Tammy Curtis, Publisher
Years of planning, saving and community support came together Aug. 27 as Cave City School District officials, students and community members celebrated the groundbreaking for the district’s new elementary school.
Amy Finster, a Cave City graduate and community director for FARCO, the project’s construction manager, welcomed those attending the ceremony.
“This school and this community helped shape who I am today,” Finster said. “To be here with FARCO, helping build a new school for our future generations, is really a special day.”
Young students stood nearby holding signs thanking the community for supporting their new school. Behind them, heavy equipment continued working on the site even as the ceremony was underway.
Cave City Superintendent Steven Green spent much of his time at the podium recognizing those whose work over more than two decades helped make the project possible.
Green began with former Superintendent Larry Brown and the school board serving at the time for having the “oversight and foresight” to purchase what was known as the Pierce property in 2001. The acquisition gave the district room to expand beyond its previous boundaries and ultimately provided the site for the new school.
He also credited current and former school board members with carefully setting aside money over the years, allowing the district to accumulate $6.1 million in its building fund. Those savings, Green said, helped the district seek an extension of its existing millage rather than an increase.
Current board members are President Eddie Walling, Ashley Beller, Sandy Smart, John Hodges, Bobby Saunders, Caleb Qualls and Brandon Qualls.
Green also recognized Facilities Director Tim Caine, Facilities Consultant Chad Davidson and Tyrell Pace for their roles in navigating the state’s Academic Facilities Partnership Program and documenting the district’s need for a new elementary school.
The district was approved for approximately $12.7 million in state partnership funding, which will cover about half the project cost.
Green thanked state and local officials who supported the funding program, saying that state assistance is critical to rural school districts’ ability to maintain safe and secure facilities.
“This is the only way that rural schools will be able to maintain safe and secure facilities in their districts,” Green said.
Architect Andy Hicks was recognized for designing a school that incorporates the district’s priorities while meeting the project’s requirements and staying within budget. Elementary administrators Lori Laman and Carrie Moore also worked closely with the architect throughout the design process.
Green thanked Cave City Mayor Jonas Anderson and the City Council, local banks and businesses, the Cave City Area Chamber of Commerce and others who supported the project.
He reserved special thanks for district voters, who approved the millage extension with nearly 85 percent support. The extension will provide approximately $7.4 million toward the project. Green also recognized Scott Beardsley of Beardsley Public Finance for his work securing the district’s bond financing.
FARCO representatives Finster, Roger Rich and Jody Smotherman were thanked for their work as construction managers, along with others involved in developing a guaranteed maximum price that would allow the project to move forward.
“Thank you to all the patrons of the Cave City School District whose continued support of the district has made this possible,” Green said. “Thanks to all of you, our kids will have a safe and secure environment to learn and even more opportunities for an even greater future.”
Anderson, himself a Cave City graduate and the father of three children attending the district’s schools, said the project will benefit the community for generations.
He said he was particularly proud of the response when school officials developed a plan and brought it before voters.
“Not only did people say we’re going to support it, but they enthusiastically said, ‘We trust the Cave City School District, we trust this community and, yes, we’re going to support this project,’” Anderson said. “It would not have happened without that.”
State Rep. Bart Schulz also spoke during the ceremony, crediting district taxpayers for investing in the community’s children and their education.
“Our future is bright, in part due to the commitment made by the taxpayers of this school district,” Schulz said. “They made a commitment to invest in our future and secure a great education for these kids, and that makes me very proud.”
He described the groundbreaking as a starting point for more good things to come and closed with a quote attributed to John F. Kennedy: “Our children are the living messages we send to a time we will not see.”
FARCO President Taylor Meharg thanked Green, the school board and district for choosing the company for the project. He noted that several employees of FARCO and Precise have ties to Cave City and said the companies look forward to delivering a school the community can be proud of.
Elected officials, school administrators and board members, Chamber of Commerce ambassadors and students then participated in the ceremonial groundbreaking.
Turnbough honored for lasting contribution
Before the ceremony concluded, the district turned its attention from its future to a longtime educator whose work helped shape the property where the new school is being built.
Green joked that he was trying to “wrap up his bucket list” before retirement, before Cave City High School Principal Marc Walling and Middle School Principal Jamie King announced a special recognition for longtime educator Ed Turnbough.
Turnbough spent 21 years with the district, first working with students in the Alternative Learning Environment program and later teaching middle school science.
Walling said Turnbough’s influence extended well beyond the classroom.
“He used the natural world, conservation and the outdoors to introduce students to science,” Walling said.
After the district purchased the property in 2001, Turnbough helped develop a conservation trail, improve the pond and construct a pavilion. Much of the work was funded by conservation grants from the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission, with students participating in efforts to improve the property.
Turnbough also established the district’s archery program, which Walling described as one of Cave City’s most successful extracurricular programs in both participation and achievement.
Walling read a proclamation honoring Turnbough before King unveiled a sign officially naming the pond in his honor.
The recognition provided a fitting conclusion to a groundbreaking centered on Cave City schools’ future — honoring an educator who helped develop the same property more than two decades before the first dirt was turned for the district’s newest school.
