When I arrived on the Yerger Middle School campus for its mid-morning open house last week, there was a little trouble finding a parking space near the office entrance, which is on the south side of the building, so I sought a space on the northern side, hoping to snag one there on concrete since the ground was still a bit saturated from Winter Storm Fern’s leavings. But instead I parked on reddish, muddy gravel just to the side of the northern lot.
This is the second in a series of descriptions of my visits to the Hope Public School campuses during open houses when I was shown by staff and students what can be improved on their campuses by the passage of a millage raise in the March 3rd election.
I remembered Superintendent Jonathan Crossley’s talk I had attended both as Lion Club member and journalist. He spoke of Yerger’s need for a more secure entrance. The northern entrance is glassed double-doors. The southern one has doors on the southeast and southwest entrances. Much more protective would be vestibules that would minimize the chances of sudden intrusions and may even prevent intrusions altogether. Fencing plans would add to the ability to secure the campus.
Already in progress when I made way toward the office was a gathering of teachers, administrators and students talking in what used to be the Career Orientation classroom when I was a student there from 1983 to 86.
Parking and traffic flow at Yerger was a major concern in this meeting. As one administrator explained, clearing spaces that very day for open house attendees made it difficult for those working at the school. “For open house, they [teachers and staff] have to park in the bus route area, and line up there and go all the way to the street so that they can get in. Sometimes they may have to make a loop to find somewhere to park. Parking is a really big issue, even for this occasion, as Dr Crossley said, our teachers have to park on the other side so that you will have some space for parking.”
Crossley, present at all the Open House sessions last week, elaborated. “On the other [western] side there's an alternative education center and a Head Start pre-K. So we're maximizing all the space that we can. Because of that, there's just no space for simple things like parking or traffic.”
This is one of several Yerger Middle School problems the proposed millage raise from 34.7 to 39.7 mills could solve. If approved, the resulting property tax increase would amount to $6.83 per month and 23 cents per day for properties worth $89,000, the average amount for a property in the district.
A treacherous walkway around the campus’ buildings is also needing addressing. While I remember this sidewalked lane in the 1980s as smooth-ambling, at the open house traversing it reminded me of being inside a state fair funhouse with floors on tilt. The sidewalks and grounds in the area among the Yerger main building, the gym and the other buildings are leaning and puffing up, pushing up edges and causing major trip hazards. The plan after millage passage is to surface the area in concrete that is levelled evenly and then to provide seating that could be used during meals and during outdoor class time.
Drainage of the field on the southeast part of the campus would also be addressed by the millage funding. Principal of Yerger Marilyn Marks explained why the numerous puddles and mud drifts pose problems for students. “The water stays around quite a while, so we're not able to use it very much at all. We have to transfer our kids over to the high school quite a bit for practices. [The millage] will help us out tremendously with being able to keep them on campus,” she said. Installation of what is called PE turf in that field would follow millage passage allowing for the use of the field even after rains.
Crossley has dubbed the proposal the Warm, Safe and Dry Millage because so much of what it will do will pertain to the first imperative of any school before learning can take place, protecting students from the elements and from dangers. An enclosure protecting students coming and going at the front entrance will further protect them from rain, cold and wet clothes. One of the students leading the tour commented on this.
“Our only coverage and place where we can get, like, away from [rain] is underneath this [entrance] and with a lot of car riders, it is crammed at times. When it's raining, we have to run out in the rain to get to our vehicles, going into school and outside of school,” she said.
Next, we were shown the recent major renovations in the Yerger Gym, which was completed primarily with funds provided by the state of Arkansas. The new locker rooms, storage areas and the lobby look well befitting of a Hope school. The students expressed their gratitude about not being afraid to enter these places anymore and having more room for their gear. Some of the millage will help replace the deteriorated seating around the basketball court.
After that, we visited the bathrooms, most of which were the exact same as those that were fairly new during my 80s years at the school but which today simply aren’t suitable for students. Ceiling tiles are missing. Soap dispensers don’t work. Lighting installations are broken. Locks on many of the stalls don’t work, allowing no feeling of privacy. The bathrooms are extremely clean but clearly need modernizing. Stepping into them is like visiting a John Hughes movie set.
Additional plans are to renovate classrooms. We visited three of them. Students asked that we take a look at desks whose design I again found familiar from my own attendance of Yerger 40 years ago. Most of the surfaces were written on. The metal piping sometimes had sharp, protruding edges and the structures holding a few of them together were a bit loose.
Voters in the district will have the chance to approve a millage starting with early voting February 17th. Crossley mentioned in the Lions meeting that the district had learned its lesson from the millage campaign of 2023 not succeeding. This one asks for less of a raise and concentrates more on learning conditions for students than raises in salary for teachers and staff.
For more information see Crossley's interview on our SWARK.Today episode of Investigating the Issues. There is also the district’s extremely informative website on their proposal. To join the campaign as a volunteer, the Friends of Hope School District can be contacted through their Facebook page.
