County voters soundly reject school-millage increase

Pulaski County Special School District voters on Tuesday defeated a proposed 5.6-mill property-tax increase to finance a $221 million school construction plan and help end federal court supervision of the district's desegregation efforts.

The proposed increase, defeated by a 3-to-1 ratio, would have raised the district's school tax rate from 40.7 to 46.3 mills and cost the owner of a $100,000 home an additional $112 a year.

Complete but unofficial results are:

For 2,352

Against 7,206

The total vote represented 13.3 percent of the 71,932 registered voters in the district.

Jerry Guess, superintendent of the 17,000-student state-controlled district, said late Tuesday that a lot of people worked very hard to pass the proposal and that he was disappointed by the 75 percent to 25 percent outcome.

"We had a lot of political support, but we needed to do a better job of educating our patrons," he said.

Asked what he could have done differently, Guess said supporters and district officials made efforts to explain the property-tax proposal and the school construction and renovation plan to every constituency possible, including district employees and the chambers of commerce. In each case, the explanation seemed to be well received, Guess said.

But he noted that millage proposals were defeated in special elections elsewhere in the state Tuesday, including Sheridan and Hot Springs.

"It's a difficult time to try to pass taxes for schools, and supporters of public schools are going to have to rally when tax proposals are made," he said.

Preston Lewis, a Maumelle alderman who opposed the tax proposal and used social media to campaign against it, said voters are looking for change.

"They are not happy with the status quo and they are not happy with taxation without representation. They believe there are different solutions on the horizon. They want to see that," Lewis said.

The solutions may be different for different areas of Pulaski County, he said, with some communities perhaps desiring to become part of the Little Rock, North Little Rock, Bryant or England school districts. Sherwood and Maumelle want to have their own school districts carved out of the Pulaski County Special district.

"Their voices matter and their voices were heard today. I hope we will look for solutions that are best for all kids in different areas," he said.

The 5.6-mill district property-tax increase would have raised about $12 million a year that would have been paired with some state desegregation funding to finance 30-year construction bonds.

The proposed $221 million building program called for building new Wilbur Mills and Joe T. Robinson high school campuses, doubling the size of the overcrowded Sylvan Hills High, and building two elementaries -- a new Robinson Elementary and a school along the Interstate 440 corridor that would have served the Scott community and other east Pulaski County residents.

Additionally, the plan called for moving Fuller Middle to the current Mills High, moving 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 have been improved by replacing portable classrooms with permanent classrooms, adding multipurpose/physical education space and improving parking lots and car and school bus access to the buildings.

District leaders described the plan as an effort to not only improve conditions for student learning but also a way to equalize disparity in the condition of district schools. The district's schools range from very new Maumelle High in Maumelle and Sylvan Hills Middle in Sherwood to much older buildings -- some of which are in the district's less affluent sections that have a higher proportion of black students.

The district remains under court supervision for facilities, staffing, student discipline, student achievement and monitoring. District officials have said equalizing facilities is one of the most difficult to correct.

Regardless of the outcome of the vote, Guess and other district leaders committed to U.S. District Judge D. Price Marshall Jr.,the presiding judge in a long-running school desegregation lawsuit, to build a new Mills High at a cost of about $50 million and move the Fuller Middle School to the current Mills campus.

Guess said Tuesday night that the district will use state desegregation aid earmarked for facilities to finance second-lien bonds to meet the commitments on Mills and Fuller. Second lien bonds can be issued without voter approval of new tax mills to support them but can be supported with existing district revenue.

Marshall has scheduled a May 19 status conference with district representatives to discuss the district's progress toward achieving unitary status and release from court supervision.

Lewis said Tuesday that he was looking forward to the district "doing what is right for Mills.

"We are listening to what Judge Marshall has to say and we are respectful of that. I see the errors of our past," he said. "We need that equity. We need something that works for everyone."

Records on file with the Arkansas Ethics Commission showed that at least $14,140 was raised by two committees in support of the tax increase.

The Yes for Kids Committee raised the bulk of that -- $10,400 as of April 30. Lori Jolley is the chairman and Alicia Humbard is the treasurer of the organization that secured contributions from architects, contractors, real estate agents, businessman and parents.

Baldwin and Shell Construction Co. donated $5,000 to the Yes for Kids Committee. Harco Contractors donated $1,500. Wittenberg Delony and Davidson Inc., architects, donated $1,000 as did Allen Roberts, one of the district's attorneys. John A. Riggs IV, president of Riggs CAT, a heavy construction and farm equipment company, donated $500.

Additionally, the Sherwood Millage Committee, led by Chairman Linda George and Treasurer Donald Childers, raised $3,740 as of April 30 for the campaign for the proposed tax increase, according to reports filed with the Arkansas Ethics Commission. Nearly all of it comes from the Sherwood Public Education Foundation, which is working to eventually establish a separate Sherwood school system apart from the Pulaski County Special School District.

While community leaders in west Pulaski County and in Sherwood actively supported the proposal, the measure was soundly defeated throughout the doughnut-shaped district.

At the Brockington Road Church of the Nazarene in Sherwood, for example, the vote was 340 against the tax and 160 for it.

At Harris Elementary School in the McAlmont community, the vote was 63 against and 60 for it.

At First United Methodist Church in Maumelle, the vote was 584 against the tax and 88 for it.

At Winfield Methodist Church on Arkansas 10, the vote was 220 opposed and 75 in support.

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.

Guess is the state-appointed superintendent in a district that has been operating under state control since June 2011 because of financial mismanagement and the spending of reserves at a rate that put the district in jeopardy of illegal deficit spending at that time.

District leaders have corrected the management and spending problems, but the system has remained under state control as it works to separate from the new Jacksonville/North Pulaski school district as well as cope with the anticipated loss of $20.7 million a year in state desegregation aid. That aid is to end after the 2017-18 school year.

Metro on 05/13/2015

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