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Fayetteville School Board working to finalize bid process for new Woodland Jr. High
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. (KNWA/KFTA) — The Fayetteville Public Schools Board of Education signed off on more than $6.2 million in construction costs during a special meeting Wednesday.
The board approved the funding for early concrete work on the new Woodland Junior High School. The total approved cost was $6,252,353.00. District officials will discuss the full guaranteed maximum price for building Woodland Jr. High at their regular school board meeting in July, but in the meantime, have approved some early packages to stay on schedule.
'We have a pretty tight timeline. The goal is to open the facility August of 27. And so, we're trying to get some of the site work components going,' said Dr. John Mulford, superintendent of Fayetteville Public Schools.
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Building a new Woodland facility is a part of the district's larger plan to restructure their feeder patterns for Fayetteville Public Schools. The district also plans to convert John L. Colbert Middle School into a junior high by August of 2027 and build a new facility for Ramay Junior High by August of 2028.
'These middle schools and junior highs will be more centrally located within their feeder pattern, which should limit the amount of travel time for parents as they take kids to and from school and between schools,' said Dr. Mulford, 'It'll take a large district and give it a small district feel K through eight.'
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Dr. Mulford also mentioned that the district hopes to later convert the original Ramay Junior High School building into a conversion charter high school, although that would be several years in the future if implemented.
'We're going to work toward making that a conversion charter high school. That's probably 5 to 7 years out. And so, once we're able to move Ramay, then we will do renovations of that campus,' said Dr. Mulford, 'We're going to be engaging with our community over the next year to determine what themes and pathways they would like to see offered at that conversion charter high school, and then we'll begin the process for approval with the state.'
You can learn more about the planned feeder patterns to begin in the 2027-28 school year here.
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