High-school purchase off the UA's table for now, reports the Northwest Arkansas Times

UPDATE: Fayetteville School District administration quiet on UA's withdrawal of $50-million offer for Fayetteville High School
Northwest Arkansas Times
Posted on Thursday, August 21, 2008
The Fayetteville School District administration issued a press release to say it has nothing to say about today's decision by the University of Arkansas to withdraw its $50-million offer to buy the campus of Fayetteville High School.
The university's move has the potential to end the Fayetteville School District's dream of building a new high school elsewhere.
University of Arkansas Chancellor G. David Gearhart said this morning that Fayetteville School District officials recently indicated that their decision-making process could take several more months. The UA needs to move on to other matters, Gearhart said.
"We've got so many other needs here on campus that we're going to turn our attention to other things," Gearhart said.
In a statement released by the Fayetteville School District Thursday afternoon, Superintendent Bobby New said the administration "understands and appreciates" the autonomous authority of the UA and the chancellor in making this decision, but "public school districts and boards of education work much differently in how they resolve major issues."
New's statement went on to state, "Therefore, the Fayetteville School District administration will not comment publicly on the recent University of Arkansas press release until specific direction is established by the Fayetteville Board of Education."
Fayetteville school leaders have said that, without a sale of the existing high-school campus, which is adjacent to the UA's campus, the district cannot afford to pursue construction of a new high school in a different place. The cost of a new high school is expected to be more than $90 million.
Gearhart said the Fayetteville Board of Education, when it in May set a price of $59 million for the 40-acre high-school campus, gave the UA 30 days to respond. Now, the UA's offer has sat dormant, with only telephone conversations with Fayetteville administrators, for nearly three months.
"We would like to buy it," Gearhart said. "But we just don't see an end in sight for this thing."
Gearhart, however, in his letter to the school district, left an opening for a future deal.
"If the Fayetteville Board of Education should wish to present the university with acceptable terms of purchase for the property at some point in the future, we are open to consideration of such an offer," Gearhart's letter said. "However, we are proceeding at this point as though the purchase of the high school is not in our future plans."

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