Wynne plans two schools of thought

The district is building a $20$25 million temporary campus that will be ready when school starts July 24. It’s also asking patrons to increase the millage rate as it plans for its permanent high school.

By Steve Brawner Editor

When Wynne High School students return to school July 24, it will be on a temporary campus that as of May 21 was an empty field once housing a trailer park. Meanwhile, the district is planning its new permanent high school while asking voters to increase the district’s millage by 4.9 mills.

The superintendent, Dr. Kenneth Moore, estimated the total cost of both campuses at roughly $100 million. Much, but not all, will be covered by insurance. The Federal Emergency Management Agency was expected to cover some of the rest. Moore was hoping Wynne will be treated like Waverly, Tennessee, was after a flood in 2021 destroyed the elementary and junior highs, and FEMA provided extra funding.

The temporary campus will feature modular classroom buildings as well as other structures needed for any high school, including a temporary gym for P.E. classes. Career and technical education classes will be offered, which the district was not able to do in the weeks after the tornado destroyed most of the high school March 31.

The temporary buildings will be guaranteed for four years with an option for three while the permanent high school is constructed. The cost of the temporary site is expected to be in the $20-$25 million range.

“There isn’t anywhere else in the city,” Moore said. “There isn’t an abandoned factory or anything large enough to put 780-plus capacity student body in and us still be able to give them all the offerings that we’ve always given them.

And that’s a big deal. Our number one priority is to be able to continue to do that because if not, and I wouldn’t blame them, but we would lose kids.”

The school board voted to purchase the land, which years ago was a trailer park, shortly after the tornado destroyed the high school March 31. The property is located across the street from the primary and intermediate schools.

Nabholz, the school district’s construction manager, will erect the facility. Adam Seiter, executive vice president of operations, said the temporary structures were procured by the district’s architect, Memphis-based ARCH 1010.

“Those things are in demand. Every year, if there’s a hurricane, if there’s a flood, whatever natural disaster, everybody is fighting over the availability of those modular units,” he said. “So that’s where we’re at right now is making sure that people honor the commitments that they’ve made to us to deliver modular buildings and that sort of thing.”

The challenge of getting the campus built on time is compounded by the fact that Wynne is on a year-round calendar. Students will return to school July 24. But Seiter said the actual construction won’t take long. The infrastructure was being built for water, sewer, power and data communications. Nabholz will have plenty of workers on the ground installing the buildings. The weather should cooperate over the summer, and when it rains, the ground should dry out quickly.

The district wanted to create an inviting academic environment. Lots of trees were left, and the school will feature a courtyard in the center. Classrooms will open to the outside, so constructors will build sidewalks and pathways with covered access where needed. Fencing will be installed around the temporary school, with controlled access off two roads, one of them being Falls Boulevard, the main street through town.

“I told Kenneth, ‘You have to communicate: We are going to give our kids a comprehensive high school education for the next three years,’” said the school board president, Stacie Schlenker. “Yes, they’ll be going to school in modulars, but they’re not modulars back when we were in school 35-40 years ago. They’re going to be nice structures, and we’re going to offer band, we’re going to offer choir; we’re going to offer drama; we’re going to offer every sport we ever offered before. We’re going to offer agri. I mean, agri’s huge in this community. We’re going to offer food and nutrition services. We’re going to offer every single thing we offered before. It may look a little different, but we are not going to downsize because of the tornado.”

Moore said the architect’s renderings have generated positive comments. His daughter, an incoming sophomore, had worried she would be graduating from something that didn’t feel like a high school. Instead, she said the drawings almost have the feel of a college campus.

While students will be attending classes at the temporary facility, football games this fall will be played at Yellowjacket Stadium, which was badly damaged by the tornado but will be repaired. Lighting and temporary bleachers have been secured. Also, while most of the buildings at the school have already been razed, the basketball arena appears salvageable.

Meanwhile, the district is planning its permanent high school on a compressed timeline. The early review deadline for the 2025-27 state Academic Facilities Partnership Program funding cycle is Nov. 1.

That’s not much time. The district was holding community meetings in advance of asking for a previously scheduled 4.9 mill increase, its first increase since 2003. If approved, the rate would increase from 35 to 39.9 mills. The vote is Aug. 8.

The district had already planned the request because it wanted to build a kindergarten wing at the primary school and then shuffle the third grade over to the primary school, the sixth grade to the intermediate school, and the ninth grade to the junior high. The current arrangements have been a little mismatched to state Department of Education standards. It also wanted to improve security at its campuses.

Safety and security, of course, are now fresh on everyone’s minds. Moore said Wynne has been hit by three tornadoes, including one that struck the old junior high. He wants the new high school design to equip every classroom with a safe room that is rated for the most powerful EF5 tornadoes and also constructed with Army-certified ballistic steel that a bullet won’t penetrate. Meanwhile, all other classrooms in the district will be retrofitted with those safe rooms.

The new high school will have a smaller footprint than the old campus did, reflecting the fact that the district has fewer students than it did when the old high school was built. At the same time, Moore said it should have nicer amenities. The district has long had an excellent theater department, and the auditorium was used by the town. Moore is hoping to make the new one a pillar of the community, perhaps visible from heavily traveled Falls Boulevard, and potentially equipped with a community storm shelter. Plans are for the new high school to have a turfed baseball-softball field on site. Currently, students travel to a community field on the city’s outskirts. Also planned are an indoor multipurpose facility, a pre-K center and a day care for school employees.

Moore had previously frowned on safe rooms because of their high cost. That’s no longer the case.

“I’m telling you right now, I don’t care what we have to cut or ask for, anybody that doesn’t have a safe room in their buildings, they’ve lost their mind,” he said. “There isn’t one thing worth putting in that building that’s more important than that safe room.” which has supported new and renovated schools. 1,857

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