NLR schools hope tax is in voters’ hearts Feb. 14

— Not all the Christmas decorations are stowed away, and the “Happy 2012!” banners still wave, but in the North Little Rock School District the focus is turning to Valentine’s Day.

That Feb. 14 day celebrating love and affection is the day the North Little Rock School Board picked for a special election on a 7.4-mill increase to the current 40.9-mill school tax rate.

If voters approve the increase, the money raised will help finance a $265.6 million building program that over the next five years will affect every campus in the 9,083-student district, from the pre-kindergarten center to the landmark high school.

The North Little Rock facilities plan, which would actually cut the number of campuses from 21 to 13, is one of the largest — if not the largest — and most comprehensive school-building programs undertaken in the state in memory.

“We asked people at the community meetings whether they wanted a five-year plan, a 10-year plan, or even a 15-year plan,” North Little Rock Superintendent Ken Kirspel said. “The thing is, for every year you go further down the road, it costs more. From an economic standpoint, it is better to do the building now rather than drag it out over a longer period.”

New buildings would replace the current Amboy, Boone Park, Meadow Park and Lakewood elementary schools all on available land at the existing sites.

Crestwood, Glenview, Seventh Street and Indian Hills elementaries would be extensively renovated. Ridgeroad Middle Charter School would be converted to an elementary school.

The existing Pike View Elementary would become a pre-kindergarten center.

A new North Little Rock Middle School for all sixththrough eighth-graders would arise from the current site of the adjoining Lakewood Middle and North Little Rock High School-East Campus, schools.

The current Rose City Middle School campus would become home to the district’s alternative school.

North Little Rock High School-West Campus — the former Ole Main High that is easily visible from the Interstates 30 and 40 interchange — would become home to a projected 2,800 ninththrough 12th graders.

To accommodate all those students, demolition and rebuilding of large parts of the West Campus is planned, said Shara Brazear, a spokesman for the district.

The science, band, industrial arts and old gymnasium buildings would come down at the West Campus. The football stadium would be moved to where the track is now. Even the front entrance of the school would change — moving from the south to the west side of the campus.

The North Little Rock School District administration offices, now at 2700 Poplar St., would move into the original section of the high school building with its iconic entrance on 22nd Street.

The West Campus was built in 1929 at a cost of $750,000. Most of the district’s schools were built in the 1950s and 1960s.

When all the construction dust settles, the North Little Rock schools to be closed include Belwood, Lynch Drive, Park Hill and North Heights elementaries; Redwood Early Childhood Center; Poplar Street Middle School and Argenta Academy alternative school.

THE MILLAGE

The North Little Rock Committee for Our Kids, Our Community, Our Future is the organization that will raise money to advertise and promote the 7.4-mill increase, which would raise $74 million.

That committee is headed by North Little Rock residents Wes Havens and Luke King.

The organization has scheduled a communitywide informational meeting on the proposed tax increase and building plan for 6 p.m. Jan. 10 in the auditorium at the North Little Rock High School-East Campus.

The millage increase would cost the owner of a $100,000 home in the district an additional $148 a year in school taxes.

A mill is one-tenth of a cent. Each mill produces $1 in taxes for every $1,000 of assessed valuation. Counties assess real property at 20 percent of its appraised value, and that value is multiplied by the millage rate to determine taxes.

A $100,000 home would have an assessed value of $20,000. In the case of the North Little Rock proposed increase, that $20,000 would be multiplied by .0074 to determine the annual tax increase of $148 on a $100,000 home. The owner of a $50,000 home would pay a $74 annual increase.

The district is relying on the proposed tax increase for 27 percent, or just more than a fourth of the cost of the building program, Brazear said. The remainder of the financing will come from $8.3 million a year in savings in district operating costs, including the savings generated by consolidating schools and running more efficient campuses. Those savings would finance $125 million in bonds.

Additionally, if voters approve the tax proposal, the district will be eligible for state funding for buildings of approximately $66.6 million. Kirspel has said that if the district is not successful in attaining the millage, the state funding will be distributed to other school districts and not available -- or at least not that amount -- to the district in later years.

NEW SCHOOL FEATURES

The North Little Rock School Board and district administrators worked with the DLR Group of Overland Park, Kan., and Taggart Foster Currence Gray Architects of North Little Rock, and held public meetings throughout the district for more than a year to develop the facilities and financing plan.

No organized opposition has surfaced but tax proponents anticipate they will continue to be asked tough questions.

District leaders continue to talk about the projects.

Recently, Kirspel visited each of the district campuses to explain to teachers and other employees how the proposed facilities plan would affect their campuses.

In speaking recently to the staff at Boone Park Elementary, Kirspel showed the employees a Power Point presentation that included photographs of sleek tallceilinged light-filled school libraries.

The Boone Park teachers, sitting in their own windowless library space with its psuedo half-walls of bookcases, oohed and aahed at the real walls and the floorto-ceiling windows in the artists’ renderings.

Each elementary school have not only a dedicated media center, Kirspel said, but also art and music classrooms and a gymnasium. All the new and renovated schools will be updated to accommodate technology and to provide better security. Each will have a modern ventilation system that will improve air quality. Lighting systems also will be updated to provide a better learning environment.

The elementaries would have an average capacity of about 475 students. Each school would have four kindergarten classrooms and three classrooms per grade in first through fifth grades.

As part of the building plan, the organizational structure of the district’s schools would change. No longer would students make five or six school changes in the course of attending pre-kindergarten through 12th grades in the district.

For most students, there would be just three transitions — elementary school to middle school to high school, with maybe one more for those students who start school at the proposed Pike View Prekindergarten Center.

Kirspel commended the School Board for its development of the facilities plan.

“We invested a lot of time and effort in study and working with the DLR Group. We did our due diligence in getting community input and developing the plan and what we wanted for the schools. I think that is one of the things we definitely did right.”

NLRSD construction timeline

The North Little Rock School District is planning a $265.5 million building program that calls for new construction or renovation affecting every campus in the district. The building plan hinges on the outcome of a special election Feb. 14 on a proposed 7.4-mill property tax increase for the district. If the proposed tax is approved, the construction projects would begin in the 2012-13 school year and be largely completed by the end of 2015-16.

BY SCHOOL YEAR

2012-2013

Schools under construction

Amboy Elementary Boone Park Elementary Meadow Park Elementary Lakewood Elementary

Schools in transition

Belwood Elementary pupils move to Amboy Elementary Poplar Street sixth-graders move to Ridgeroad and Lakewood middle schools Lakewood and Rose City middle schools’ eigth-graders move to North Little Rock High School, East Campus NLRHS, East Campus, 10th-graders move to Poplar Street building Rose City Middle sixth- and seventh-graders move to Ridgeroad Middle Charter Argenta Academy students move to Rose City campus

Buildings closed or used for another purpose

Belwood Elementary and Argenta Academy

2013-2014

Schools under construction

Crestwood Elementary Glenview Elementary Seventh Street Elementary Indian Hills Elementary Pike View Elementary NLRHS, West Campus

Schools in transition

Pike View Elementary pupils move to other elementary schools. Pike View will close as an elementary school.

Schools completing construction

Amboy Elementary Boone Park Elementary Pike View Pre-K Center

2014-2015

Schools under construction

Ridgeroad Middle (Conversion to an elementary school) NLR Middle School

Schools in transition

Redwood Pre-K pupils move to Pike View Pre-K Center and other elementary schools with Pre-K classrooms

Lynch Drive Elementary pupils move to Meadow Park or Glenview elementaries

NLRHS, East Campus, ninth-graders move to NLR High School, nine-12 campus

Poplar Street 10th graders move to NLR High School, nine-12 campus

Schools completing construction

Meadow Park Elementary

Lakewood Elementary

Crestwood Elementary Glenview Elementary Seventh Street Elementary Indian Hills Elementary Ridgeroad Elementary

Buildings closed or used for another purpose

Redwood Early Childhood Center Lynch Drive Elementary Poplar Street School

2015-2016

Schools in transition

North Heights Elementary pupils move to Ridgeroad Elementary Park Hill pupils will be assigned to schools near their homes NLRSD administration offices will move to the historic structure at NLR High School

Schools completing construction

NLR Middle School, grades six-eight NLR High School, grades nine-12

Buildings closed or used for another purpose

North Heights Elementary Park Hill Elementary NLRSD administration offices

Front Section, Pages 1 on 01/03/2012

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