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Oldest elementary school in Arkansas to close

Garfield Elementary is the oldest elementary school in the state, open since 1888, and Tuesday the Rogers School board scheduled it for closure.

GARFIELD, Ark. — The Rogers School Board decided to close Garfield Elementary School on Tuesday.

Open since 1888, the elementary school is the longest continually operating elementary school in the state of Arkansas, according to the city website

Superintendent Dr. Jeff Perry says, "We've conducted community forums, we've met with the staff, we created a steering committee. And so this was the culmination of several months of studies, if not years of studies. And so the decision now is to simply prepare the students to be able to enroll in Tillery a year after next. And also make sure that we take care of staff because everyone will have a job." 

"That particular school has a unique history. The community is a wonderful community, I actually live in that community. And so there's a lot of neat and unique things about that school, and about the Garfield community. But as superintendent, it's a difficult decision sometimes," said Dr. Perry.

The superintendent explained that the campus was due for updates to comply with ADA codes. There were also talks of opening a school in Avoca for the students, but ultimately the board chose to close the school.

"If we spent the $40 million, or whatever would have been 36 million to do the elementary school, then there would have been no money left in the Capitol building program to do anything at Oakdale," said Dr. Perry.

Dr. Jeff Perry joined the Rogers school district for the 2022 school year. He explained that many small schools face the issue of closure.

"If you have anything less than 500 students, you're normally losing money at that particular school. And so for example, at Garfield Elementary School, approximately, we're losing about $670,000 a year on that one school," the superintendent added.

The school board had 2 items on their agenda Tuesday that called for renovations. 

Dr. Perry says, "So as we begin to look at that, then the most logical and the best use of taxpayers' money was to focus on the middle school, and then bring our elementary schools up to more of 100% capacity, as opposed to building a new school."

"The general consensus is it seems like the school district is trying to do what's best for the school district, and not what's best for our kids," said parent Whitney Neighbors.

Neighbors' son just started at Garfield this year. She had joined community members in attending board meetings, eventually joining the effort to keep the school open.

"You have a lot of very angry people right now. I mean, parents are just upset that... their kid is not going to get the same opportunity once they leave Garfield. And trying to mentally prepare for that and decide from here what's going to be best for our kids is a really bad feeling." said Neighbors. 

"There's not a lot of other school districts or schools in general that you can go to where the principal greets his kids at the door every single morning. He knows every single one of them by name. At the end of the day, he's putting them in their cars, and they know exactly which cars they go into... [The staff] really getting to know their students is what I appreciate here. They treat each student individually to what their needs are," said Neighbors.

"This spot right here, this is, this is Garfield. And you have people that have lived in this area for a really long time... that still come and help out with the building. So I would like to see it stay something like that for all of us. Where the community can still come here and be a community," Neighbors added about the school.

Dr. Perry said he understands the community after having to close a small school he previously served at as principal.  

"I cried the day that we closed the school, I was the one that locked the door on the last day. And I stayed there. And it was an emotional time for me. But I will also tell you that the school that we created from two elementary schools that came together, there was nobody that wanted to go back to Bethel," said Dr. Perry 

"There's no doubt there's an emotional connection to that school, there have been generations of people... my great-grandmother went there, my grandmother went there, I went there, and my daughter's going there, and my granddaughters gonna go there. And so we understand the situation about emotional connections. But just from a historical point of view, they actually closed down I believe seven different local schools to create Garfield Elementary School," says Dr. Perry

"If we had unlimited funding, if we were able to repair the building and have an unlimited capital improvement project budget, we could do that. But unfortunately, we don't. And unfortunately, that's not the only school within the district, there are several ones. And part of our responsibility is making not emotional decisions, but practical decisions that will not only benefit this district today but will benefit 5-10 years from now," the Superintendent added.

The Superintendent added that the school district still owns the land in Avoca at Stratton and that "if we begin to see growth in either the Avoca area or the Garfield area, we already have the plans and we have the land to go ahead and build the school. It also may be that the growth becomes situated in another area and we find another location but we will place community schools where we see the numbers of students."

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