There is an ongoing discussion about the future of Fayetteville’s Ramay Junior High School. Ozarks at Large’s Jack Travis brings us an update from city council meetings as the issue reaches a checkpoint, with council members considering rezoning the proposed school’s new land.
The future location of Fayetteville’s Ramay Junior High is still uncertain. The public school district has proposed building on a forested hillside overlooking College Avenue in East Fayetteville. Support and dissent echo throughout town, while groups and individuals on both sides of the issue have made their voices heard through public comment, fundraising and grassroots activism.
Next week, city council will hear again the school district’s request for rezoning the site from residential single-family and urban corridor to P-1 institutional. This will be the council’s third time hearing the proposal, and a vote could either pave the way for the new Ramay or spell its removal to a different site.
Council meetings with rezoning on the agenda have been well attended. Many residents have stepped out to speak — or sing — their thoughts on the issue.
“Look off to the east. Thousands of trees — shagbark, oak, hickory. Two hundred years they’ve thrived on this mountainside, watching over town, a piece of hallowed ground. A lovely morning brings the song. The wood thrush sings. I wonder if we’ll hear it anymore. Sunny, and still such a bitter pill if we lose the last forest in Fayetteville.”
“I’m a parent of four, including a sixth grader and a fourth grader from Root and McNair that will be directly impacted by this project. I also have 20 years’ experience as a sustainability practitioner, currently leading Walmart’s global food waste strategy. So I care very deeply about this project’s environmental impact. I also volunteer locally teaching garden club at a local elementary, and I lead a local Cub Scout group. So I see firsthand how our decisions shape the next generation and the importance of fostering an appreciation of nature with our youth.
“I understand a lot of the environmental concerns. No one wants to clear trees unnecessarily, but this rezoning is a holistic and sustainable opportunity for our district’s future. We must recognize the sustainable choice is not always the one that spares the most trees in the short term.”
The rezoning proposal had to make it out of the planning commission before coming in front of city council. City Development Director Jonathan Curth said it passed by a large margin, but there was a holdout.
“The planning commission forwarded it to city council by a vote of seven to one. There was one recusal. Those in favor found it to be compatible with land uses and consistent with land-use plans and felt that the zoning district proposed is appropriate regardless of how it is developed or even if it is not developed.
“If the council recalls, earlier this year and in years past, rezoning requests to P-1 were brought forward for city parks property. P-1 is a commonly used tool for areas intended to be preserved or kept for recreation, non-developed purposes, just as much as for institutional uses such as schools and museums.
“The dissenting vote expressed that there were too many cumulative environmental concerns on the property and that it was not appropriate to change the entitlements at this time.”
Environmental concerns are paramount, yet traffic anxieties remain constant. In a Dec. 2 meeting, council member Bob Stafford expressed a desire to see an updated traffic study after one released by the school district earlier this year proved too conservative to be an accurate prediction.
Fayetteville Public Schools traffic engineering consultant Nathan Becknell spoke to those concerns and the in-progress study, which redraws traffic patterns to be consistent with the district’s new feeder pattern, for which Ramay’s new location was selected to benefit.
“You can think of that 88% as a high bound of what we would consider with the eastern approach. So that’s more people on Ash than we actually think will happen. The one I did in February shows everybody going on College. The one I did in October shows people coming more down Ash. And what we realize is it will be somewhere in the middle of those two.”
The main environmental concern is the site’s slope and the number of trees the district would need to cut down for the new school.
“We don’t feel that it is compatible with our city’s ordinances and plans.”
Lana Harris is the secretary of the Fayetteville Natural Heritage Association, a local nonprofit that identifies and sometimes purchases vulnerable green spaces and then preserves them for community use. The group was partly responsible for the preservation of Sequoyah Woods and Mount Kessler. She says it’s difficult to reconcile the city’s consideration of the proposed Ramay site with Fayetteville’s environmental goals.
“We are a Tree City USA, and we have been for over 30 years. It’s hard to understand how a Tree City USA for 30 years could even consider the destruction of over 3,000 trees on a hillside in the heart of town. And so that’s our goal, to try to not get that rezoning approved and to help Fayetteville Public Schools find an alternative site. We’re not against the school.”
Harris says the Fayetteville Natural Heritage Association has raised millions of dollars from the community to purchase the site from the district. However, Fayetteville Public Schools Superintendent John Mulford said via email that until the rezoning gets denied, they are not considering a sale. Even then, the decision to sell would remain at the school board’s discretion.
Harris says they have offered other sites, yet none seem to fit the school district’s expectations.
“We’ve presented multiple properties, and all have been rejected for various reasons that change, and we’re still continuing to look for alternative solutions.”
The association will continue to oppose the district building on the hillside even if city council approves the rezoning.
“It is such a permanent decision. This hillside, this forest, it can’t be replaced. We can’t just plant some saplings and hope that mitigates the destruction of an urban forest. So many cities would give anything to have an urban forest, and the fact that Fayetteville is considering losing ours is hard to even wrap our brains around.
“We want what’s best for the kids in Fayetteville. If a new school is needed, great. Let’s build that school. Give me a hammer and a nail and I will help. We are not opposed to a new school. We are opposed to that location.”
City council will hear the proposal for a third time next Tuesday, Dec. 16. You can visit our website to hear an in-depth report about the new school and the land it might occupy.
Ozarks at Large transcripts are created on a rush deadline. Copy editors utilize AI tools to review work. KUAF does not publish content created by AI. Please reach out to kuafinfo@uark.edu to report an issue. The audio version is the authoritative record of KUAF programming.
