Arkansas School Facility Needs Assessed at $2.7 Billion
LITTLE ROCK, Ark.-When the 2005 Arkansas 85th General Assembly convened Jan. 10, it faced the final report to the Joint Committee on Educational Facilities, released Nov. 30, 2004, which calls for $2.7 billion in improvements to be made to public schools across Arkansas. The five-year projected investment is $4.5 billion.
The report was released after an 80-day assessment of 84.6 million square feet of educational space.
There are 1,205 schools and 5,766 school-related permanent buildings in Arkansas that support 451,040 students in 254 school districts. Of Arkansas’s school buildings, 40.2 percent were constructed prior to 1970 or are 35 years of age or older.
The program manager was comprised of four separate consulting and design firms: DeJONG, Summit Consulting Services, Magellan K-12 and Fanning/Howey Associates Inc.
“Assessing all of the schools in the state of Arkansas in 80 days has never been done before,” said William DeJong, Ph.D., REFP. “The entire team of Magellan K-12, Summit Consulting, Fanning/Howey Associates, and DeJong took on this project to make a difference. We have done our job, it will now be up to the legislature and the citizens of Arkansas to see what happens next.”