Millage extension vote for Little Rock School District set to begin

Early voting begins Tuesday in the Little Rock School District's special election May 9 on extending the levy of 12.4 debt service mills by 14 years to help finance a new high school in the southwest part of the city and make improvements at all other campuses.

If approved, the tax proposal -- which has generated support and opposition in the state-controlled district -- will not increase a property owner's yearly school tax payment. It will, however, extend the current tax rate for more years, from 2033 when the 12.4 mills are now due to expire to 2047. As a result, property owners would pay the same amount of annual taxes longer.

Besides a new $90 million high school for 2,250 students on Mabelvale Pike to replace the McClellan and J.A. Fair schools, money from the bond issues financed by the extended 12.4 mills would be used to construct a new classroom building on the McClellan High campus at a projected cost of $40 million and a gymnasium complex at Mabelvale Middle School at a cost of about $5.8 million, district leaders have said. The revamped McClellan is likely to become a kindergarten-through-eighth-grade school.

[DOCUMENT: Little Rock School District's estimated debt service schedule]

Additionally, $12.2 million would be earmarked for modernization at multiple school sites, $9.8 million would be for roof replacements, $9.8 million for window replacements, $5.5 million for athletic fields and track upgrades, and $4.5 million for security camera and alarm replacements.

School kitchens also would be air-conditioned; restrooms would be renovated; and heating and air conditioning, and mechanical systems would be addressed in the state's largest district of 24,000 students.

Little Rock Superintendent Mike Poore said last week that the planned capital projects are not new but reflect the work and ideas of past school boards, superintendents and consultants.

"In my eyes this is extremely low-hanging fruit to move forward in a significant way on stuff that has been needed for a long, long time," said Poore about the tax plan.

[DOCUMENT: Resolution from Education Commissioner Johnny Key]

Poore made the comments at McClellan after a tour of the 1965-built school on a day when there were flooded commodes in a pair of restrooms.

Other problems with the building include exposed wiring and pipes on the ceilings, pocked concrete floors in hallways open to the outdoors, thin classroom walls that don't meet floors, no classroom windows, dim classroom lighting and peeling locker paint.

Poore said he fought back tears as he listened to Advanced Placement chemistry teacher Ritu Shekhawat tell of managing students in her crowded classroom/science laboratory with barely functioning equipment.

Poore said he disagrees with tax-extension opponents who want to wait to make school improvements until the state-run district is returned to the control of a locally elected school board.

"I say this over and over. We need to get local control back as quick as we can and everything that I can do as superintendent to impact our ability to get schools off distress ... I've got to try to do that with our staff," Poore said. "But at the same time, I'm going to make decisions based on what is best for kids," he said about pushing for the tax plan and multicampus improvements.

The Little Rock district was taken over by the state in January 2015 because six of its 48 schools were state-labeled as being in academic distress for chronically low student results on state math and literacy tests. The School Board was immediately dissolved, and the superintendent was placed under the supervision of the state education commissioner.

Jim Ross, a faculty member at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, was a member of the dismissed school board and is now a leader in the campaign against the millage extension and resulting bond issue for construction. He also is a plaintiff in a federal lawsuit against the state and school district over what his side says are disparate building conditions and disparate education programs for students in the district's schools. That case goes to trial in July.

"We oppose it," Ross said Friday about the tax extension. "I think people ought to vote against it. It's not good economic policy. Right now with the loss of revenue, we need to think about how we can reduce our budget and run a tighter ship."

Baker Kurrus, a Little Rock lawyer and businessman who was appointed by Education Commissioner Johnny Key as superintendent of the Little Rock district for one year and was replaced by Poore, said Friday afternoon in a prepared statement that he has never voted against a school tax in his life but would be voting against the debt service mills extension.

[DOCUMENT: Baker Kurrus position on May 9 special election on millage extension]

"A vote for the measure is a vote to borrow the principal sum of $160 million at a time when LRSD faces great uncertainty," Kurrus wrote.

He said the district would be taking on millions of dollars in new debt payments at a time when the district's student enrollment could drop by as much as 1,250 and state funding could decline by as much as $8 million as the result of new and expanding charter schools that compete for students and funding.

"Rather than borrow now, the better approach would be to make a realistic assessment of the size and character of LRSD over the course of the same 30 years of the proposed bond repayment. LRSD can borrow, if necessary, after the budget is balanced and enrollment is stabilized," Kurrus said.

Kurrus, Ross and others who are part of Ross' No Taxation Without Representation campaign against the tax extension say the district can pay for the long-promised southwest high school in other ways. They propose that the district combine its last $37.3 million payment in state desegregation aid to the school with surplus revenue raised annually by the 12.4 debt service mills that is in excess of what is required to pay the district's existing annual bond debt.

That surplus is currently almost $30 million a year and is used to offset other expenses in the district, including day-to-day operating costs such as employee salaries and utility bills.

Each tax mill in the district raises about $43 million in annual revenue. The district's debt payment obligation is about $13.5 million this year, according to data from Stephens Inc., the district's financial adviser. That debt payment would increase to an estimated $21.4 million a year starting in 2018 and continuing for 22 years to finance up to three bond issues generating $202.6 million.

With the $202.6 million the district would continue to pay off existing debt and realize $160 million in new money for building upgrades throughout the district.

Ross and Kurrus said the annual nearly $30 million surplus should be reserved for building construction and renovations.

"We can do this without paying the bond companies and the bond lawyers," Ross said. "We are going to be paying off ... people who aren't our kids. We can take care of our kids right now in our city with the money we have if we had a vision and a plan."

Kurrus warned that district employees and educational programs would bear the brunt of budget reductions in order for the district to meet its increased debt obligations.

The millage proposal comes at a time when Poore and his staff -- with Key's approval -- have decided to close three of the district's schools and repurpose a fourth starting in the 2017-18 school year as a way to cut expenses. Those school closures have been vehemently opposed by the Save Our Schools grassroots organization, which has also announced opposition to the tax extension plan.

Poore agreed that surplus debt service funds could be used for construction but, in contrast to Kurrus' statement, Poore said that could mean further budget cuts in a district that will have reduced its expenses by $41 million over four years by the end of the 2017-18 school year.

"It means additional cuts to employees and potential school closures," Poore said about reserving the annual surplus for pay-as-you-go construction.

"You would have to get tighter with staffing and with how many schools you have out there. I don't want to do that," Poore said.

Ross said Friday that while he has respect for Poore, he doesn't trust Key, the state education commissioner, who acts in place of a school board for the state-controlled Little Rock district.

"We simply can't trust Johnny Key with any more of our money," Ross said. "He's shown time and time again that his one goal and one agenda for Little Rock is to expand [independently operated, public] charter schools and that is what he is going to continue to do."

"Under the new law, if we build a new building or fix up an old building, they can take that building away from us," Ross said, referring to Act 308 of 2017, which gives charter schools greater rights of first access to vacant or underused schools in traditional public school systems.

Key -- in response to the campaign against the millage -- on Thursday issued a resolution of support for the Little Rock ballot proposal.

In it, Key "commits to supporting Superintendent Poore and the staff of LRSD in fully implementing the ... capital improvement project list. It is further resolved that this commitment of support extends to Mr. Poore's efforts to determine viable solutions for re-purposed facilities, and that these solutions will not be detrimental to the long term success of the district."

Key and Poore agree in the resolution that the identified construction projects "are vital to the long term success of both the students and the district, and the work on these projects should begin immediately if the May 9 ballot measure is approved by the voters."

The resolution also says that "when the state oversight ends and local governance of LRSD is re-established, the schools in the district will be returned in whole and the district will be well poised to be the education option of choice for students and parents in the Little Rock area."

"Resolutions aren't legally binding," Ross said Friday about Key. "He has by his words and his actions done only one thing for Little Rock and that is steal our kids for charter schools.

"If he is really serious about our kids and our schools, he can introduce a reading program tomorrow that is developed by our teachers. He can re-certify our teachers' contracts. He can help our teachers with their insurance. He can help our kids get into good buildings with the money we've got now. He's got to show some actions for us."

Greg Adams, who was president of the Little Rock School Board when it was dissolved, reacted differently to Key's resolution and Key's recent letter to Little Rock Mayor Mark Stodola. He welcomed them and the commitments in them to ultimately returning the Little Rock district in whole to local control.

Adams said he has disagreed with Key's positions on the impact of expanding charter schools but that Key is consistent in his positions and follows through on his public statements.

"When he says that this millage extension will go for these improvements and when he says the district will be returned in whole -- I don't see examples in the past where he has made clear statements and then gone and done the opposite," Adams said. "I still have differences with his judgment on issues, but I feel greatly comforted that he has made those kinds of clear promises."

A Section on 04/30/2017