The Pulaski County Special School District is putting in front of voters a proposed 5.6-mill property-tax increase to finance a $221 million districtwide building and renovation program.
The construction plan is not only intended to modernize buildings that are on average 44 years old but also to accelerate the 17,000-student district's removal from federal court supervision of its desegregation efforts.
The plan calls for new Wilbur Mills and Joe T. Robinson high school campuses, doubling the size of Sylvan Hills High, and building two elementaries -- a new Robinson Elementary and a school along the Interstate 440 corridor.
Additionally, the plan calls for moving Fuller Middle to the current Mills High, Robinson Middle to the current Robinson High building, and Cato Elementary to the existing Northwood Middle School site -- all of which are structurally better buildings. All other campuses in the district would be given improvements, including the replacement of portable buildings and the addition of multipurpose/physical education space.
The special election is set for May 12.
Derek Scott, the Pulaski County Special district's executive director of operations, said Friday that the district last passed a tax increase in 1992 for operating and technology expenses -- not for facilities. The district has built seven schools with no increase to the millage rate for construction.
"The district has been doing some things right," Scott said. "We just have so many facilities that are reaching the end of their expected life spans all at the same time. Because of that, mixed with the expected enrollment growth in the Sherwood area, we can't do what we need to do to improve the educational environment without an increase to the millage."
The proposed 5.6 mills would increase the district's 40.7-mill rate to 46.3 mills. It would cost the owner of a $50,000 home an additional $56 a year, the owner of a $100,000 home an additional $112 a year and the owner of a $200,000 home $224 more in school taxes.
Early voting begins Tuesday at four locations in the county:
• Pulaski County Regional Building, 501 W. Markham St. -- 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., Tuesday through Friday and May 11.
• Jess Odom Community Center, 1100 Edgewood Drive, Maumelle, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Tuesday through Friday.
• Jack Evans Senior Citizen Center, 2301 Thornhill Drive, Sherwood, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Tuesday through Friday.
• Roosevelt Thompson Library, 38 Rahling Circle, Little Rock, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Tuesday through Friday.
No organized opposition to the proposed increase has come forward. The Americans for Prosperity-Arkansas organization, however, is conducting an education campaign, said David Ray, the organization's state director, to make sure people are aware the election is near and to tell them what the cost of the tax increase will be over the 30-year life of the construction bonds.
Parents in the district said Friday that the millage proposal and building improvements are overdue.
"I've got two little girls at Chenal Elementary and we've been so impressed," said Dr. Ted Jolley, a Little Rock dentist. "We just love the school and we want them to continue in the public schools."
While Chenal is one of the district's newest schools, other schools in the part of the district on the western edge of Little Rock are considerably older.
"The substance is there at Robinson Middle and High schools -- the teachers and leadership. Everything seems to be improving every year, but the facilities are so dated," Jolley said about the area's secondary schools. "Not only do they not look good but they aren't conducive to the new technology that schools are using," he said. "They need whole new makeover."
Al Graham, a parent who lives in Maumelle and is executive director of the Oak Grove Life Center that provides services to children and teens in the Oak Grove community, said his confidence in the district's current leadership is one reason he is supporting the proposal.
He also said he believes the proposed projects -- such as enclosing the cafeteria at Pine Forest Elementary, adding a multipurpose/physical education room at Oak Grove Elementary or expanding the athletic facilities at Maumelle High -- will improve the reputation, the functionality and the efficiency of the schools.
"In order to stay competitive and to move forward and just to have a positive impact on these students, I think you have to give them the tools," Graham said about improvements to the campuses. "You have to equip them. Otherwise, kids will be left out and its going to start to spiral."
Beverly Williams, a Sherwood alderman and a leader in the Sherwood Public Education Foundation that is planning for the eventual establishment of a Sherwood school system separate from the Pulaski County Special District, also supports the tax increase.
"We want this because all children need better facilities. This is a good thing," said Williams, who is a former administrator in the Pulaski County Special district. "And I want it to come out loud and strong that we in Sherwood support our children."
The money generated by the tax increase not only would go toward the construction of a $50 million Mills High and a $50 million Robinson High, but also a $50 million expansion at Sylvan Hills High in Sherwood to accommodate as many as 1,700 students. Sylvan Hills High had 870 students last year and nearly 1,000 students this year and is projected to continue to increase.
The federal judge presiding in the 32-year-old Pulaski County school desegregation lawsuit told Sherwood leaders last year that before Sherwood can form its own school system, the Pulaski County Special district must comply with the terms of its desegregation Plan 2000 and be released from court supervision.
One of the district's remaining obligations in the desegregation case is to equalize the condition of its schools, some of which in affluent Maumelle, Sherwood and west Pulaski County are new and modern while others -- including those in the east and southeastern parts of the county where higher percentages of black students live -- are showing their ages.
Williams said Friday that the Sherwood Public Education Foundation's board, as well as the Sherwood City Council, have unanimously endorsed the proposed 5.6-mill tax increase. And the foundation has raised and spent at least $4,000 for 25 banners, 300 yard signs and other campaign support for the tax measure.
Unlike Sherwood, the Jacksonville/North Pulaski School District has been formed out of the Pulaski County Special district and is likely to begin operating on its own in July 2016. Voters in the new district will not vote on the tax proposal and, if the tax is approved, it won't be applied to the Jacksonville area's property owners.
A mill is one-tenth of 1 cent. One mill levied on an assessed value of $1,000 yields $1 in property taxes. Arkansas counties assess property at 20 percent of appraised value, so a $100,000 house has an assessed value of $20,000. That $20,000 multiplied by the proposed 0.0056 increase would generate a $112 tax increase.
If approved, the proposed 5.6 mill increase would generate more than $12 million a year. That would be paired with a one-time payment of $15 million in state desegregation aid to finance 30-year bonds for the $221 million building program. (The district will receive $20 million in desegregation aid that is earmarked for facilities but anticipates giving 25 percent of that payment to the new Jacksonville system.)
Ray, of Americans for Prosperity-Arkansas, said Friday that the $12 million a year in increased revenue amounts to about $360 million in taxes over 30 years and an average $4,800 increase in taxes to individual homeowners over that same period. The only county in Arkansas that pays higher property taxes than Pulaski County is Benton County, Ray said. Pulaski County's median property taxes are higher than any county in central Arkansas, he said.
Pulaski County Special district leaders have committed to build a new Mills High School and move Fuller Middle to the current Mills High building even if the millage proposal is turned down by voters. That work will be done in part with the desegregation payment for facilities.
"It will take us longer to get to that," said Scott, the Pulaski County Special district's executive director of operations, "because we don't get the money until the fourth year of the desegregation settlement and then we have to come up with the other $35 million from somewhere. There is $35 million of something that won't get done."
The 42-page description of the building plan and millage proposal is on the district's website: pcssd.org.
"This is a plan that touches all areas of the district and all facilities and helps us to get truly equitable facilities," Scott said.
SundayMonday on 05/03/2015