The School Board for the Pulaski County Special School District heard proposals Tuesday for expanding Sylvan Hills High School, which has doubled its enrollment since 2010-11 to 1,452 this year and is projected to reach more than 1,600 next year.
The board made no decisions at its work session Tuesday night but could vote as soon as its Feb. 14 meeting on whether to go to voters at a special election in the spring for approval of a funding plan for the expansion.
The district's executive director of operations, Derek Scott, estimated Tuesday that the project -- including more classrooms and new common areas for 2,200 students --would cost about $65 million.
The district could generate about $36.6 million for the project without a tax election by issuing second-lien bonds. That would pay for increased classroom space. The district would repay those bonds with tax revenue generated over time by the continued growth in property values or assessment throughout the district.
The district could raise $65 million for new construction if voters were to approve a 13-year extension of 14.8 debt service mills already being levied, investment adviser Jack Truemper, senior vice president at Stephens Inc., told the board.
The extension would not raise the annual 40.7 mill tax rate levied in the district but taxpayers would pay the current rate for a longer period. If extended, the 14.8 mills would expire in 2048 rather than in 2035.
The board members and district leaders also discussed the possibility of asking voters at a special election in April or May to approve an extension of the existing debt-service mills plus an increase of 1 or 2 new tax mills that could be used for purposes such as raising employee salaries.
Linda Remele, president of the newly elected board and a retired deputy superintendent in the district, said that employees have not received a significant across-the-board pay raise in several years.
Remele asked her board colleagues to talk with their constituents in the coming weeks to gauge their support for the different financial options.
The district last asked voters to approve a 5.6-mill property-tax increase for school construction and renovation projects at all schools in May 2015. That proposal was defeated.
While waiting until February to decide on a funding measure, the School Board will vote at its Jan. 19 business meeting on whether to authorize architects to proceed with designing an expansion of the Sylvan Hills campus that could be fully operational by the summer of 2019.
Early plans call for constructing a three-story classroom building with a two-story science laboratory wing that would be in addition to the existing high school building. The new construction on Dee Jay Hudson Drive would become the new front to the school that was originally built in the 1960s. A new auditorium, dining and kitchen space, arena and multipurpose buildings would replace the existing spaces that are inadequate to hold the student body.
Tracy Allen, Sylvan Hills High principal, said the current cafeteria holds only 400 students, meaning there must be three lunch periods. The school's auditorium holds 580 and the gymnasium holds 820. The school's ninth-graders were moved this school year to the "Freshman Campus" 5 miles away at the former Northwood Middle School. That required the hiring of 26 teachers and a substantial investment in improvements to that building, Superintendent Jerry Guess said.
The district is building a new Mills High School and a new Robinson Middle School that will open in August 2018. The current Mills High School will be renovated to become a replacement for Fuller Middle School, which will be demolished.
Metro on 01/11/2017