PINE BLUFF - When Dollarway School District Superintendent Bobby Acklin took over the state-controlled district last year, he walked through one of the high school buildings and noticed a strong smell of mold.
He immediately instructed district workers to paint and recarpet the structure before students returned from a semester break.
“I had one student come up to me with a big smile on her face saying that she no longer smelled mold in the building,” Acklin said. “It was unacceptable that our teachers and students had to put up with that for so long.”
The state Board of Education voted in June 2012 to take over the Dollarway district, dismissing Superintendent Bettye Dunn-Wright and dissolving the School Board after Dollarway High School failed to meet state accreditation standards for two consecutive years.
Arkansas law mandates that the Education Board take one of a number of specific actions against a district in which that occurs.
The district’s violations included the employment of one or more noncertified teachers and incorrect student transcripts.
As part of his effort to return the Dollarway School District to its patrons in “the best order possible,” Acklin is preparing to oversee a $14.5 million facilities upgrade plan at the high school that will include a new auditorium, cafeteria, entrance, football stadium and athletic training facility.
A full renovation of the high school gym has already begun.
The $1.1 million gym project is being bankrolled by $600,000 in state funds,along with money the district gained by restructuring debt, Acklin said.
But making the other projects a reality will require asking voters for a millage increase, he said.
Residents in the Dollarway School District pay 40.8 mills. Acklin said he doesn’t know yet how much of a millage increase will be needed to secure funding for the projects.
A mill is one-tenth of a cent.
“First, we want to sell this plan to our patrons,” Acklin said.
“We are going to have town-hall meetings and explain the project thoroughly. I won’t just spring this on them at the polls. We want to make absolutely sure everyone knows what we are planning here.”
Judy Miller, whose niece attends Dollarway High School, said the district has long been known for appearing rundown.
Miller said she would support a millage increase to improve the infrastructure, and she believes most others who live in the district would as well.
“No one wants to be known as the school district that looks bad, and our kids certainly don’t want to feel bad about how their school looks,” Miller said. “It’s important to make sure our kids have the best they possibly can. And I want to do what I can to help make that happen.”
Acklin said that even though his district’s facilities are not considered in distress by the state, sprucing things up is a key to improving academics.
“Right now, our football players are surrounded by other districts - Pine Bluff, Watson Chapel and White Hall - that all have superior facilities,” Acklin said. “They look at those facilities and wonder why they can’t have that. We know that having a new stadium will be an incentive for students to succeed, and it can be a draw for us as well.”
Acklin said the new auditorium and cafeteria could also be a draw, especially for members of the community who need a gathering place for different events.
“It’s important that a school not just be filled during the daytime, but that the community feels like it’s theirs to use anytime,” he said. “We want this to be a place for the community. We want them to feel welcome here.”
Acklin said the district is already making “great strides” in improving academics, and he praised the district’s teachers for providing stability during the state takeover.
But he said there are “still some blank spots that we are working on. We want to make sure that all of our teachers are teaching from bell to bell.
“We want to make sure that they are teaching and not just letting kids come into the classrooms and sit there. It makes you very unpopular in the eyes of some, but good teachers who care about the kids are the key to our success.”
Sandra Combs, who has lived in the Dollarway district for the past four decades, said she has watched the district’s slow decline speed up recently.
Her two daughters graduated from Dollarway High School in the 1990s and are concerned about its future.
“I can tell you that this community badly needs something good to happen with this school district,” Combs said. “You can look around Dollarway, and there isn’t much good happening. Renovating this school and making sure the kids there are getting a good education will greatly improve our outlook. I just pray that it can be done.”
Arkansas, Pages 7 on 02/24/2014