue with my daughter's then junior high counselor a year or two back, I was told that at the time the Bentonville district didn't want to split into two (or more) high schools not because of potential school quality disparities, but because they didn't want to see rivalries develop. (At the time I was kind of concerned that a hidden motivation could be summed as: "Championships win defense"...BHS has gotten used to winning a lot of state titles at different things, and the emergence of 1 or more new additional high schools could affect that. Hope I'm wrong and that wasn't their motivation at all...I was becoming quite cynical then but am less so now. )

[Aporkalypse]

Good point, Aporkalypse.

One thing, though...the differences between FSM and NWA (see the list of NWA 1,000+ metro high schools above).

When discussing the school overcrowding issue with my daughter's then junior high counselor a year or two back, I was told that at the time the Bentonville district didn't want to split into two (or more) high schools not because of potential school quality disparities, but because they didn't want to see rivalries develop. (At the time I was kind of concerned that a hidden motivation could be summed as: "Championships win defense"...BHS has gotten used to winning a lot of state titles at different things, and the emergence of 1 or more new additional high schools could affect that. Hope I'm wrong and that wasn't their motivation at all...I was becoming quite cynical then but am less so now. )

Unfortunately, what Ft Smith did (like Hot Springs) is blatant economic and racial segregation. FS Southside and HS Lakeside may be the best two public schools in educating their students from top to bottom. However, they do it by drawing the boundaries so that all of the minorities and lower income students go to FS Northside or Hot Springs High, respectively. It's pretty shady.

I don't see that happening to that degree in NWA because incomes are higher across the board and there are fewer minorities in poor urban neighborhoods. Still, it's impossible for one school not to get a better rep than the one across town after a few years. In NWA I bet the difference will be slight unless one school in Rogers and Springdale becomes the "Spanish school", which I think would be a very bad thing for education in NWA. I still don't see the NWA schools suffering the problems more urban schools do anytime soon because of the way the individual towns are set up and the general demographics there.

[mcheiss]

I don't see that happening to that degree in NWA because incomes are higher across the board and there are fewer minorities in poor urban neighborhoods. Still, it's impossible for one school not to get a better rep than the one across town after a few years. In NWA I bet the difference will be slight unless one school in Rogers and Springdale becomes the "Spanish school", which I think would be a very bad thing for education in NWA. I still don't see the NWA schools suffering the problems more urban schools do anytime soon because of the way the individual towns are set up and the general demographics there.

Unfortunately, this is going to happen in Rogers. Once the renovation to the Old Sophomore Center is complete, the Current High School off Dixeland will become the more white school, while the Old Sophomore Center school will become the poorer white and hispanic school.

[Aporkalypse]

Unfortunately, this is going to happen in Rogers. Once the renovation to the Old Sophomore Center is complete, the Current High School off Dixeland will become the more white school, while the Old Sophomore Center school will become the poorer white and hispanic school.

Is that the way the lines are being drawn?

I find that disappointing. I know the same is true of some of the elementaries and at least one of the junior highs because my nephew went there and my brother actually switched his school.

What Springdale and Rogers don't need is barrios. If this is really what ends up happening it will decimate residential property values on the side of town that becomes the minority school. The worst case would be flight to Bentonville, but I am kind of optimistic that won't happen in Rogers. The city just has too much going on.

NWA is unique and I find it more interesting to discuss and try to predict than just about any other place in America. Some good things and bad things will happen, I'm sure, but I bet most of what's predicted will end up being wrong.

[mcheiss]

Is that the way the lines are being drawn?

I find that disappointing. I know the same is true of some of the elementaries and at least one of the junior highs because my nephew went there and my brother actually switched his school.

Yeah, Oakdale Jr. High was the older crappy school built in the 50's that caters to the Poorer White population and hispanics. The school is right across from a trailor park, which doesn't help much. I went there (Long time ago) and wouldn't change it for the world.

[KJW]

If this is really what ends up happening it will decimate residential property values on the side of town that becomes the minority school. The worst case would be flight to Bentonville...

Ouch. Bentonville's too crowded as it is right now (I think approximately 3,200 students may be at the currently-four-grade high school either now or very shortly).

Gravette's school district, on the other hand, takes in some very "old (conception of) Arkansas" areas (i.e. Maysville, AR on the Oklahoma border and Sulphur Springs) yet now the kids in those areas from moderate to low incomes are being given a spanking new high school to attend with apparently much room for growth. I'd be very willing to look at that big district were I ready to move here again.

[KJW]

Wow...I think Matt mentioned something about this earlier, but if you took the Bentonville school district's current enrollment reported yesterday (11,250), divided it by 13 (K-12 grades) then multiplied that number times four for the current 4 grade high school, there could be up to 3,461 kids in BHS. (Most likely the lower grades are the bigger ones, but with all the building still ongoing here and the rush which may exist still to "get your kid in the Bentonville schools" this may not be far off from either this year or the year or two to come.)

Again, I remember one of our employees, a BHS student, saying students were standing and sitting in the aisles in his classes at school year's beginning (this was corroborated by another BHS student who worked in the shopping center where our store is and who actually moved in from an Atlanta, GA metro area county adjacent to the one we moved from). I honestly hope they were both wrong.

If, though, BHS is or is about to have 3,400 kids...has there EVER been an Arkansas high school, public or private, that big? Those are California/Texas/Florida type numbers there.

[Mith242]

I can't really say. I'm not sure what numbers the Rogers and Springdale High Schools have. I suppose LR Central might be pretty big too.

[mcheiss]

I can't really say. I'm not sure what numbers the Rogers and Springdale High Schools have. I suppose LR Central might be pretty big too.

If Rogers was all in one High School, believe me the numbers would be around 3800.

[KJW]

I noticed today in the paper that Springdale is considering building a "super complex" to house 5,000 students (ostensibly in at least 4 separate buildings) which would include an elementary, middle school, junior high and high school.

The district is also planning (as someone said here) to build a third Springdale high school which would house 2,000 students. This high school would be build in 2012, six years from now.

Now, based on what we know is going to be built (second and perhaps third Rogers high school, second Bentonville high school) here's what the high school composition would look like in the NWA area were growth to stop at Bentonville, Rogers and Fayetteville and every city except Springdale, with growth stopping there once they reach their projection of 30,000 students in the Springdale district by 2012:

Bentonville high (1,700 students)*

Bentonville high #2 (1,700 students)*

Rogers high (2,050 students)**

Rogers high #2 (2,050 students)**

Springdale high (2,600 students)

Har-ber high (2,300 students)

Springdale high #3 (2,000 students)

Fayetteville high (2,300 students)

Siloam Springs high (1,098 students)%

McDonald County, MO high (1,000 students)

(EDIT: updated numbers)

* Based on current Bentonville school district numbers furnished last week

**Based on current Rogers school district numbers just furnished

% From the Siloam Springs web site

[Aporkalypse]

I can't really say. I'm not sure what numbers the Rogers and Springdale High Schools have. I suppose LR Central might be pretty big too.

Central is in the 2200-2400 range but as an interesting factoid it was the largest high school in the nation from the time it opened in 1932 until the late 1950s. It was the largest in Arkansas until around 1990 when NLR Northeast and Ole Main became one school. Springdale and Rogers soon passed it, though.

I think it would be a good idea for Lowell, Bella Vista, and/or Centerton to spin off high schools as NWA continues to grow to kind of preserve a sense of community.

[mcheiss]

^

Lowell falls under the Rogers school system, and both the new Sophomore Center (Soon Third High School), and High School are literally a few minutes from Lowell.

Bella Vista is building or has an elementary school. It would be hard to get a high school seeing as how Bella Vista hasn't been known to pass many taxes.

I see Centerton building a High School within the next 10 years. The population will probably be around 15,000, which is about the right size for a 3A or 4A School. Centerton recently opened an Elementary School this year as well.

[KJW]

Central is in the 2200-2400 range but as an interesting factoid it was the largest high school in the nation from the time it opened in 1932 until the late 1950s. It was the largest in Arkansas until around 1990 when NLR Northeast and Ole Main became one school. Springdale and Rogers soon passed it, though.

I think it would be a good idea for Lowell, Bella Vista, and/or Centerton to spin off high schools as NWA continues to grow to kind of preserve a sense of community.

Aporkalypse, this may be changing but one of the high growth areas in Bella Vista had been the Highlands (western) section, which is in the Gravette school district and will see more growth as the BV bypass is built in that area.

There's been talk of the Gravette school district building an elementary for kids from the BV portion of their district, but the talk has centered around land (purchased?) around an old school in Hiwasse, a currently unincorporated community immediately south of BV, north of Centerton, west of Bentonville and east of Gravette. We'll have to see how that unfolds.

[Aporkalypse]

Aporkalypse, this may be changing but one of the high growth areas in Bella Vista had been the Highlands (western) section, which is in the Gravette school district and will see more growth as the BV bypass is built in that area.

There's been talk of the Gravette school district building an elementary for kids from the BV portion of their district, but the talk has centered around land (purchased?) around an old school in Hiwasse, a currently unincorporated community immediately south of BV, north of Centerton, west of Bentonville and east of Gravette. We'll have to see how that unfolds.

Glad you posted this, I didn't know that area of Bella Vista was in the B'ville district.

My mother grew up in Bella Vista and is a Bentonville alum, BTW.

[KJW]

Glad you posted this, I didn't know that area of Bella Vista was in the B'ville district.

My mother grew up in Bella Vista and is a Bentonville alum, BTW.

No problem, glad to help.

Village Rentals of BV has a big school district map in their office...BV is roughly split in half between Bentonville and Gravette...the latter school district takes in most of the area west of U.S. 71, from around Bassingham & Helmsley (1 mile SW of Macadoodles) down south roughly along the Camden Road area.

[KJW]

This community (Willard, MO) is to Springfield, MO what Gravette is to Bentonville/Rogers.

[KJW]

My vote's still in for Gravette, AR as the next "Jenks", but if growth continues in NWA there will be other such contenders:

[KJW]

Don't know if anyone's driven by the sunken-into-the-hillside football stadium they call "the orange bowl" being built next to the new Gravette High but...I was told that Gatorade has paid to build a jumbotron scoreboard in the north end zone...I believe it's going up now.

A jumbotron. At a new high school stadium sunk into the ground. At Gravette, Arkansas.

How times have changed...

[Architect]

I think it's kind of a bad comparison right now as the NWA cities are generally suburban in their own right, much more like Jenks than Tulsa. The smaller rural areas around it clearly have inferior schools.

If Lowell had its own schools, I wonder if it would've ended up becoming a "flight" area from Springdale and Rogers.

I think immigration is going to take a toll on Springdale and cause flight to the other cities and Springdale may be destined to be NWA's "bad area". Rogers is viewed by some to be at risk but I think the newer developments there and proximity to Bentonville will keep it largely upscale with the immigrants remaining a relative minority and the schools won't be terribly affected.

[mzweig]

Don't know if anyone's driven by the sunken-into-the-hillside football stadium they call "the orange bowl" being built next to the new Gravette High but...I was told that Gatorade has paid to build a jumbotron scoreboard in the north end zone...I believe it's going up now.

A jumbotron. At a new high school stadium sunk into the ground. At Gravette, Arkansas.

How times have changed...