Cramped cafeteria

Perryville School District considers millage increase

Perryville High School Principal Kevin Campbell, left, and Perryville School District Superintendent Ron Wilson stand near the 56-year-old high school cafeteria. The Arkansas Department of Education has approved the district tearing down the structure, but school officials said a small property-tax increase would be needed to replace the cafeteria.
Perryville High School Principal Kevin Campbell, left, and Perryville School District Superintendent Ron Wilson stand near the 56-year-old high school cafeteria. The Arkansas Department of Education has approved the district tearing down the structure, but school officials said a small property-tax increase would be needed to replace the cafeteria.

The Perryville High School cafeteria was built in about 1960, and as far as the Arkansas Department of Education is concerned, “it’s down to zero life,” Superintendent Ron Wilson said.

The district has received approval from the Arkansas Division of School Academic Facilities and Transportation to tear down the cafeteria after building another one — but it will take a property-tax increase to fund the construction.

“We’re wanting to build a new modern cafetorium,” Wilson said. “[The cafeteria] was built when we had 400 kids in the whole district; we have 440 kids over there trying to eat out of it, and we can’t get them all in and out.”

Wilson said state academic facilities and transportation staff toured the Perryville High School cafeteria in the fall and went over a checklist to rate the building.

“Our cafeteria has exceeded its life, so it’s into the negatives,” Wilson said.

The district is waiting on approval from the state to seek a millage increase to fund the construction.

“I don’t know exactly when they will make that decision, but it will be this spring,” Wilson said.

School board president Brian Hill said members have discussed asking patrons for a 1-mill or more property-tax increase in the September school election.

The district’s current millage is 34.98. “It’s low,” Wilson said. One mill will generate approximately $53,000 for the district, he said.

Hill said the last millage-increase proposal was at least 10 years ago, and it failed by about 100 votes. Wilson, who has been superintendent for 10 years, said the district has not sought a millage increase during his tenure.

The superintendent said an answer from the state should come soon.

“Once we’re approved, the goal is to ask for the millage increase this September. What we are hoping to do is build in 2017,” Wilson said. “We’ve got a spot picked out that is north of the current cafeteria.”

The proposed cafetorium would have a stage for band and choir concerts and for plays, Wilson said. The current cafeteria has a stage, “but it’s very small,” he said.

Craig Boone of Fort Smith is the architect for the project, Wilson said.

“If the state approves what we are proposing, he will get us some architectural drawings so we can go out in the community and say, ‘This is what it’s going to look like,’” Wilson said. “The exact size has yet to be determined. That will be decided after additional meetings with the architect and obtaining cost estimates.”

The state will partner on the cost up to 4,000 square feet, he said, but the facility will be larger than that.

“There’s not seating for all our students in the cafeteria,” Wilson said. When the high school principal holds an assembly at the beginning of the school year in August, it has to be held in the gymnasium, which is not air-conditioned.

Hill said the board will discuss whether to air-condition the gym as part of the millage project.

“We try to have graduation outdoors. Last year, it was raining, and we had to have it inside in our gymnasium,” Hill said. “There was no air; it was hot and miserable.”

The district’s enrollment has declined by 106 students in the past decade, Wilson said, which has led to a corresponding drop in state funding. The district has 948 students in kindergarten through the 12th grade.

“We have lost some students, but we still have 440-something kids in seven through 12. They still cannot get into the cafeteria we’ve got,” he said.

Senior writer Tammy Keith can be reached at (501) 327-0370 orc tkeith@arkansasonline.com.

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