Millage vote likely a hard slog, Fort Smith school leader says

FORT SMITH -- A Fort Smith School Board member warned that a millage election tentatively scheduled for September will be a lightning rod for contention.

"We've got a big selling job to do on this, on spending this money," board member Bill Hanesworth said during a committee-of-the-whole meeting Thursday night. "We need to be aware that this is going to be a fight."

The board decided to take up two resolutions on a proposed master facilities plan at Monday's regular board meeting. The meeting starts at 5:30 p.m. at the School Service Center at 3205 Jenny Lind Road.

One resolution will be to submit to the state a list of improvement projects totaling nearly $83 million for which the district will be seeking funding during the period of 2017-19.

For $59.3 million of the proposed improvements, the state could provide matching money. Two other projects totaling $23.5 million would not be eligible for state funding and would have to be wholly funded by the district.

The second resolution would set down the board's intention to issue bonds to pay for the proposed projects once the state says which projects it will help fund. That resolution sets a tentative date of September for the election for the millage increase to pay off the bonds. The resolution didn't contain a specific date but the annual school election next year is Sept. 20.

The board also did not specify an amount the millage rate would have to increase, but officials have said earlier that the district would need three additional mills to pay for all the proposed improvements.

The district's property tax rate is now 36.5 mills. Of that, 25 mills is for maintenance and operations, and 11.5 mills is for debt service -- a rate that school Superintendent Benny Gooden said hasn't changed since 1987.

A mill is one-tenth of a cent. Each mill is charged against each dollar of assessed value and produces $1 of property tax for each $1,000 of valuation.

Hanesworth said the lightning rod issue will be the proposed $22 million events complex/multipurpose arena that the board preliminarily plans to build on leased land at the Fort Smith Regional Airport.

He said he wanted to make it a separate item on the election ballot so as not to risk defeat of the other improvement projects.

The complex would consist of the arena and an $18 million performing arts center. The performing arts center would be eligible for state funding, Gooden said, but the multipurpose arena would not.

Board President Deanie Mehl said the complex would be unique in Arkansas as a high quality venue that would be shared by all schools in the district and the community.

"For the first time in a very long time, Fort Smith would be leading the state in an innovative project," she said.

Fort Smith attorney Joey McCutchen spoke out against the proposed projects Thursday. McCutchen led the fight against the board's decision last summer to remove the Rebel as the Southside High School mascot and "Dixie" as the fight song.

He said Thursday that he thought the board's decision to change the mascot destroyed the people's trust in its members and will doom the effort to persuade voters to approve a millage increase for the improvements, especially the events complex.

"Maybe you need to push this back and let the voters have a say in a couple of elections, and get a new board with a majority of folks who are listening to the people," he said.

Two of three board members who were up for re-election were unseated by large margins in September. Two more board members, David Hunton and Susan McFerran, are up for election in the 2016 election. Terms for Mehl and Jeannie Cole are expiring in 2017.

McCutchen also brought up as another example of lack of support for the board its decision last year to abandon a plan to build a third high school at Chaffee Crossing on Fort Smith's east side.

McCutchen said the board dropped the plan based on pressure from a group of businessmen.

Mehl said the board's decision was made based on a study conducted by an independent consultant who concluded in a report that Fort Smith did not need a new high school for the next five or six years.

"Those projects that we are presenting tonight would have been done regardless of the third high school," she said.

The list of projects eligible for state funding include:

• Two tornado safe rooms each for Southside and Northside high schools, $6.4 million.

• Events complex/performing arts, $18 million.

• Southside High School, $10.5 million: new entrance/administration area, new media center with old administration and media center spaces renovated for classrooms; new lecture hall; expansion and renovation of the cafeteria building; addition of large group rehearsal space for band and orchestra to release auditorium and stage for other uses; and roof replacement.

• Kimmons Junior High School, $8.23 million: Expand cafeteria and add classrooms, additional dressing rooms, limited expansion of the media center and new sprinkler system.

• Ramsey Junior High School, $13 million: Expand cafeteria, relocate the choral department and provide room for additional classrooms, relocate administration and create a new entrance.

• Trusty Elementary School, $1.3 million: Replace several portable buildings with permanent classrooms.

• Trusty Elementary School, $700,000, and Ballman Elementary School, $1.1 million: Replace heating and air-conditioning systems.

Projects ineligible for state funding because the improvements are not for educational purposes:

• Events complex/multipurpose arena, $22 million: For graduations and other large events. Placing the arena and performing arts building at one location will reduce the cost of site preparation and parking.

• Cook Elementary School, $1.5 million: Cosmetic improvements and reduction of open space in the original building.

State Desk on 11/21/2015

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