At the first Helena-West Helena School Board meeting after the state ceded control of its schools, the directors called for a redo on a property-tax issue voters rejected in November.
The School Board also extended the contract of Superintendent John Hoy, who was installed as schools chief in 2014 while the district was under state Department of Education control. Hoy accepted the three-year extension, which includes a $10,000 per year raise that bumps his salary to $140,000.
The district will now focus its attention on student performance at Central High School, which the state has labeled as being in academic distress, and on district staffing and teacher salaries, Hoy and School Board President Andrew Bagley said.
Board directors, elected Nov. 8, scheduled a vote for a property-tax increase to finance an overhaul to the Central High campus, which board members and administrators have said is outdated and in disrepair. The ballot item will appear March 14, just four months after an identical measure failed to win voter approval.
Locals formally regained control of a 1,425-student district, which had been under state stewardship for more than five years -- and for nearly eight of the past 11 years -- with Tuesday's board meeting. The state took over the district in 2011 after classifying it in fiscal distress following years of unbalanced budgets that depleted cash reserves.
The state presided over sharp cuts at the district, closing three schools and eliminating 130 jobs, including 114 layoffs.
Local engagement during the takeover was limited to a community advisory board that, appointed by the education commissioner, could offer input but did not have authority to conduct official business. Four of the members of that now-defunct board, including Bagley, were elected to the seven-member School Board.
Bagley said the School Board will examine the salary schedule to see if they can bump teachers' pay rates. Such raises could be tied to staff reductions, first by attrition and then, if needed, by layoffs, Bagley said.
"We're going to have to make sure that we are as efficient as possible and get the work done with as few positions as possible in order to give pay raises," Bagley said. "If we have to do small [reductions in force] moving forward, then we will."
Prior to his 2014 hire at Helena-West Helena, Hoy served as an assistant commissioner over public school accountability in the Department of Education. Hoy was previously an assistant superintendent of the Monticello district, federal programs coordinator and accountability coordinator for Lee County schools and principal of Hughes High School.
Hoy is focused on improving test scores at Central High School and addressing college readiness by offering a voluntary program that begins in elementary school, he said.
"The next thing is to aggressively address the issue of academic distress and prioritize school staffing," Hoy said.
Helena-West Helena has hired 15 superintendents over a 22-year period, making stability a priority for new board members, Bagley said. The School Board president also praised Hoy's relationship with state education leaders.
"We know it's also important that our reputation in Little Rock be good," Bagley said. "If we had come in and fired the superintendent, I don't think that would be looked upon very favorably."
Meanwhile, the proposed 9.75-mill tax increase would allow $28.7 million in renovation and construction at the Central High School campus. The district would build all-new instructional space for seventh through 12th grades, renovate the gym and turn one of the buildings into administrative offices, Bagley said. It would also include a new 350-seat auditorium for music and drama programs.
One of the two school buildings on that campus was built in 1948, according to an Arkansas Division of Public School Academics Facilities and Transportation report. The second was constructed in the early 1960s.
The tax increase would cost the owner of a $50,000 home about $98 more per year. The owner of a $100,000 home would pay $195 more annually, and the owner of a $200,000 home would pay $390 more each year.
Helena-West Helena School District's current tax rate is 34.1 mills.
The proposal received 4,167 votes on Nov. 8 and failed by a 109-ballot margin, or 2.6 percentage points.
Bagley noted the results were "very, very close" and said that now that every School Board seat has been decided, voters know who they are entrusting to oversee the project.
"We want to respectfully ask the voters to reconsider," Bagley said. "It's also the right way to handle it because we have a critical facilities situation that simply cannot wait to be dealt with at the high school."
If passed in the spring, the district would qualify for -- though not be guaranteed -- millions of dollars in state partnership aid for facilities, Bagley said.
In other action, the School Board selected Sanetta Davis to be its vice president. Both Bagley and Davis held the same leadership positions on the community advisory board.
The board also authorized Bagley to appoint a committee, including private citizens, to form an education foundation and raise money for academic programs. It purchased new software to track employee attendance, formed a committee to review personnel policies and sold its former bus shed to the Phillips County Port Authority for $5,000.
A Section on 12/17/2016