The Arkansas commission that distributes state aid for construction and renovation of public school facilities on Wednesday approved a $2.3 million adjustment in favor of school districts with previously approved 2013-15 building projects.

The change comes after the discovery of an error made by the Pulaski County assessor's office, affecting school districts across the state.

A total of 246 projects in 120 school districts will receive additional state aid as a result of the Public School Academic Facilities and Transportation Commission's unanimous decision.

The projects were originally allotted to receive a total of $202.8 million in state money from the Academic Facilities Partnership Program, and that will now increase to $205.1 million.

The increases in state aid to each project will range from as little as $59.81 for a safety feature in the Beebe Middle School gymnasium to $307,426 toward a new high school in Bentonville and $736,884 toward the rebuilding of the North Little Rock High School-West Campus. The North Little Rock district is to receive more than $1 million of the total $2.3 million for 16 projects in the district.

The districts don't have to apply for the extra money, Lynn Robertson, senior project administrator in the state Department of Education's Public School Academic Facilities and Transportation Division, told the three-member state commission, led by Tony Wood, who became the state's new education commissioner this week.

"If their projects are already completed, the division will send the districts a check for the increase," Robertson said. "If the projects are in progress, then when the next payments come due, we'll adjust the state participation to the proper amounts. And, if a project is not started, the division will increase the state participation available to the district when the project starts."

Money from the state's Academic Facilities Partnership Program is distributed on the basis of a school district wealth index. In general terms, school districts are ranked on the basis of their local property tax wealth. Districts with relatively less local property tax revenue per student are eligible for a greater percentage of state aid for an approved building project than are districts with greater local wealth.

The academic facilities division adjusted the 2013 wealth index -- the basis for calculating the state's share in the cost of 2013-15 projects -- after learning this spring of the Pulaski County assessor's office error in which property and accompanying tax revenue that belonged to the Pulaski County Special School District were mistakenly assigned for several years to the North Little Rock School District.

Correcting the error gave the Pulaski County Special district -- already near the top of the wealth index -- even greater local property wealth.

As a result, "North Little Rock and all the other districts in the state got a decrease," Robertson said, referring to their standing on the wealth index. "With a decrease in the wealth of all the districts, more state participation is required" from the Academic Facilities Partnership Program.

Robertson said the $2.3 million cost to the state for the upward adjustment will come out of about $5 million already earmarked for 2013-15 school building projects but unspent either because a project cost less than expected or a decision was made not to pursue a project.

The North Little Rock district's share of the increase in state building aid -- $1,044,197 -- is about 45 percent of the $2.3 million to be distributed.

Denise Drennan, the North Little Rock district's chief financial officer, welcomed word of the increased state aid.

"It's good news, especially with us being in construction," she said. "We're not as wealthy as we once thought we were," she added in reference to the correction of the property assessment error.

"And we were already a little bit short on facilities money from what we had hoped to get," she added. "So, yes, this does help."

The 9,000-student district is in the midst of a $265.5 million capital improvement project in which 21 campuses are being reduced to 13, nearly all of which will be newly built or extensively renovated.

The funding for the North Little Rock project is coming from the combination of bonds financed by a voter-approved millage increase, savings from district operating expenses and the Academic Facilities Partnership Program. After the adjustment approved Wednesday, the North Little Rock district is to receive $26.5 million in partnership program money for projects approved for the 2013-15 funding cycle. That includes $18.7 million from the state for the high school campus.

The Bryant School District will receive an additional $165,801 for eight projects, including $71,664 for a new 950-student middle school, $38,793 toward the construction of a new 624-pupil elementary school and $28,316 toward a high school expansion.

Other single-project increases include a $38,076 increase toward a new elementary school in the Melbourne district. The Brookland district is to receive $26,716 toward a new middle school.

A section on 07/03/2014