The Pulaski County Special School District's plan to build at least one and possibly two new high schools -- as well as make large-scale improvements to other campuses -- received approval Monday from the presiding federal judge in an ongoing school desegregation lawsuit.
U.S. District Judge D. Price Marshall Jr.'s approval of the building plan sets the 17,260-student district on a path to ask district voters for a property tax increase of up to 5.6 mills at September's annual school election.
Attorneys for the district and for black students known as the Joshua intervenors late last year jointly asked Marshall for permission to alter the section of the district's desegregation Plan 2000 on equalizing the condition of the district campuses.
The district's schools range from some new, up-to-date schools in Maumelle and Sherwood to considerably older buildings, including some in the southeast section of the district that have a high concentration of black students.
Inequitable facilities is one of a handful of areas within the district's operation that is keeping the district from being unitary and released from federal court supervision. Others include student discipline and student achievement.
The Pulaski County Special district is a district operating under state control without a locally elected school board as the result of being classified as fiscally distressed in 2011.
The newly approved plan calls for the building of a new Mills High in the southeast section of the district, a new Robinson High in west Little Rock and extensive remodeling of Sylvan Hills High in Sherwood, using money from a millage increase and state desegregation aid to finance construction bonds. The existing Mills and Robinson schools would be remodeled to house middle schools.
If voters don't pass a property tax increase, the district's Plan B calls for the construction of a new Mills High, using state desegregation aid and other district funds.
"The Court applauds, and approves, the District's Plan A and Plan B for achieving unitary status in its school buildings and other structures," Marshall wrote in a one-page order.
The judge acknowledged the viewpoint of his court expert, former school desegregation monitor Margie Powell, who said the new plans put into writing to the judge what district leaders had been planning for a while.
"Ms. Powell is right: the new plans bind the District to do what it has been considering, and working toward, for some time," he said. "The Court commends the PCSSD and the Joshua Intervenors for their continued collaboration on these difficult issues."
Jerry Guess, superintendent of the Pulaski County Special School District, said Monday evening upon hearing of the judge's order that he was pleased with the approval and that the millage election would be forthcoming.
Guess said district leaders "will put a fine pencil" to calculating the exact number of mills needed to finance the building plan. The district committed not to exceed an increase of 5.6 mills, which would keep the district's tax rate below the 46.4 mills levied in the neighboring Little Rock School District. The Pulaski County Special district's current tax rate is 40.7 mills.
A 5.6-mill tax increase would cost the owner of a $100,000 home an additional $112 a year. A mill is one-tenth of 1 cent. One mill levied on an assessed value of $1,000 yields $1 in property taxes due. Arkansas counties assess property at 20 percent of actual value, so a $100,000 house has an assessed value of $20,000. That $20,000 multiplied by 0.0056 would generate a $112 tax increase.
The district would seek to raise a total of $200 million for the building project, according to the plan. That would come from the money generated by the tax increase combined with $20.8 million the district is set to receive in state desegregation aid for facilities.
Under the plan, the district would spend about $50 million each on new facilities for Mills and Robinson high schools at locations as close as possible to the current school grounds. Mills is on Dixon Road, and Robinson is on Arkansas 10.
Mills would be built first if the two schools can't be built simultaneously. The district also is committing to spend $5 million each on the existing Mills and Robinson high school facilities to convert them to middle schools.
An additional $50 million out of the $200 million envisioned for the building program would be used to modernize and expand Sylvan Hills High School in Sherwood.
The remaining $40 million will be devoted to other projects where and as needed as determined by school district leaders.
The joint plan of the district and the Joshua intervenors specifically states that it is the intention of the Plan B "to bind PCSSD irrevocably, regardless of its future governance and administration, to the construction of a replacement facility for Mills High, to begin promptly after any millage election."
The combined $55 million for a new Mills High and a renovated middle school in the county's southeast section would be generated by issuing second lien bonds that do not require a popular vote, plus the $20.8 million in state desegregation aid that is earmarked for facilities.
The attorneys told the judge last year that the Joshua intervenors will be involved in any planning and other activity undertaken regarding facilities.
The district also is in the process of negotiating issues related to the forthcoming detachment of the new Jacksonville/North Pulaski school district. That detachment, including the division of assets and liabilities, is set to occur within the next two years.
In response to questions from the judge to attorneys at a Dec. 18 hearing on the revisions to the district's building plan, Pulaski County Special district leaders said Jacksonville-area voters would not participate in a tax-increase election for the Pulaski County Special district, nor would the tax apply to Jacksonville residents should the vote be successful.
In a subsequent report to the judge, the school district's attorney, Allen Roberts of Camden, said last week that the district has consulted with Jacksonville/North Pulaski leaders and that the Jacksonville district, which is not a party in the lawsuit, "does not have a position on and does not now desire to be hearing on the pending .... motion on facilities."
Roberts also told the judge last week that the consultations between the Pulaski County Special and Jacksonville districts show that the dividing of assets is complex.
"For that reason, Jacksonville/North Pulaski School District asks that I also make known to the court its reservation of final judgment and counsel on all existing and future long term financial commitments of PCSSD," Roberts told the judge.
Metro on 01/13/2015