UA eyes high school -- UPDATE
University of Arkansas officials say they are willing to pay a premium to buy the Fayetteville High School campus, adjacent to the university. It's potentially a $60-million-plus deal. This is a powerful new wrinkle in the ongoing battle in Fayetteville over whether to build a new high school and, if so, where. I await The Iconoclast's assessment.
UPDATE: Cassandra is exactly right. The Iconoclast rips John White and Fayetteville school nabobs such as Supt. Bobby New yet another couple of new ones.
White and New will soon be gone, but their actions will leave a legacy. No one will ever believe University administrators when they say the school needs more state tax dollars or continuing tuition hikes to provide an adequate education. Not when they spend state funds to hire more administrators and use student tuition money for real estate speculation. No one will ever believe that Alan Wilbourn is meeting the One Vision strategic goal #6, to "continually and effectively communicate with all stakeholders." A sad situation from a sorry deal.
Comments
At this point in U.S. economy who else would buy the Fay High School Campus? I cannot imagine a person at UA saying they would use the high school "as is."
Posted by: eLwood![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.arktimes.com/blogs/arkansasblog/nav-commenters.gif)
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January 26, 2008 11:07 AM
Wait a second....I thought the UofA was trying to destroy the LRSD?
Posted by: RazorbackDem![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.arktimes.com/blogs/arkansasblog/nav-commenters.gif)
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January 26, 2008 12:04 PM
Not sure if it makes a difference or not, but I always thought when looking at the location of Fayetteville High School, how wonderful it must have been to attend HS so close to a University. What wonderful additional resources and motivations to look ahead.. Not sure if my projection has merit or not but it seems like a question worth considering before selling out.
Posted by: Eureka Springs, AR![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.arktimes.com/blogs/arkansasblog/nav-commenters.gif)
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January 26, 2008 12:04 PM
ES, that is one of several arguments against the sale. Presently there are 18-20 students from FHS who take advanced classes at UA.
But what riles sane people are the plans for a new super High School to be built in the Western side of Fay, or North West side. That would certainly help developers and real estate values in that area but would amount to a considerable drive for families in the populous East side, South side and No.East sections. This is especially true in Fayetteville which has only one East West corridor, if you want to call North Street a corridor. At its present location FHS is somewhat centrally located but the detractors say is beset with traffic jams owing to poor access. That could have been fixed long ago.
The best proposition I've heard is from The Morning News which advocated two high schools rather than one super campus. Of course asking Fayetteville residents to cough up more property taxes will be difficult since they have voted down the last 3-4 requests for other things. Having the $60 mill from the sale of the present school to put on the acquisition and construction of a new school would lighten the tax burden. Fayetteville residents are heavily taxed.
Posted by: eLwood![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.arktimes.com/blogs/arkansasblog/nav-commenters.gif)
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January 26, 2008 12:23 PM
The Iconoclast has weighed in, and it is brutal. And futile he says, but it is still a hard rant.
http://jonah-tebbetts.blogspot.com/2008/01/double-secret-wtf.html
Posted by: Cassandra![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.arktimes.com/blogs/arkansasblog/nav-commenters.gif)
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January 26, 2008 05:58 PM