Revised Profile

BY DEREK OXFORD

FAYETTEVILLE—Steve Percival had no idea what he was running himself into in 1993 when he and a group of Fayetteville school administrators met to develop a mission for a fledgling school district.

“About 30 of us spent three days on the top of Mt. Sequoyah talking, debating, compromising, and agreeing on what the district mission should be,” Percival said.

But the three-day Mount Sequoyah summit in March of that year and the vision that was finally settled on paved the way for the Fayetteville School District to become one of the premier educational systems in the United States.

“The mission that was formed during those three days has stood the test of time,” Percival said. “It still exists today.”

The district’s website, http://www.fayar.net, describes the district’s mission as being that “every student will leave with a full understanding of his or her potential and the skills necessary to be successful in an ever-changing, global society.”

Percival, who has served on the district’s school board since 1995 and was president for several years, describes the time he’s put in on the board as “tremendously rewarding.”

“I still can’t believe I was that lucky,” Percival said. “To be able to be associated with outstanding teachers, dedicated administrators, and focused school board members, has been one of the highlights of my life, outside of my family.”

The vision statement is the mission that Percival and his colleagues drew up in order to cater to a fast –growing student population that was aggressively testing the limits of what high school students normally accomplished.

So the 1993 excursion took care of that, revitalizing the curriculum while providing for the students’ needs as they appeared.

Needed improvements were made to the high school and other schools in the district, elementary and middle schools were built to facilitate growth, and technological innovations were implemented to keep Fayetteville ahead of the curve.

At the time, however, Percival and the rest of the administration did not realize that down the line, the facilities that the students were utilizing were going to need more than just a touch up.

Now with 2009 inching closer to its conclusion, the community is in serious debate about what is to be done with building a state-of-the-art new high school.

“The new high school is an investment in our children and our future,” Fayetteville Mayor Lioneld Jordan says. “We must be bold in securing that future and prepared to make the commitment now.”

With students’ getting their athletic and scholastic expectations met, however, some members of the community might wonder why a new high school needs to be built.

The answer?

“This is Fayetteville,” Percival said.

“Fayetteville is a community that is well known for its population and their diverse interests and beliefs about what’s best for the town. That’s one of the things that make Fayetteville a great place to live. People care about where they live, are passionate about what they believe, and become interested and engaged in the things they hold dear.”

The difference here though is that the issue of a new Fayetteville High School is colossal compared to what has been dealt with in the past, as noted by UA Journalism and International Relations professor Hoyt Purvis.

“A subject such as this has stirred considerable public interest and involvement,” Purvis said. “Fayetteville is also a community that highly values education, and as a result of that and the proximity to the university, the high school will always receive lots of attention.”

With the dreams of the Mount Sequoyah meeting fulfilled, along with expectations for learning not only met but surpassed, Percival says that in order to continue have a great school system, there must be great employees and great facilities.

“We will have both [with the new high school],” Percival said.

Percival obviously knows the ramifications of the actions the administration is taking. It’s not the first time he and his colleagues on the school board and subsequent committees met and discussed the future concerning the district.

His arrival in Fayetteville back in 1989 from his hometown state of Ohio to accept a job at Washington Regional Medical Center was his first foray into a community brimming with potential.

The potential, over a span of twenty years, has become reality to Percival.

“When I applied for the job at Washington Regional, I didn’t even know where Fayetteville, Arkansas was,” Percival said. “Now I can’t imagine raising a family anywhere else.”