CONWAY — Voters in the Conway School District overwhelmingly approved a 1.9 mill increase Tuesday to finance construction of high school facilities on its west campus and an additional elementary school for the rapidly growing system.
The complete but unofficial results were: For................................2,988 Against ........................1,290
In the only contested school board race, Andre Acklin and Ron Hill are headed for a runoff on Oct. 12. Billy Thomas trailed.
The complete but unofficial results were: Hill ............................... 1,623 Acklin ..........................1,608 Thomas .......................... 735
A small crowd that gathered in the county courthouse cheered the millage vote results as they were announced and began congratulating Superintendent Greg Murry and Tom Courtway, chairman of the Conway 2012 Committee, which campaigned for the millage increase.
The vote means the district’s millage will rise from 36.2 to 38.1 mills.
Murry said the margin of victory did not surprise him.
“This community has supported education in so many ways,” he said, and the outcome is another example of that support.
Construction probably will begin in March on the new high school, which will be built at the site of the current one. It will replace the one that was built in 1968, which has only one science laboratory for its 1,274 students.
Courtway said he was surprised the victory margin was so wide.
“I think it says a lot about Conway,” Courtway said. The vote also “tells the rest of the state and the world what this community thinks about education.”
Plans call for three stories of classroom space, plus a library, a cafeteria and offices.
Classroom space is to be completed by July 2012 and construction of the cafeteria, demolition work and connection of all campus buildings should be finished in the fall of 2013.
The district estimates the cost of classroom construction at $31,489,670 - a sum that also includes demolishing the current pods, architectural fees and equipment. Building and equipping a cafeteria will cost an estimated $7,489,420. Traffic flow changes will cost roughly $831,017.
A new $15 million elementary school on Old Military Road funded by the millage increase is scheduled to open in fall 2012. It is expected to hold 650 to 700students.
Conway High School-West now houses grades 11 and 12. Once the reconstruction is complete, the school will house grades 10, 11 and 12.
The grade reconfiguration will trickle down with eighth-and ninth-graders at the east campus, which will become a junior high school. Lower grades grouped together will be kindergarten through fourth grade, and fifth through seventh grades. Sallie Cone Elementary School will become a pre-kindergarten center.
The district also plans to rezone attendance boundaries, but details haven’t been worked out.
Arkansas, Pages 9 on 09/22/2010