Pulaski County district upgrades top list

Leaders of the Pulaski County Special School District say they have a $198 million plan for upgrading and equalizing district school buildings, but they will confer with other interested parties and wait on a Jacksonville vote on a new school district before they move ahead.

That “moving ahead,” when it happens, will undoubtedly include asking voters in the state’s third-largest school system to approve a property tax increase of 5.5 mills to finance $178 million in construction bonds. The remaining $20 million for the projects - which include at least two new high schools and a dramatically remodeled third - would come from the final year of state desegregation aid.

“A millage increase will be a difficult sell. It always is,” Pulaski County Special School District Superintendent Jerry Guess said last week.

“But what we have here is a plan that will serve all of the areas of the district, not just selected little pockets,” he said. “We want to improve facilities where they need to be improved. We want to build new facilities where they need to be built. We want to repurpose existing facilities to other useful purposes. We want to give the patrons of the district dramatic change and dramatic improvement. All we can do is give them a good plan and ask them to support it.”

Guess and members of his staff talked about the building plans Wednesday after U.S. District Judge D. Price Marshall Jr. last Monday approved a settlement in the 31-year-old Pulaski County school-desegregation case.

That settlement will end more than 20 years of state desegregation aid to the three Pulaski County school districts after the 2017-18 school year.

It also allows the Jacksonville/North Pulaski area to pursue the establishment of its own school district, consistent with the requirements of state law. The new district would be carved out of the Pulaski County Special district. Residents in the affected territory would have to vote on that detachment, and that can only be done in a September school election or a November general election.

Guess, the state-appointed superintendent of the state-controlled Pulaski County Special district, said his district will have to wait on the Jacksonville vote before asking for any tax increase in the remaining district. The Pulaski County Special district practically surrounds the Little Rock and North Little Rock districts, encompassing Sherwood, Maumelle, parts of west Little Rock and the southeast part of the county.

If Jacksonville stays in the Pulaski County Special district, the district would be responsible for improving the Jacksonville area schools, too.

“There are some huge variables here,” Guess said. “If Jacksonville splits, we have amuch different situation than if Jacksonville stays. We owe it to those kids in Jacksonville to improve the facilities if they stay or if they go. If they stay, thatwill change the plans for the rest of the district. It’s critically important to give kids in the district the best possible facilities you can and as quickly as you can.”

One of the reasons the Pulaski County Special district and Jacksonville leaders are supporting a detachment is that a separate Jacksonville district would qualify for a significant amount of state aid for school replacements and remodelings. The Pulaski County district has greater local property tax wealth and, as a result, is entitled to very little - a fraction of 1 percent of the costs - in state support for building construction.

Derek Scott, the district’s executive director of operations, said the district has been working for about two years to acquire 20 acres from the U.S. Defense Department as a site for a single new elementary school to replace Arnold Drive Elementary that is on the base and Tolleson Elementary that is just outside the base.

He said that’s on the Defense Department’s list.

“We expect the DoD team to come out later this year and do the review and make sure we still need that,” he said.

At the same time, district leaders have been communicating with Jacksonville leaders about school buildings.

“We told them, ‘we know you want to break off. If you break off, what do you want to see?’” Scott said. “They said: ‘Well, we want to see a consolidated high school.’”

Scott said district leaders agreed with the idea of combining North Pulaski and Jacksonville high schools, and began scouting for a location.

“Then, the air base, working with us and the city, said ‘Hey, we have some land that is unused,’” Scott said.

That 300 acres would be more than sufficient for a new Jacksonville High School, he said. It would cost about $63 million to build the school for grades nine through 12. North Pulaski High would be remodeled to become the sole middle school serving the area.

The Pulaski County Special district’s building plan for areas outside Jacksonville includes $51 million for an extensive remodel of Sylvan Hills High in Sherwood, as well as $51 million to build a new Mills High where the old Fuller Elementary School stands in the southeast part of the county. Fuller Middle School would be moved into the current Mills building, and the current middle school building would be demolished.

There is an identical plan to build a $51 million Robinson High on Little Rock’s western edge. Robinson Middle School would be relocated into the current high school, and the middle school building would be demolished.

Even the relatively new Maumelle High would be in line for $5 million for athletic facilities such as a track complex, according to the plans, which also take into account repairs and remodeling at each of the elementary schools in Jacksonville and elsewhere.

For example, $6 million is proposed for Baker Elementary to replace that school’s portable buildings. There is $4 million proposed for Harris Elementary in McAlmont, $3 million for Bayou Meto in north Pulaski County and $2 million for Oakbrooke Elementary.

Bill Goff, the district’s chief financial officer, said the projects could be done with a combination of $20 million in state desegregation aid and a 5.5-mill tax increase, from 40.7 mills to 46.2 mills. That would leave the tax rate below that of the neighboring Little Rock and North Little Rock districts, he said.

A 5.5-mill tax increase would cost the owner of a $100,000 home an additional $110 a year.

While the milestone agreement approved by Marshall last week settles the state’s obligation to provide desegregation aid for four more years at $65.8 million a year, the Pulaski County Special district remains under court supervision for failing to meet all of its desegregation obligations. Those obligations include providing equitable school facilities.

Guess said the building plans are a work in progress and will require the district to confer with the judge in the case, the Joshua intervenors who represent black students in the district and “all the other critical players.”

Still, Guess said he is pleased with the building plans for the district and he noted the new schools underway in the North Little Rock School District and the Little Rock district’s preliminary steps to upgrade facilities.

“It’s an exciting time,” Guess said. “This area is about to explode with public school excellence.”

Front Section, Pages 1 on 01/20/2014

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