Ninety-two Arkansas school districts, including the Bentonville School District in Northwest Arkansas, will share at least $130.7 million in state aid in 2013-14 to be used for school construction projects, the Commission for Arkansas Public School Academic Facilities and Transportation decided Wednesday.
The approved projects for fiscal 2013-14 range from installation of fire alarm systems, heating and air-conditioning systems and new roofs, to construction of building additions and new schools. The state won’t pay for the entire projects but will share in the cost with the districts.
The commission awarded the 15,000-student Bentonville district the highest amount for a single project, $15.44 million for a new high school. The commission also approved nearly $1 million for the 1,845-student Prairie Grove School District to convert an intermediate schoolinto a primary school.
The 9,000-student North Little Rock School District, which is undertaking an unprecedented $265.5 million capital improvement program to reduce its 21 schools to 13 new or renovated campuses, sought $56 million in state funding. The district was approved Wednesday to receive about $5.1 million for work at seven schools, including four new elementary campuses.
Also, the North Little Rock district is to receive about $20 million to be released after July 1 from the governor’s General Improvement Fund. More than $18 million of that is earmarked for renovation and new construction at the North Little Rock High-West Campus.
In all, the Public School Academic Facilities Commission on Wednesday approved 263 school projects statewide for funding over the 2013-15 funding period. The state’s share of those projects will be $212,288,294.
A total of 118 projects were not approved for a variety of reasons.
Charles Stein, director of the state Public School Academic Facilities and Transportation Division, told the commission that not all of the building projects approved for year one can be funded in that year. Those first-year projects total $186 million. There are 51 projects approved for year two of the funding cycle, and the state cost for those would be about $26.4 million.
“There is good news, though,” Stein said.
By combining the $20 million from the General Improvement Fund and about $65 million available for year-two projects, there is sufficient projected funding for the state’s share of all 263 approved projects over the two-year period, he said.
HAPPY TO QUALIFY
Districts across the state submitted applications for state aid to repair roofs, upgrade air-conditioning and heating units, replace electrical systems, and build campuses and classroom additions. Of the 92 districts awarded money for 2013-14,22 were in Northwest Arkansas.
Stein said the division ranks projects for funding on the basis of three key factors: the condition of school buildings, the property values of a district and a district’s projected growth. Districts submit applications for projects designed to keep students warm, safe and dry and to provide adequate space.
“We look at the money provided by the legislative session,” Stein said. “We have these needs of projects, and they are ranked.”
The Bentonville district typically has not qualified for state partnership money for construction, said Sterling Ming, the district’s executive director of finance.
“We anticipated and were very happy we would be approved for that amount,” Ming said.
The Bentonville School Board will discuss options for a second high school today, Ming said. The upper range of the estimated cost for a new high school is $88 million, which includes athletic facilities such as a gymnasium and a combined track, soccer and football field.
Bentonville School District voters in June rejected a6.7-mill increase to pay for a second high school in Centerton for 2,000 students, as well as to remodel Bentonville High School, and improve technology and heating and cooling systems districtwide. If the millage increase had passed, it would have generated $128 million, with $94 million going to build the second high school.
The approved state partnership money will reduce the amount of tax the district will have to ask voters to support, Ming said. Without the state partnership money, voters would be asked to approve a property tax increase of 3.51 mills.
With the state partnership money and $72 million from bonds, the district could build a second high school with a property tax increase of 2.91 mills. Each mill would be expected to generate $1.5 million.
A mill is one-tenth of a cent, generating $1 of property taxes for every $1,000 of assessed value. A county assesses property at 20 percent of its appraised value, and the assessment is multiplied by the millage rate to determine the taxes owed.
The Public School Academic Facilities and Transportation Division considers a district’s wealth index as one factor in determining which districts qualify for state money for renovations, additions and construction.
The wealth index is based on local property values, Ming said. A district with a wealth index of 95 percent does not qualify, but the Bentonville School District had a wealth index of 74 percent this year.
“Our property assessments have gone down for three straight years,” Ming said. “We were able to qualify because of that.”
$800 MILLION FORESEEN
The state partnership program was created in 2005 through legislation that stemmed from the Lakeview ruling by the Arkansas Supreme Court, which required the state to ensure that every public-school student have the opportunity to receive an adequate education, Commissioner of Education Tom Kimbrell said.
The court found a need for the state to develop standards for the space and equipment that all classrooms should have.
A task force studied facilities and made recommendations that eventually led to development of the program.
Kimbrell anticipates that between 2006 and 2015, the program will result in $800 million from the state going to districts to upgrade facilities.
School districts are required to fund part of the projects, which will raise the total investment through the program to $1.6 billion.
In Prairie Grove, costs of replacing an aging roof and plumbing in a 1950s building were high enough that district officials decided to tear down the kindergarten-through-second-grade school and, instead add on to a building that houses thirdand fourth-graders, said Vol Woods, assistant superintendent. He oversees facilities and transportation for the Washington County district.
The kindergarten-through-second-grade building has a Tectum roof, which Woods compared to compressed straw, and the material at one time functioned as both the roof and ceiling. The entire roof needs to be replaced, he said.
Metal plumbing in the building is rusting. The lines run under the middle of the floor, so replacing themwould require crews to jackhammer through the floor, he said.
The state commission approved $957,344.62 for Prairie Grove to put toward the new primary-school building. The commission also approved $462,056.86 for the district to construct a small physical education building for use by kindergarten-through-second-grade pupils. The physical education building also would function as a tornado shelter for the school and community.
“We’ll have to pass a bond issue and get voters to agree to pay for the rest of it,” Woods said.
He said district officials have hoped to send a request to voters in the fall. The estimated cost is $7.2 million for converting the intermediate school into a primary school, Woods said. The projected cost of a safe room is $1.25 million.
In the past, the state partnership program has provided about half of the cost of projects for the Prairie Grove district, including for a recent classroom addition at the high school, Woods said.
“We were expecting about half on the primary,” Woods said.
Front Section, Pages 1 on 04/25/2013