Rison Cafeteria Plans Approved By State

RISON - The Cleveland County School District could be opening bids for the Rison School cafeteria expansion by mid-December, Superintendent Jerrod Williams told the Cleveland County School Board Tuesday night. Meanwhile, the school board approved giving all contracted employees, both certified and classified, a one-time bonus of $500. Those issues and others were addressed during the Cleveland County School Board's regular monthly meeting held Tuesday night at the administration building in Rison. Williams told the board that he had learned Tuesday afternoon from architect Steve Elliott that the proposed plans for the cafeteria expansion had been approved by the Arkansas Division of Public School Academic Facilities & Transportation, the State Fire Marshal's Office and the Arkansas Department of Health. With those approvals, he said the project is ready to put out for bid. While the bids could go out as early as next week, Williams said he preferred to delay advertising for them until after the Thanksgiving holiday. He said the bid will be advertised for two weeks, and a bid opening could come as early as Dec. 14, if everything goes according to plan. Expanding the school cafeteria at the Rison campus has been on the school board's agenda for the past few years. The current facility is too small to accommodate all the students on campus, and the expansion will allow the elementary to have lunch peri-ods closer to the noon hour rather lunches that begin before 11 a.m. The cafeteria expansion was among the projects included a 5mill tax increase requested by the school board in 2021 and 2022. Previously, the expansion plans weres to split the addition into two sections with each being built on the north and side sides of the existing cafeteria. Those plans were to add about 2,000 square feet of seating space and a third serving line. The estimated cost for the plan presented during the 2022 el...