HATTIEVILLE — A public meeting to discuss the Wonderview School District’s proposed 6.9-mill property tax increase in the Sept. 20 school election is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. Tuesday at St. Mary Church in St. Vincent, the superintendent said.
Wonderview Superintendent Carroll Purtle said Thursday that no public meetings had been held, but plans are to hold one “in each of the little
communities that we have in our district.”
The school voted 3-1 — with two members absent — to seek the millage increase to fund a $12.3 million construction project in the district.
Public meetings also are scheduled at 6:30 p.m. Sept. 12 at Hattieville Baptist Church and at 6:30 p.m. Sept. 19, the day before the election, in the Wonderview school cafeteria.
“We will know Monday morning if the places we’ve asked to use in Cleveland and Old Hickory are available,” he said. Purtle also said he is waiting to see what dates the community center is available in Jersualem.
“We’re trying divide them [meetings] up on different days of the week,” he said.
The project includes classroom additions, remodeling and construction of a 1,200-seat gymnasium and a bus-maintenance facility. The gym is estimated to cost $5.6 million.
If adopted, the millage rate would increase from 36.2 to 43.1 for the 425-student district. It would cost someone who owns a $100,000 home an additional $138 per year in property taxes.
“I get a lot of positive feedback, especially from the younger people,” Purtle said. “There is some resistance from some; I think a lot of that may go away when we start holding these meetings.”
Purtle said some patrons have asked why the district is remodeling the elementary school, and “why we’re wanting to build a new gym instead of remodeling the old gym.”
He said it will cost approximately $1 million to remodel the gym for what the district needs, but the Arkansas Division of Public School Academic and Facilities and Transportation will require the district to “remodel everything” if renovations are to that dollar amount. A total remodel of the gym would cost $3 million, he said.
“So the board thought, ‘OK, why sink $3 million inot an old gym when we can spend
$5 million on a new gym?’” Purtle said.
Senior writer Tammy Keith can be reached at (501) 327-0370 or tkeith@arkansasonline.com.