BENTONVILLE — Those campaigning for the School Board’s millage increase proposal are concentrating more on spreading the facts about the second high school issue and less on what will happen if voters reject it.
School District officials, however, have indicated significant adjustments will be necessary to accommodate the rapidly growing enrollment at the high school. Some of those changes might be needed even if the 2.9-mill tax increase is approved Tuesday, because the second high school isn’t expected to be completed until 2016.
Split scheduling, which typically involves upper-class students starting classes in the mornings and younger students starting in the early afternoons, is one possible change. Michael Poore, district superintendent, said the school is “probably two years out” from having to implement split scheduling, which likely would extend school days into the early evenings.
At A Glance
Millage Election
The School Board has proposed building a second high school with a capacity of 2,250 students on Gamble Road in Centerton. The cost is $86 million. The state has pledged to contribute $13 million if voters approve the 2.9-mill tax increase on Tuesday’s ballot. The owner of a $100,000 home would pay about $60 in additional taxes per year.
Early voting is available at the Benton County clerk’s offices in Bentonville, Rogers and Siloam Springs from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday. Polls will be open from 7:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. Tuesday.
Source: Staff Report
But some kind of change will be necessary next school year as well, Poore said.
“We might have to change schedules or add portables,” Poore said. “A third possibility would be to lease a building off campus.”
The school has an ideal capacity of about 3,700 students. Enrollment is about 4,100 now and projected to increase to 4,500 next year.
Sophomore parking at the high school is likely to be eliminated as early as next year, Poore said. That’s especially true if additional portable classrooms are installed, because they will take up parking spaces.
Bentonville High School has 1,617 parking spaces, school officials said. Of those, 275 are reserved for faculty and staff, 47 are for visitors, and 1,295 are for students, though 181 student spots are reserved as a band practice area during the fall.
District officials also said if the millage fails, severe budget cuts might be needed to achieve a solution to growth. That would affect programs and extracurricular opportunities not required by state standards, Poore said.
The Arkansas Division of Public School Academic Facilities and Transportation requires school districts that fail to pass millage elections necessary to fulfill obligations under their master plans to meet with division representatives within 10 days of the election.
After the board’s proposed 6.7-mill tax increase to build a second high school failed in June 2012, the district and the division agreed the district had growth needs at the high school level, said Charles Stein, division director. The district’s plan was to conduct a second millage election this year.
If this millage does not pass, the district and division will meet again and the district will need to develop a plan to address its needs, Stein said.
If a district cannot implement the agreed-upon plan, the district can be marked as in facilities distress. The Commission for Arkansas Public School Academic Facilities and Transportation decides whether a district will be placed in that category. Three people serve on the commission: Tom Kimbrell, commissioner of the Arkansas Department of Education; Richard Weiss, director of the Department of Finance and Administration; and Mac Dodson, president of the Arkansas Development Finance Authority.
There are several actions the division may take when a district is identified as being in facilities distress. That includes removing the superintendent and the board and requiring the district “to cease all expenditures related to activities not described as part of an adequate education” and redirect that money toward facilities.
It’s premature to say whether any of that actually would happen if Bentonville’s millage fails Tuesday, Stein said, but board members fear the worst.
“We’ll have to make a lot of sweeping cuts that will impact what the district can offer on a pretty comprehensive basis,” said Grant Lightle, a board member. “The only things that will be spared are the things that are legally required.”
Since early voting began Tuesday, 4,869 people have cast ballots in the Bentonville School District.
Jerrie Carter, a Centerton resident, said she will be among the “no” votes. The second high school option has been turned down twice in five years and she’s hoping for a different proposal.
“It’s not the best idea, it’s not the only idea, and we’ve turned it down before,” Carter said.
She said Kim Garrett, former Bentonville High principal and now an assistant superintendent in the Springdale district, gave an excellent presentation in 2011 on a ninth-grade center that the School Board should revisit.
Tina Waggener of Bentonville cast her ballot for the millage increase when she went to the Benton County Clerk’s Office on Wednesday. She has no children in the district, but has had two kids graduate from the high school in recent years.
“It’s imperative. There are so many consequences if we don’t approve it,” Waggener said.