NORTH LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — The North Little Rock School District is looking for feedback on a plan to give a couple of district buildings a makeover with hopes of attracting more families to the area.
"Our number one priority is a brand new middle school, and then our second priority is the renovation of Ole Main," North Little Rock Superintendent Gregory Pilewski said. "We've lost over 1,500 students in the last decade. That's about eight with $6 million in revenue that we've lost, so part of our challenge is to attract families back to North Little Rock."
Pilewski wants to bring style back into education as the North Little Rock School Board has plans to upgrade a few schools that haven't been touched in years.
"We know that having a newer facility adds to the culture and climate of a school," Pilewski said. "We've had some issues with the middle school. It has a failing infrastructure... it's aging. I would say we found electrical fires. We've had water main breaks. I mean, it's just at a point where we need to really invest in the future of our middle-level children and their education."
According to Pilewski, the Capital Improvement Project includes a total millage of $2.6 million, and if approved, it could cause the local tax in North Little Rock to increase.
"The construction project for the middle school is somewhere in the neighborhood of about $64 to $65 million," Pilewski said. "We've already secured a partnership for funding from the state, which is a good thing. It's about $20.8 million, so we're excited that we've been awarded those funds for the middle school project. That also includes Ole Main and about $14 million, so it's all fact-finding right now, and just we're trying to communicate everything that we know with the public so that our community is informed."
The Ole Main building is an iconic pillar of the North Little Rock community, grounded in the civil rights movement. Pilewski found many community members would like to see that building back fully functional.
"Ole Main allows us to do it," Pilewski said. "It was a school, and so right now the proposal is to turn it back into a school, so the Center of Excellence, which is a public charter school, within North Little Rock High School. Their charter goes up to about 800 students [and] their space is limited."
The North Little Rock School Board will meet again on Thursday to share an updated community survey and ask for additional feedback on how they should move forward with the proposal.
"The board has a lot of information to make a good decision that what our community wants [and] what our community sees as priorities," Pilewski said. "Is the community in alignment with our priorities? A modification or not at all?"