PRAIRIE GROVE -- Prairie Grove school administrative offices and other departments may relocate to the Arvest Bank building on Buchanan Street next year if a proposal to purchase the property is finalized.
Prairie Grove School Board last week approved a motion to agree in principle with an offer to purchase the building for $600,000 and move forward with legal documents to close the transaction.
Superintendent Allen Williams made the offer on behalf of the district in a Feb. 17 letter to Mike Willard, president and chief executive officer for Arvest in the Prairie Grove, Lincoln, Farmington and West Fork region.
Other terms in the letter state Arvest would lease the property from the school district for $6,000 per month until the bank moves into a new facility sometime next year. Arvest would be responsible for property taxes and the school district would purchase property insurance at a cost of approximately $4,500 per year.
The agreement is not binding until final contracts are reviewed by the school district's attorney and the School Board votes on the final contract. Williams said he thought final documents would be ready for the board's April 17 meeting.
Arvest, currently located at 102 E. Buchanan St., has purchased property along Heritage Parkway, next to Dollar General, and plans to construct a new branch.
Williams told board members that he and Willard have discussed a possible purchase for several weeks and finally settled on $600,000. The property also would include part of the parking lot behind Arvest Bank and an adjacent grassy area.
Williams said his recommendation is to pay for the Arvest property from the district's building fund, which has a balance of $2.4 million, rather than borrow money.
"My preference would be to pay for it outright and be done with it," Williams said.
The Arvest building has 11,573 square feet on the first floor that Williams said is ready to use. This includes office space, meeting space and a large lobby area. Arvest plans to leave most of the furniture with the building.
Williams proposes moving staff from the administrative/business office into this first floor space.
Others that would move to the first floor space include assistant superintendents, technical department, food service director, athletic director, coordinator of school health program, instructional facilitator, special education clerical and possibly offices for the special education coordinator, gifted-and-talented coordinator and English as a Second Language coordinator.
The second floor has about 5,500 square feet that is used for storage. A third area is a former dentist office and has about 2,000 square feet. This space is not usable and Williams said the district probably would close this area.
Williams said the building appraised at $875,000 and the adjacent lot appraised at $45,000, according to documents Arvest provided to the school.
Williams told board members he has been hesitant as an administrator to spend money "that's solely for adult use."
However, he said he sees benefits to the district in purchasing the Arvest property.
The building would allow the school to combine all district offices, Williams said. In addition, the space vacated by district staff now in the Middle School building would allow the school to get out of metal buildings used for some classes. Williams said art and EAST could move into large spaces now used for board meetings and professional development.
At some point in the next few years, the Middle School will need to remodel and at that time the district would have to build new administrative space.
Williams said estimates are a new administrative building could cost $200 per square foot in the next four years. This compares to paying about $52 per square foot for the space on the first floor of Arvest Bank.
The downsides of purchasing the building, Williams told board members, is that the building is in good shape but is 100 years old. It will probably need a new roof in two to five years at an approximate cost of $75,000.
Another factor, he pointed out, is that once the district spends money from its building fund, it is gone and not available for other projects.
He said some people have expressed concerns about administration offices moving off campus, but Williams said he did not think that would be an issue because the Arvest property is close to schools and staff would be available "very quickly." He said he has worked for school districts where administrative offices are off campus without any problems.
Board member Shawn Shrum said the biggest concern to him is that purchasing the property would affect other projects being discussed.
He added, though, that the price for Arvest "was hard to beat." Another advantage, Shrum said, is the Middle School would be able to get rid of its metal buildings.
Board President William Dick asked about student growth. Williams said Prairie Grove ended the 2015-16 school year with 1,840 students. It has about 1,900 students now. Districts receive state education funds based on student enrollment.
"I think we're going to grow," Williams said, noting the district is in "pretty good shape" financially right now.
"This is a big step and it's something that will be a change," Williams told board members.
After the discussion, the board unanimously voted to move forward with the proposal.
General News on 03/22/2017