Little Rock school updates at stake in tax election

Vote on 14-year millage extension accents district divisions on bond debt, board

Little Rock School District Superintendent Mike Poore views an unusable restroom at McClellan High School during a recent tour. The district’s millage proposal would include a $90 million high school in southwest Little Rock to replace McClellan and J.A. Fair.
Little Rock School District Superintendent Mike Poore views an unusable restroom at McClellan High School during a recent tour. The district’s millage proposal would include a $90 million high school in southwest Little Rock to replace McClellan and J.A. Fair.

For the first time in 17 years, Little Rock School District residents will vote Tuesday on a proposed change in the district's tax structure.

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Little Rock businessman Gary Smith (center), leader of the Rebuild Our Schools campaign, is surrounded by a coalition of Little Rock School District teachers, students and parents and business and community leaders in this file photo.

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Sen. Joyce Elliott, D-Little Rock, is shown in this photo.

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Baker Kurrus is shown in this 2016 file photo.

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Special to the Democrat-Gazette

John Walker, an attorney for Little Rock students and families in a lawsuit alleging disparate facilities and academic programs, is shown in this photo.

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Arkansas Department of Education Commissioner Johnny Key is shown in this photo from February 9, 2017.

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Information about planned capital improvement projects

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Information about Little Rock voting locations

Leaders in the state's largest district are asking voters to extend 12.4 of the district's 46.4-mill tax rate by 14 years, from 2033 -- when the mills are now to due to expire -- to 2047.

Voter approval of the extension would enable the district to borrow as much as $202 million to pay off its existing debt at a lower interest rate while also generating $160 million to help with new school construction and updates to all campuses.

The projects include a new $90 million high school in southwest Little Rock to replace McClellan and J.A. Fair high schools; conversion of the McClellan campus for another school use; a new physical education complex at Mabelvale Middle; improved athletic facilities; and new roofs, windows, lighting and heating and air conditioning systems throughout the district.

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

Annual school tax bills would not increase if the tax plan is approved, but property owners would pay the same yearly tax rate for more years.

The final opportunity for early voting in the special election will be 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday at the Pulaski County Regional Building, 501 W. Markham St.

Polling places will be open 7:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. Tuesday at locations throughout the school district.

The debate leading up to the tax election has been fierce between citizen coalitions for and against the extended mills and increased bond debt. The proposal has divided some of the city's most prominent business, education, and government leaders into different camps.

[DOCUMENT: Resolution from Education Commissioner Johnny Key]

One side -- the Rebuild Our Schools Now campaign -- sees the tax plan as a financially painless way to start on needed building improvements throughout the 24,000-student district.

The other camp -- Citizens Against Taxation Without Representation -- sees the plan as a risky, costly increase in the district's long-term bond indebtedness at a time when the district is under state direction without a locally elected, accountable school board.

The Little Rock district was taken over by the state in January 2015 because six of its 48 schools were labeled by the state as being in academic distress. The six schools have since been reduced to three schools.

Little Rock businessman Gary Smith, leader of the Rebuild Our Schools campaign for the tax extension, said last week that the district has an opportunity with the election to improve facilities and the atmosphere in schools without raising taxes.

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

"You have to start somewhere," Smith said. "And this is the beginning. If we are going to compete with surrounding cities and districts, we have to take this step to provide adequate, safe, comfortable facilities for our kids. All of the other issues that people raise [against the tax plan] have nothing to do with the facilities and taking care of the kids. All of the other issues are going to be resolved over time, but we don't have any control over them. We do have control over this and we can do it now."

Smith also said that the district will eventually regain an elected school board.

"When they come back, they can either be in a position that this major step has been taken and they have something to build on or they could start at ground zero, and the uphill battle is going to be steeper the next time out," he said. "If you want to give a school board the best shot to be successful, this is the best way to do it."

Gov. Asa Hutchinson, who is registered to vote in Benton County, said in an interview Friday that he has a lot of confidence in the direction of the state-run Little Rock district, but it "clearly" needs some building improvements.

"The students deserve to have better facilities," he said. "Some of the areas that have the greatest need are in southwest Little Rock, and they deserve that support. So, to me, it's a logical step. It's financially sound and it will improve the attractiveness of the public school system in Little Rock and its performance."

The governor said he is "fully committed" to returning the district to an elected school board as soon as the remaining three schools in academic distress have the label removed. Families and businesses want to go to cities with strong school systems, he said.

"And it's not sufficient, in my judgment, to say we've got a great private school system or that we've got wonderful charter schools," he said. "We have to be able to say the public school system in the Little Rock School District is strong academically with dedicated teachers, and I'm confident we'll be able to say that in the near future."

Act 930, which goes into effect in August, could expedite the return to local control because the new law adds more flexible standards -- not just students' scores on standardized tests -- for determining school performance, he said. No one, he added, wants to see the district fail.

"If the state can for a time walk alongside and help it to accomplish those objectives, I think it's a positive thing," Hutchinson said. "And I hope in the end, when it's returned to local control, it will be seen as something that actually worked."

Sen. Joyce Elliott, D-Little Rock, a retired high school teacher, called the Little Rock district tax proposal and building plan "a huge mistake," and said "our kids deserve more than what we are putting forth here -- what are in so many ways stopgap measures."

Elliott said it is important to have elected, accountable officials in place -- rather than state Education Commissioner Johnny Key -- to oversee the district before greater debt is incurred and to ensure that money is spent in the ways patrons of the district expect.

"I do think we are going to get one bite at the apple of going to our voters and asking for a millage extension or an increase. It seems to me to be more prudent to have a long-term plan in place and deliver to our students world-class buildings along with world- class academics, rather than this kind of patchwork thing that we are doing," Elliott said.

Elliott said she wants greater certainty about the financial condition of the district and assurances that the money put into the buildings will be well-spent in terms of the long-term use of the schools. She noted that the district is closing three schools and repurposing a fourth in the coming school year as a money-saving measure -- a decision that she said was not anticipated by district residents.

She said the lack of locally elected representation in the district is huge to her.

"The state Board of Education could turn this district back over to the patrons today if they decided too, and nobody bothers to try to make it plain to us or tries to defend why it is OK to keep these schools under the big foot of the state Board of Education when we are supposed to be there because of academic distress. There is no case to be made that this school district is in academic distress.

"It is an abuse of power," she said, adding that it is supported by city government and business leaders who say that local control should be restored but "don't lift a finger to make it so."

Elliott has been publicly joined in her opposition to the tax extension by former Pulaski County Circuit Judge Marion Humphrey; former Little Rock School Board member Jim Ross; former Little Rock Superintendent Baker Kurrus; Save Our Schools organization leader Anika Whitfield; Pulaski County Circuit Judge Wendell Griffen; and Pulaski County Justice of the Peace Donna Massey, among others.

Last month, Kurrus issued a statement opposing the tax plan because of concerns about the district's ability to afford new bond debt at a time when new and expanded state-approved charter schools jeopardize the district's enrollment and financial stability.

Smith, the leader of the campaign for the tax extension, said in response that Kurrus as superintendent in the 2015-16 school year suggested a similar plan for investing in buildings, relying on $50 million in district budget cuts -- compared with $41 million in cuts the district will have made as of next school year -- and new bond debt of $165 million.

John Walker, an attorney for Little Rock students and families in a lawsuit alleging disparate facilities and academic programs, said that the tax plan isn't sufficient to correct all the problems -- including the construction of a new high school, and the repurposing of the McClellan campus into a middle school or a kindergarten-through-eighth-grade school.

"The schools in southwest Little Rock are otherwise falling down and they are in no way equal to ones in west Little Rock ... that have been well maintained over the years," Walker said.

Walker also noted that the district's own study done by a team of consultants showed the district needed in excess of $300 million in work.

"They are not addressing the needs of black students," said Walker, whose case against the district goes to trial in July.

Those who have come out in public support of the school district's tax plan include Mayor Mark Stodola and most of the Little Rock Board of Directors; former Little Rock School Board President Greg Adams; and Little Rock Education Association President Cathy Koehler, although the employees union itself chose not to take a position on the tax plan.

Key, the education commissioner, has committed to supporting the use of the money on the district's list of identified projects.

The Little Rock district last asked for a change in its tax levy in 2000, when voters approved a 5-mill increase to a total of 46.4 mills.

Money generated by that 2000 tax increase and related bond issues has been used over time for the purchase of classroom technology as well as dozens of capital improvement projects, including the new Roberts Elementary School; a new classroom building and fine arts wing at Horace Mann Magnet Middle School; new classroom wings at Hall High School and Terry Elementary; and improvements at Pulaski Heights Elementary and Middle schools.

After 2000, the annual school election ballots in the Little Rock district included only the district's current tax rate. No tax changes were proposed and the district's tax rate remained unchanged at 46.4 mills.

A millage question is on the school election ballot every year -- even when no change is proposed -- because Article 14, Section 3 of the Arkansas Constitution requires an annual vote on a school tax rate.

The 12.4 debt-service mills now at issue in the Little Rock district raise $43.1 million a year, of which $13.5 million is earmarked this year for bond debt. The surplus of almost $30 million a year is used to meet other district operating costs, including maintenance, equipment, salaries and utilities.

If the proposed tax extension is approved by voters, allowing the refinancing of existing bonds and the issuing of new bonds, the district's debt service -- principal plus interest -- would increase to an estimated $21.4 million in each year between 2019 and 2041. The debt payment would drop to about $3.7 million a year between 2042 and 2047.

At the top of the list of building projects proposed by Superintendent Mike Poore is the new high school, which would be funded with $55 million from the $160 million in bond money The district also would apply its final year of state desegregation aid -- $37.3 million -- to the high school.

Poore has said that the high school likely will be built regardless of the outcome of the millage vote but could take longer. The other projects also would be delayed if they are done at all.

The new high school for 2,250 students is planned for undeveloped land between Mabelvale Pike and Mann Road, behind the Home Depot and Wal-Mart stores.

The Polk Stanley Wilcox architecture firm has designed a three-story L-shaped academic building that includes a media center, dining space, and a 1,200-seat auditorium. Other features include a football/soccer stadium, an arena, an auxiliary gym, a field house a combination practice field and competitive track, softball and baseball fields, and tennis courts.

In obtaining a new high school, the Little Rock district will join other districts that have built or extensively remodeled high schools in recent years. Those schools have been built in a range of sizes and costs.

El Dorado High School, for example, opened in 2011, at a cost of about $43 million for 317,000 square feet and a capacity of 1,600 students, according to news reports at the time.

More recently, the North Little Rock School District opened a largely new, 488,000-square-foot high school in August 2015 for 3,000 students at a cost of about $109 million, including furnishings.

Bentonville West High School, a campus of 430,000 square feet, opened in August to more than 1,200 students at a cost of $80 million, according to news accounts at the time.

The Pulaski County Special School District opened the new Maumelle High in 2011. It cost $65 million, including $5 million for the land, for a capacity of 1,500 students.

Mills University Studies High in the Pulaski County Special district is currently under construction to be a 150,000-square-foot facility. It is projected to cost $50 million and will serve a capacity of 750 students, Derek Scott, the district's executive director of operations, said last week. Scott said the square-foot cost is about $204.

The proposed expansion of Sylvan Hills High School, also in the Pulaski County Special district, hinges on a millage extension vote at a special election in June. The expansion is projected to cost as much as $65 million for a capacity of 2,200 students. The project will include some renovation and reuse of existing facilities at the campus. Scott expects the Sylvan Hills project to cost as much as $220 per square foot.

The new Jacksonville/North Pulaski district is in the early stages of building a replacement for Jacksonville High. Superintendent Tony Wood said he expects the cost of the 283,832-square-foot school to be about $63 million for an initial student capacity of 1,400. Wood said he would be shocked if the bids for the new school are less than $200 a square foot.

Unlike the Little Rock and Pulaski County Special districts, the Jacksonville district qualifies for state aid for its building projects.

Wood said he doesn't try to compare costs of school buildings around the state or in central Arkansas.

"Every project is so unique, depending on its site and so many other variables," Wood said last week.

Metro on 05/07/2017

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