Skip to main content
Add as a preferred source on Google

Arkansas District Begins $140M Renovation, Construction Project

  • By Matt Jones
  • 07/12/22

A $140-million renovation and construction project has already begun at three schools within Springdale Public Schools in Springdale, Ark. Central Junior High School and Southwest Junior High School will receive total rebuilds, while Springdale High School will receive significant renovations, according to local news.

The three legacy schools are among the oldest in the district. The facility for Central Junior High was built in 1976; Southwest Junior High in 1967; and one building on the Springdale High School campus was built in 1952, according to the district website.

“When you look at some of these facilities, they’ve been around a long time, and they have served well and they’ve done a good job, but it was time…it’s time to modernize. It’s time to create more space. It’s time to evolve facilities the same way education’s evolving,” said Trent Jones, the district’s Director of Communications.

The junior high schools will retain certain components, like their existing gyms, as artifacts to memorialize the school’s history.

“We’ve connected the past and the present and the future by just making sure that we take different kinds of artifacts and pieces of history, and we continue it on through this construction,” Jones said.

Springdale High School has already seen its BLATT building (or “Flat Building”) demolished. Its old gymnasium will also be torn down in favor of a new Physical Education complex to be built next to the football stadium.

Previously, local news reported that the Springdale School Board approved the purchase of 12 acres of land in May 2022 for Central Junior high’s construction. That story also reported that the project will be funded largely through the American Rescue Plan Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief funds.

Renderings for all three schools are available on the Springdale Public Schools website.

About the Author

Matt Jones is senior editor of Spaces4Learning. He can be reached at [email protected].

Featured

  • Architectural Power for the Modern Campus Landscape

    For generations, an outdoor classroom only required a textbook and a patch of grass. Today, not only has the laptop replaced the printed pages, the rise of agile learning has turned campuses into study halls with students listening to lectures and researching topics from quads, gardens, and plazas. The challenge for architects and facility managers is to provide connectivity without cluttering the landscape with visual eyesores or creating safety hazards with extension cords.

  • S4L Announces 2026 Education Design Showcase Winners

    Spaces4Learning is thrilled to announce the winners of the 2026 Education Design Showcase! Now in its 27th year, the annual awards program honors innovative solutions in planning, design, architecture, and construction across K–12 and higher education.

  • Full Sail University Announces First Student Housing Facility

    Full Sail University in Winter Park, Fla., recently announced that development has begun on its first student housing community, according to a news release. The university is partnering with Nvision Development for construction and long-term management of the facility, which will stand five stories and have the capacity for more than 570 beds.

  • Minnesota District Starts Construction on Early Childhood Learning Center

    Sauk Rapids-Rice Public Schools in Sauk Rapids, Minn., recently announced that construction has begun on a new early childhood learning center and a new outdoor activities complex, according to a news release.