The state Facilities Review Board on Wednesday denied all appeals from seven school districts wanting approval for Partnership Program projects.
The Public School Academic Facilities and Transportation Division denied 12 projects for the 2015-16 and 2016-17 academic years from school districts statewide. The plans were rejected for various reasons, including technicalities in the application process such as improper schematic drawings or a lack of listing an approximate date to allocate local resources. Other districts didn't meet suitability needs, according to the division.
The five-member Review Board on Wednesday heard appeals from eight districts on 13 projects. The Review Board's decisions came after changes to the Partnership Program rules that were finalized in January to clarify the application requirements, division Director Charles Stein said.
The first change -- which required school boards to adopt resolutions with an approximate date that a district could use local funds for the project -- was put into place to match Arkansas Code Annotated 6-20-2507. The other two changes clarified application requirements for schematic drawings and the requirements for space needed for projects.
A district must now submit a school board resolution approving and funding a project, a schematic drawing that describes the project and documents on space requirements -- along with the online application for the Partnership Program -- by March 1 of even-numbered years to be eligible for the division's consideration.
Of the 13 appeals considered Wednesday -- one from the De Queen School District was later rescinded -- most had problems with the school board resolutions. Among those, one from the Bearden School District was for a new auditorium, one from the Fouke School District for a high school roof replacement, six from the Viola School District for multiple heating and air conditioning replacements and installations, one from the Elkins School District for a middle school roof replacement and another from the Highland School District for an elementary school roof replacement.
Attorney Jay Bequette, who represented the Fouke School District in southwest Arkansas, contended that the School Board's resolution "indicated that the district would apply local resources immediately upon approval of the project."
The School Board passed the resolution Jan. 13, and that was the only date on the document, said Lori Freno, an attorney representing the Public School Academic Facilities and Transportation Division.
"The old shingle roof is approximately 20 years old and has been patched and repaired several times," Fouke Superintendent Forrest Mulkey said.
The district houses 1,100 students on three campuses that are walking distance from one another.
Bequette also contended that the facilities division unfairly awarded other school districts approval for partnership projects, even though those school boards listed vague dates. The Pulaski County Special School District said it would ask for a millage vote in the next two years, while Camden-Fairview didn't list a date and said only that it would dedicate local funds, Bequette said.
But Freno said the Pulaski County district and Fouke can't be held by the same standards, because districts asking for a millage increase fall under a separate policy.
Stein, the division director, acknowledged that Camden-Fairview was more a "gray" area but said the 2016-17 project submission provided dates.
After hearing the appeals, Review Board Chairman Brad Chilcote asked his fellow appointees to put forward a motion. When no one came forward, Chilcote made a motion to accept the division's decision. The Review Board didn't discuss the matter immediately afterward, but simply moved Chilcote's motion forward.
Two of the 13 projects -- those for the Gentry and Two Rivers school districts -- involved suitability needs.
Two Rivers has a building for kindergarten through fourth-graders, another for fifth-graders to 12th-graders and a separate building. The division considers those buildings as one campus, but administrators are trying to keep them separate and add a cafeteria and library for the kindergarten through fourth-grade location.
In considering the buildings as one campus, the division said the district had an excess amount of space and had no suitability needs. However, the excess space could be in places such as hallways or bathrooms, division officials said.
"We don't have enough space," Two Rivers Superintendent Jim Loyd said. "To feed all 800 students, we start feeding at 10:30 in the morning and we stop at 12:45."
The district has started feeding the younger students breakfast in classrooms, Loyd said, but that process isn't feasible for lunch. Transporting those students to the other building reduces instructional time, he said.
In Gentry, Superintendent Randy Barrett proposed demolishing several buildings on the district's intermediate school campus and moving those students to the existing middle and high school. Current high school students would be moved to a new high school in his proposal for the 1,420-student district.
The division determined that the Gentry district also had excess space, though Barrett said that space cannot be converted to classrooms.
The decisions left some Review Board members uneasy Wednesday.
"We're trying to follow the laws and regulations," Review Board member Tony Purdue said. "A lot of it doesn't make sense. The needs are there."
Review Board member Cody Beene asked who determined what the rules were.
The division can recommend changes to rules, but the Facilities Commission has to approve the changes, Freno said. The division held a public comment hearing for the rule changes last year, but many of the comments weren't about what the Review Board discussed Wednesday, Beene said.
The Review Board members could also ask the Legislature for statutory changes, Freno said.
Overall, 19 school districts submitted appeals on 30 projects, Stein said, adding that the Review Board will meet again Oct. 28.
For the approved projects, the Facilities Commission will fund what it can by May 1 of the odd-numbered years for the 2015-16 projects and by the same date on even-numbered years for the 2016-17 projects, he said.
Stein told legislators last week that he expected there would be a $65 million shortfall to fund the approved projects.
All of the decisions by the division were made independently from any funding assessment, Freno and Stein said. Decisions are based on the Partnership Program rules, Stein added.
Metro on 09/25/2014