Bella Vista City Guide

More and more families with children are moving to Bella Vista. Included in the many reasons the town is so desirable to younger families are the public schools. Wherever you live in Bella Vista, there is a great school district available to you. Bella Vista families served by three outstanding school districts | By Randy Rice, Special to Bella Vista City Guide GRAVETTE SCHOOL DISTRICT To the west of Bella Vista is another smaller district, the Gravette School District. It has 1,908 students in grades PK, K-12 with a student-teacher ratio of 14 to 1. e district has an overall Niche rating of B+. Gravette Middle School received an "A" rating by the Arkansas Department of Education. e Gravette School District has beautiful facilities that support a wide variety of course offerings including AP courses, concurrent credit courses, Education Accelerated by Service and Technology (EAST), health occupation sciences, fine arts and performing arts courses, career and technical education courses and athletics. eir Western Benton County Career Center offers courses and certifications in automotive, HVAC/R, welding and certified nursing assistant. Like Bella Vista and Pea Ridge, Gravette is part of the Northwest Arkansas growth boom that area communities have experienced the past decade. And Gravette has witnessed extensive remodeling and expansion within the school district. e district is looking to expand opportunities for students to develop skills, participate in apprenticeships, community service learning experiences and receive certifications that will give them immediate opportunities and college and career advantages aer graduation. PEA RIDGE SCHOOL DISTRICT On the eastern boarder of Bella Vista is Pea Ridge, which also offers an outstanding public school education to residents of Bella Vista. Pea Ridge School District is an above average, public school district and considerably smaller than Bentonville's school district. It has 2,252 students in grades PK, K-12 with a student-teacher ratio of 17 to 1. e Niche School Rating System gives Pea Ridge an "A" in the area of sports. e big news in the district is the high school complex which opened its doors in September of 2020. e much-anticipated 90,000 square foot high school complex is as innovative as the programs it houses. It looks less like a traditional high school and more like a high-tech business campus. When you enter the high school, it is an impressive site. You walk into a two-story atrium with floor to ceiling windows that is the high school cafeteria, but it looks more like a food court in a high-end shopping mall. Turn right and you journey past classrooms with all of the modern equipment you would be happy to find in a college or university, and extremely impressed to find at the high school level. At the end of the hall is the new medical center that is open to the public and doubles as the perfect education tool for those choosing a pathway program related to the medical profession. ere's also the open space built for students to hang out and socialize called e Quad, that resembles a college student union. Beyond that is the new, state-of-the-art athletic center and the stunning fine arts center that has all of the cutting edge equipment for sound, lighting, staging, even video production. BENTONVILLE SCHOOL DISTRICT In 1872 the first public school was built in Bentonville. In 1912, the first four-year high school class graduated, consisting of six students. e District now encompasses 142 square miles of land including most of Bentonville, and portions of Bella Vista, Cave Springs, Centerton, Highfill, Little Flock and Rogers. Fast forward to today, Bentonville has become a top rated, public school district. It has 17,970 students in grades K-12 with a student-teacher ratio of 16 to 1. Bentonville High School is ranked third within Arkansas. Students have the opportunity to take Advanced Placement coursework and exams. e AP® participation rate at Bentonville High School is 67%. Bella Vista is proud to be home to one of this outstanding school district's schools, Cooper Elementary, the only school inside the Bella Vista city limits. is past summer, Josh Vest became the new principal at Cooper Elementary School. He most recently worked 13 years in the Bentonville School District as principal of Gateway Alternative School and also helped start the district's virtual school right before the pandemic started. Before that he was an English teacher at Bentonville High School for nine years. One of the unique offerings of Cooper Elementary is a community garden located right across the street from the school. It's on the Mercy ER and Clinic's property and the school has partnered with them. Classes are sent over throughout the day and students maintain a couple of the beds. Mercy is one of several partnerships Cooper Elementary has developed over the years to provide more to their young learners. Several years ago, General Mills wrote a grant to build a fitness park at the school. Cooper Elementary students have access to fitness equipment like chin-up bars and other activities. Aer hours these facilities are open to the public and it's connected to the local trails system. 2023 Bella Vista City Guide | 25

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