A proposal to extend the collection of 14.8 debt-service mills by 13 years as a way to finance school construction and repairs in the Pulaski County Special School District is on track to go to voters at a special May 9 election.
The special election is subject to the approval of Arkansas Education Commissioner Johnny Key.
The district's School Board voted unanimously Tuesday night to seek an extension of the tax levy to 2043. The 14.8 mills that generated school construction revenue in the past are otherwise due to expire in 2035.
If the levy extension is approved by voters, the district's current total tax rate of 40.7 mills wouldn't change and annual taxes paid by property owners for the schools wouldn't increase, but the property owner would pay the current tax rate for more years.
The School Board acted on the tax plan -- which would help finance a $65 million bond issue for expanding Sylvan Hills High School -- at a meeting in which it also approved cuts to the district's operating budget for the 2017-18 school year.
Those cuts -- including contested changes to the 25-year old Mills High School Advanced Placement scholars program -- are being done to offset the scheduled end to $20.8 million a year in state desegregation aid.
This is the last year that the special state aid can be used for district operating costs, according to a January 2014 agreement in a long-running federal school desegregation lawsuit. The money is restricted to building costs in the 2017-18 school year, which is the final year for the money.
Jack Truemper, senior vice president at Stephens Inc., a financial adviser to the School Board, presented the board with options for raising school construction money that ranged from selling second-lien bonds, which don't require a public vote, to pairing the extension of the 14.8 debt service mills with a 1-, 2- or 3-mill increase. The district could generate about $36.6 million by selling the second-lien bonds. The extension of the 14.8 debt-service mills already being collected plus a millage increase of 1 to 3 mills would raise $112 million to $210.6 million.
"There is no appetite for an increase," School Board member Mike Kemp, who is also mayor of Shannon Hills, said about the additional tax mills.
Board member Brian Maune of west Pulaski County said he feared that asking for a millage increase would jeopardize voter approval of the millage extension and the construction that the extended mills could finance.
Alicia Gillen of Maumelle, asked that the ballot request for the extended mills not be tied to one specific facility.
Enrollment growth in the Sherwood area caused the School Board to look for school construction funds.
Sylvan Hills High has doubled its enrollment since the 2010-11 school year to 1,452 this year and is projected to reach more than 1,600 next year.
Tracy Allen, principal of the high school, said Tuesday he was "absolutely" pleased with the board's vote, adding that a good portion of the money raised will have to be devoted to expand the campus to accommodate 2,200.
The school's ninth-graders were moved this school year to the "Freshman Campus" 5 miles away at the former Northwood Middle School.
"We want a campus that reflects who we are," Sylvan Hills High student Emily Dipple, told the board. "We need space to do our best."
The School Board last month authorized WER Architects/Planners to begin design work for the campus with hopes of being able to occupy new space by the summer of 2019.
The proposed tax measure comes at a time when the district is building a new Mills High School in southeast Pulaski County and a new Robinson Middle School in the western part of the district, both of which are to open in August 2018.
The School Board on Tuesday approved categories for budget reductions recommended by Superintendent Jerry Guess that will include a reduction in support staff, more efficient staffing of middle and high school classroom, cuts in school bus transportation services, deferred school bus purchases and fewer instructional facilitators and school improvement specialists.The district is also transferring some costs from the operating budget to other revenue sources, including some costs related to alternative education.
The most controversial of the proposals dealt with a move from a college-style AB block schedule to a seven-period course day at Mills High and eliminating bus transportation for students who attend Mills High, Fuller Middle and College Station elementary schools but live outside the attendance zones. Students from outside the attendance zone would still be able to attend those schools that have offered specialty programs in gifted education and orchestra but they will have to provide their own transportation.
The high school course scheduling change is being done largely to give Mills' students daily lessons and contact with teachers in each subject. Mills is labeled by the state as being in academic distress and a priority school because of chronically low student achievement.
John Tackett, the district's director of secondary education, said the district must be able to report to the state that it is taking steps to improve achievement at the school. Tackett also said the district is initiating steps to make each of its high schools -- including Mills -- "a school of innovation" that will use a varied instructional methods, online courses, flexible scheduling, concurrent college credit and project-based learning, as well as Advanced Placement courses.
Jaime Rollans, Mills' social studies department chairman and advanced placement coordinator, said the once state and nationally renowned Advanced Placement scholars program at Mills suffers from lack of district support. She asked to continue the school bus transportation and block scheduling one more year to allow juniors to graduate and other families to make school choices.
Metro on 02/15/2017