Wonderview officials ponder millage defeat

HATTIEVILLE — The Wonderview School Board president and district superintendent both said the large margin of failure for a proposed 6.9-mill property-tax increase in Tuesday’s school election surprised them.

Patrons defeated the proposal 112 for and 400 against the increase — almost 80 percent in opposition, according to complete but unofficial results.

“I thought it would be a lot closer than that; the margin surprised me some,” Board President Tom Nelson said. “We were asking a lot.”

The increase would have funded a $12.3 million construction project, which included a $5.6 million, 1,200-seat gymnasium, remodeling the aging elementary wings, classroom additions at the high school and preschool, a safe room at the preschool, a bus-maintenance garage and completion of an athletic complex.

Wonderview Superintendent Carroll Purtle said he wasn’t surprised the proposal failed.

“The margin, yes, but I kind of figured we got a late start to push this anyway, so I knew it was going to be an uphill battle.

“We started this knowing we had a window of two, maybe three years before we started getting in any kind of [state Department of Education] facilities trouble with the elementary,” he said.

The proposal called for remodeling the two almost 50-year-old elementary classroom wings and adding two science labs.

Purtle said the gymnasium may have been the sticking point for some patrons.

“There were a lot of people who were in favor of the gym, but I think the majority of the people, to be honest about it, were not in favor of doing a new gym — they’ve seen the same one for years and years,” he said.

Purtle said the existing gym was built with a lot of volunteer labor in the community, as well as students’ help.

“That was legal back in the ’80s; you can’t do that now,” he said. Purtle said the gymnasium is in poor condition and would take $3 million to renovate, so the board decided new construction would make more sense.

Wonderview School District patron George Myers, 69, was one of the leading opponents of the property-tax increase. He said he was glad the proposal failed.

“I thanked everybody on my Facebook this morning for getting out and voting,” he said Wednesday. Myers said he received some phone calls thanking him for writing a letter to the editor of a newspaper about the proposal.

“It kind of opened their eyes to this is too much too soon; [school officials are] talking too much concrete, mortar and brick, other than education, so that’s our goal. Our goal is for the students’ education — it’s not lights on a ball field, comfortable seats and a climate-controlled gym.”

An estimated $715,000 would have gone toward finishing the athletic complex, including adding lighting on the softball and baseball fields and track; paving the gravel track and improving drainage, which at $350,000 is almost half the cost; and installing a sound system and a press box on an elevated platform and a ticket booth so track meets can be held at the school, the superintendent said.

Even members of the school board weren’t in agreement on the millage proposal. One member, Jamie Brice, voted against asking for the increase.

Purtle said he doesn’t think the lack of a unanimous board affected the outcome of the election.

Nelson said, “I don’t know how much of a factor that was, but it could have been.”

Nelson, who has served on the board for 12 years, did not run for re-election. Greg Baker ran unopposed for his seat.

Purtle said the district will “look at the data” to determine why people voted against the proposal.

He said there was “a lot of misinformation” in the public about the project. He said the district has to do a better job of explaining the needs to the public, including “the fact that we’ve got to have more classrooms up in the high school.”

Purtle said one idea is to give public tours of school facilities and explain why the construction is needed.

The superintendent said growth of enrollment in the elementary school will necessitate additional classrooms in the high school. Enrollment is 457 in the school district this fall, Purtle said.

Nelson said he thinks classrooms at the high school and preschool were the most-needed projects in the proposal.

The men agreed that the turnout was big for a school election.

“I’ve never seen that kind of turnout for a school election as long as I’ve been voting and living here,” Myers said.

Nelson agreed. “We had a good voter turnout, and everybody voted their minds, and we’ll go from here,” he said.

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

Upcoming Events