HOW WE SEE IT Know All The Facts Of Election

Tuesday was the first day of early voting in the Bentonville School District’s millage election. It drew 820 voters, an indication that interest in the election is extraordinarily high, which is good.

District residents should vote the way their conscience tells them to vote on the proposed 6.7-mill tax increase.

But first, we urge residents to become properly informed on the issue.

This newspaper has published numerous reports on the proposal, with input from both proponents and opponents. If you’ve missed those stories, a good place to go for information is online at www.voteyesbrighterfuture.com, the campaign committee's website; included on that site is a lengthy list of frequently asked questions about the millage.

Voters should have a firm handle on the facts before making adecision. Rumors and gossip should be treated as what they are - rumors and gossip.

Also, material circulated by people unwilling to attach their names to it should be given little if any consideration.

A flier was mailed recently to Bentonville households encouraging residents to vote against the increase. It lists a lot of numbers to support its case. The authors of it declined to provide their names.

Unfortunately, some of the information the fl ier presents is either wrong or lacking valuable context.

For example, the flier states the combined capacity of Bentonville High and the second high school would be 6,565. The actual combined ideal capacity would be 5,300. The flier uses this misinformation to conclude the two schools wouldn’t reach capacity until 2046.

The flier also shows a chart attempting to make direct comparisons between the construction cost of this second high school and other recent high school projects in the area, such as Siloam Springs High, Rogers Heritage High and the North Building at Bentonville High. It gives the cost per square foot of Bentonville’s second high school as $235 - about double the cost of those other projects.

But according to Bentonville School Board member Travis Riggs, that price includes things the other aforementioned projects do not - things such as furniture, fixtures and equipment. Those other schools also were built at diff erent times with different construction costs. Riggs said he has researched construction costs, and the cost of the new high school would fall below the national median cost of new high school projects completed in 2011.

Again, respect the facts. Don’t let an anonymous source be your guide. The School Board, Superintendent Michael Poore and the campaign committee Bentonville Kids Come First have supplied ample information. We have no reason to believe their facts are inaccurate.

We encourage every registered voter in the Bentonville School District to participate in this election. Just be certain you know what impact a “yes” or “no” vote could make on your life.

And since we don’t want to be accused of hiding behind the veil of anonymity ourselves, we’d like to make clear who’s responsible for producing this editorial. That would be the editorial board of Northwest Arkansas Newspapers, which includes: Rusty Turner, editor and publisher; Brenda Blagg, columnist; Greg Harton, local editor of the Northwest Arkansas Times; Mike Jones, local editor of The Benton County Daily Record; and Dave Perozek, editorial page editor.

Opinion, Pages 5 on 06/22/2012

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