Thanks to the Iconoclast, I knew the Fayetteville School Board had scheduled a hurry-up special meeting today to consider the simmering controversy over building a new high school. The Powers That Be seem to favor selling the current high school to the University of Arkansas and building a new school on the edge of town. Edge city developers are positively salivating at the idea.
This being Fayetteville, a town full of thinkers, some smart-growth proponents have emerged. The leaders include Janine Parry, a faculty member at UA. They are raising questions about what they believe could be underestimates of the cost of the move — maybe as much as $145 million — along with the general soundness of lifting the high school out of the center of town.
Here’s a prepared statement from that group, BuildSmart.
The PTB won round one today, with a 7-0 vote to begin the negotiating process with UA, though this wasn’t a straw vote on school board sentiment on a move of the campus. On the jump, some further comments about the meeting from Parry, a political science professor.