New district elects its first school board

Seven people made history Tuesday by being the first elected to the School Board in the new Jacksonville/North Pulaski School District.

Also Tuesday, voters in downtown North Little Rock elected former state lawmaker and current state agency head Tracy Steele to the North Little Rock School Board over lawyer Alicia Walton.

Daniel Gray, LaConda Watson, Carol Miles and Dena Toney were elected without opposition to the Jacksonville/North Pulaski School Board.

Ronald McDaniel, Marcia Anne Dornblaser and Jim Moore won contested races to become part of the policy- and budget-setting team for the 4,000-student district that will begin operating independently July 1.

Moore was excited late Tuesday about the work ahead with his new colleagues on the first elected board for the district that has been carved out of the Pulaski County Special School District.

"It's going to be an outstanding team that is going to work to make our district a very successful one," Moore said, adding that community and parents' support will also be critical. "That's very important as we get this district formed."

Moore and McDaniel attributed their election successes Tuesday night to their years of involvement in the Jacksonville area.

Moore, 68, retired from the U.S. Air Force, has experience in human resources management and is currently chairman of the Jacksonville Planning Commission.

McDaniel, 63, also retired from a military career, is a member of the state-appointed interim School Board for the Jacksonville/North Pulaski district.

"I've been around the community a number of years," McDaniel said. "When you try to do some positive things around the community, people support you. I'm appreciative."

He said his job now is to work with his six elected colleagues "and try to move ahead with getting our school district in order and doing everything we can to take care of the kids and, hopefully at the same time, help our community out."

Complete but unofficial results in Tuesday's contested, at-large Jacksonville/North Pulaski Position 2 race between McDaniel and Celeste Williams were:

McDaniel 979

Williams 313

Complete but unofficial results in the Zone 1 race between Dornblaser and interim School Board member Richard L. Moss were:

Dornblaser 280

Moss 75

Complete but unofficial results in the Zone 3 race among Moore, Jerald Reichenbach and write-in candidate Barry J. Roper were:

Moore 310

Reichenbach 69

Roper 11

Dornblaser, a longtime Jacksonville resident and a dental hygienist, could not be reached for comment Tuesday night.

The first election for School Board members in the Jacksonville/North Pulaski School District comes after a vote last September in which 94.5 percent of nearly 4,000 voters said they wanted a school district separate from the Pulaski County Special district.

Shortly after that vote, the state Board of Education ordered the creation of the district and appointed an interim School Board to begin the work of dividing assets and liabilities between the new district and the Pulaski County Special district, and otherwise prepare the Jacksonville/North Pulaski district for operating on its own.

The district remains under the direction of the Pulaski County Special district this school year.

In North Little Rock, Steele won over Walton for the board's Zone 2 seat, which is being vacated by School Board President Scott Miller, who chose not to run for re-election.

Complete but unofficial results were:

Steele 254

Walton 75

Additionally, incumbent North Little Rock School Board member Darrell Montgomery was re-elected in Zone 3 to a fourth three-year term. Incumbent Luke King was re-elected in the district's Zone 7 to his second three-year term. Montgomery and King had no opponents.

Steele, 52, who could not be reached for comment on his cellphone or home phone Tuesday night, is director of the Arkansas Health Services Permit Agency, a position to which he was appointed by Gov. Asa Hutchinson. A native of North Little Rock, Steele is a former state senator and state representative, as well as a former director of the Martin Luther King Jr. Commission and former director of the state's Division of Youth Services. He most recently ran unsuccessfully for North Little Rock mayor.

Walton, 44, a mother of three adult children and a school district volunteer, said Tuesday that Steele's name recognition was a difficult hurdle to overcome in the School Board race.

"I wish him well," she said and thanked her supporters. She said she intends to stay active in the school district as well as in other North Little Rock civic organizations.

The Pulaski County Election Commission is to meet to certify, or make official, the election results on Sept. 25.

Voter turnout Tuesday was light -- only 2,148 people, or 1.25 percent, of the 171,523 registered voters in Pulaski County participated in the elections.

Bryan Poe, director of elections, said that, as low as the percentage was, it was not record-setting.

Millage questions on the ballots for the Jacksonville/North Pulaski, North Little Rock and Little Rock school districts received support from a majority of voters Tuesday, although none of the districts sought tax increases.

The Arkansas Constitution requires that a district's tax rate be on the ballot annually. No matter how the vote turned out in the three districts, the existing millage rates will remain at their current levels.

However, the votes on the millage rates are sometimes viewed as a gauge of public support or dissatisfaction with a school district.

Jacksonville/North Pulaski district voters acted on a 40.7-mill property tax rate that is the same rate they have paid for many years as part of the Pulaski County Special School District. The affirmative vote will allow the new district to issue bonds, the money from which can be used to purchase the Pulaski County Special district campuses that are within the Jacksonville/North Pulaski district boundaries.

In the millage vote, complete but unofficial results were:

For 1,024

Against 305

In the North Little Rock district, voters cast ballots on the existing 48.3-mill property tax for the school district.

The complete but unofficial results were:

For 256

Against 189

In the Little Rock School District, which is operating under state control and without a locally elected school board, the existing 46.4-mill property tax was the only item on the ballot and could only be voted on in absentee or early voting.

The complete but unofficial results for the Little Rock tax rate were:

For 188

Against 104

There was no vote on candidates or the tax rate in the Pulaski County Special School District. That's because the Pulaski County Special district is operating under state control without a locally elected school board. The district had a special election in May on a proposed tax increase. Although the tax increase was not successful, the tax vote fulfilled the district's legal obligation to have an annual vote.

Metro on 09/16/2015