School Board Starts Millage Vote Discussion

UPSHAW: People Didn't Feel Involved In Process

Friday, November 30, 2012

— School Board members unofficially decided they want something built that will relieve capacity at Bentonville High School by 2016 during a meeting Thursday.

Travis Riggs, board president, said that means another millage election could be before voters by fall 2013.

Board members also decided to engage public input on a future millage plan by mailing one or more survey postcards.

District administrators will draft the survey for the board to review in the near future. How the survey will be presented wasn’t decided during the meeting.

At A Glance

District Survey

A survey sent out by the Bentonville School District earlier this year asked voters why they did or didn’t support a millage increase in June for a second high school. Resolving overcrowding was chosen by 505 of respondents as the top reason they voted for the increase. The cost of the plan was chosen by 474 respondents as the top reason they voted against the increase. More than 1,700 postcards were returned.

Source: Staff Report

It could ask voters if they would support a second high school or other options. It might also include a price range for the projects and how much each range could impact property taxes.

A 6.7-mill increase for a 2,000-student second high school in Centerton failed in June. If the millage increase had passed, the district would have received $128 million to build the high school and upgrade districtwide technology and heating and cooling systems.

Superintendent Michael Poore presented the board with an outline of how they could move forward with discussion surrounding a millage increase proposal. It included six to 18 months of community engagement, two months of programming discussions, 12 months of building design and construction documents, one month for state approval, one month for bidding and 24 months for construction.

The board spent more than three hours discussing whether it would engage the public in its discussion about a high school millage increase and if so, how.

“Six to 18 months of community engagement is the average you see in any school district in the country,” Poore said to start the discussion.

Grant Lightle, board member, questioned the need for wide-spread community engagement.

“We have been talking about this for five years or more,” Lightle said. “We know where peoples concerns are. It is the dollar amount. That is what I heard when I knocked on doors.”

A previous postcard survey by the district said the top three reasons voters didn’t support the last millage increase was because of cost, Lightle said.

Rudy Upshaw, board member, said he has also heard the public wanted more engagement.

“What I heard is that people didn’t feel involved enough in the process,” Upshaw said. “I don’t want to go through this process again until I am confident this is going to pass.”

Willie Cowgur, board member, said the board has to be willing to listen to the public.

“Whatever we do we have to ask,” Cowgur said. “We have to be open minded. We can’t just throw a second high school at a cheaper cost.”