ROGERS, Ark. — After the Memorial Day weekend tornadoes destroyed the roof, AC units, floors, electrical, and plumbing at Greer Lingle Middle School, Superintendent Dr. Jeff Perry said it would take a year to repair. In the meantime, the school board decided to install 44 mobile classrooms on the campus of the Rogers New Technology High School for the 2024-45 school year.
"We decided to put everything on New Tech," Perry said. "By the time we did that, we had about 60 days to get everything ready."
With such little time for all the mobile units to arrive and for the district to prepare the infrastructure of the units, Perry said they had to come up with a temporary relocation plan. Since school began on Aug. 14, Lingle's 6th graders have been learning at the First Baptist Church in Rogers.
"We did have a conversation with the First Baptist church if they would allow us to use part of their facility to hold a grade level," Perry said. "They were very gracious in terms of allowing us to use that upstairs section where they would have some classrooms. They also have a cafeteria. They've got a gym. They've got some of that critical infrastructure that's needed to have students."
First Baptist is not charging any rental or usage fees, but Perry said the district will financially compensate the church.
"We know that we're using electricity. We know that we're using air condition. We know that we're creating additional custodial work for them, and so we're definitely going to compensate the church for that because we know that we're adding a financial burden to them," Perry said. "They've been super in terms of that's part of their mission, in terms of serving the community, and but at the same point in time, we know that there's a cost associated with that, and we want to make sure that we're good neighbors and take care of that."
As for 7th and 8th graders, one grade level is learning inside Rogers New Technology High School and the others are in the 12 portable units. Perry said the district hopes to have all the students in mobile classrooms by the end of the month or the first week of September.
"It probably won't be until we return from Labor Day that we've got all those classrooms set up," Perry said. "Once they get here, once we get them leveled, blocked, underneath, and just sit in on a foundation, then we've got to connect the water, the sewage, the all the other things that are critical to having a school system. So all that should be done by Labor Day."
According to Perry, Lingle Middle School's renovations are on schedule and the students are expected to be in the new building next school year.
The district is also adding a new safety feature to the school. After Act 764 was approved in April, Arkansas law now requires any new education facilities to include storm shelters.
"We're required to have a safe room, so now we've got to create one, and that will take us a little bit of time to create that," Perry said. "A safe room would have a reinforced wall, reinforced foundation, reinforced roof, and some of those kinds of things to keep students safe. The deal would be, is the room has to be big enough to accommodate the student body."
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