FAYETTEVILLE — Tuesday's election returns were like getting kicked in the head with an iron boot - at least for the FayettevilleSchool District and young people throughout this town hoping to attend the premier high school of the region. The many people in the community who helped fashion the plan for that high school, we now know, had bigger ideas than the general public was willing to embrace.
Many of the district's opponents in this campaign, of course, have barely been able to contain themselves since the news broke. Property taxes will not be shooting skyward anytime soon. This is blessed information to those who could not afford - and those who simply didn't want to pay - the 4.9-mill increase that district leaders spent the summer asking for.
Lots of glum talk preceded last week's spectacle. Prognosticators jabbered all along that the effort was destined to go down in flames. It's understandable. It is a tough time to ask for money.
Obviously, the projected cost of replacing 57-year-old Fayetteville High School with a highly advanced model ($115 million and change) was most likely a key factor behind the nearly 6,000 "against" votes the district ultimately received. Other complaints - the controversial addition of the ninth grade to the high school ranks; the decision to fund one all-new high schools, as opposed to two different high school; and the controversial indecision that preceded the University of Arkansas' withdrawal of a $50 million offer to buy the current 40-acre campus - each played key roles in the outcome.
Disappointment naturally follows such an energetic effort to win the voters' favor. You can see it in the eyes of this measure's fiercest supporters. They realize that while 2009 wasn't the perfect economic environment in which to raise taxes, it indeed represented a great time to build a large new facility. Contractors need the work. Materials likely cost less now than they will in the months and years ahead. On a brick-by-brick level, the next construction proposal will cost more per unit even if the overall size of the project shrinks enough to reduce the overall price.
They realize, too, that regardless of what happens, nothing they say will convince some members of the anti-tax crowd to support their best efforts. And this despite the fact that today's high school students could have used a new high school 10 years ago, much less half a decade or more from today.
But there is no rest for those who believe in their mission, and when the mission is to get Fayetteville and her children better high school facilities, it's hard to let one defeat at the polls define the future. We supported the proposal because this community needs to address its high school. It has critical needs that have been unmet long enough. We encourage the school board to respond quickly with an enthusiastic drive to understand voter reaction through hard data, not popular speculation. Perhaps a scientific poll sampled from the list of voters who cast ballots Tuesday?
The school district made a valiant effort to get passed the best proposal for a new high school that it and its patrons could come up with. The people who pay the bills, however, said no. That's part of democracy. So be it.
What the community does not need is another three- or four-year gnashing of teeth before a new proposal comes forward.
We're happy so many citizens participated in last week's election. We hope everyone who wishes to influence the size, shape and cost any future construction - which is still desperately required - will become active in the participation process rather than just lastminute opponents of it.
Fayetteville still must build a high school.
Opinion, Pages 4 on 09/20/2009