Pine Bluff School District board members and officials will formally ask the public for a unified, increased millage rate across the district toward construction of a new high school in an Aug. 8 special election.
Voters in the district will decide whether to increase the existing millage rates to 47.7, which would represent a 6-mill increase in the old PBSD and 6.9-mill increase in the old Dollarway School District. That means for a house valued at $100,000, the owner would pay an extra $120 per year in property tax, or $10 per month.
The seven-member board unanimously voted during a special meeting Wednesday night at the Jordan-Chanay Administration Building for three separate resolutions: first to request the special election, which must be filed with the city clerk within no less than 70 days beforehand, per state law; secondly to adopt a proposed budget of expenditures with tax levy for the 2024-25 fiscal year; and thirdly to submit an application for construction bonds totaling $67,340,000 to the Arkansas Department of Education and hire First Security Beardsley as fiscal agent.
Of that dollar amount, $65,832,520 will go toward a new Pine Bluff High School and any remaining funds from the latter amount will be used for constructing, equipping, refurbishing and remodeling other school facilities.
The student bodies at both Pine Bluff and Dollarway high schools will merge and attend PBHS beginning in August due to declining attendance rates in both schools. The proposed high school will be constructed at PBHS' current location on West 11th Avenue.
PBSD Superintendent Jennifer Barbaree called the split tax rates confusing to the patrons and added making them consistent will help the district receive one tax payment rather than two, each from a different community.
"That's very positive, and it's just more transparent for our patrons because we are one Pine Bluff and we're going to make one millage rate," Barbaree said.
Past attempts to unify the rates have failed since Dollarway was annexed into the PBSD in 2021, but the present PBSD is aiming to cover the increase in construction costs since the Education Department awarded the district a state share of $12.8 million that year.
The estimated cost to construct a new PBHS has nearly doubled in the last two years to $41.3 million for a 118,000-square foot academic center including a 900-seat auditorium, cafeteria, media center, band and choir, career and tech programs, secure student courtyard and outdoor classroom.
After a board work session Monday that included input from city leaders, Barbaree said, the trustees opted to include in the construction a 43,000-square foot arena for $15,050,000 and 10,000-square foot safe room for $5 million. The total, after architectural/engineering and contingency fees and minus the state share, comes out to $53,310,750. The bond total assumes an interest rate of 4.75%.
"The reason why the board decided on asking for that millage rate is so that we would have enough money to do the entire project including the arena," Barbaree said. The school has hosted basketball games at McFadden Gym since its opening more than 70 years ago.
The plan still leaves room for the potential to upgrade Jordan Stadium at an estimated $4 million. An on-campus baseball/softball complex, however, will not be included.
Adding to the agenda, the board voted unanimously to create a capital campaign committee for the project at the request of trustee Lori Walker Guelache. The committee will include community members, a district staff and at least one board member, but the actual persons will be named at a later date.
"The whole objective is to try to reduce the total amount of indebtedness we would incur for the new school," Guelache said. "If we were able to secure name rights for certain buildings, halls or whatever, this community decides what those components could be, like bricks in a plaza or something like to give smaller increments to give the people a chance to contribute to the project.
"If we start that bond committee now, we can reduce the amount of money we have to borrow."