State approves $44.5M for 49 school projects

No funds for new roof at North Little Rock building

The Commission for Arkansas Public School Academic Facilities and Transportation voted Wednesday to provide $44,531,097 for 49 approved school construction, replacement and system repair projects across the state.

The projects that will receive state funding include a new elementary school in Arkadelphia and another in Rogers; a new middle school in Bentonville; and a new high school in the Cutter-Morning Star School District. Some of the other projects to receive state funding are a districtwide electrical upgrade and building additions at four West Memphis elementary schools and the renovation of Malvern High School and its gym.

The state funding for the projects ranges from as much as $5.2 million for each of the Malvern, Arkadelphia and Cutter-Morning Star campuses to as little as $17,462 for work at Sylvan Hills High and $8,794 for work at Baker Elementary -- both of which are in the Pulaski County Special School District.

The West Memphis district is to receive a combined $7.7 million for the overall electrical upgrade and building additions at Richland, Faulk, Maddux and Weaver elementary schools.

The Academic Facilities Partnership Program, created by Arkansas lawmakers a decade ago as a way to equalize educational opportunities in the state's more than 230 school districts, reimburses districts for a percentage of the cost of their state-approved school construction projects. The state's share of the building projects varies from district to district, depending on the local property tax wealth of a school system. Districts with greater local property tax revenue qualify for a smaller share of state aid than does a district that generates little property tax revenue.

"I'm surprised you didn't hear me scream 'hallelujah' this morning when we got notification," Jon Collins, superintendent of the 5,700-student West Memphis district, said in a telephone interview Wednesday after the commission meeting.

The improvements in the district are expected to total close to $16 million, Collins said.

An improved electrical system will better support the demands placed on it by the digital delivery of instruction and online student testing, Collins said. The additions to the elementary schools will include space for special education, speech and therapy services as well as better classroom environments for music and art instruction.

A new library/media center will be added to the Faulk campus. Both the Faulk and Richland campuses will see expansions in their cafeterias. New gymnasiums are in the plans for the four elementary campuses as well as a restructuring of the entryways to the schools to make them more secure.

Some of the work could start as soon as July 1, Collins said, adding that the district wants to be realistic and take the time necessary to do the work correctly.

"It's been a long time since West Memphis School District has tackled a project like this. We want to make sure we do our due diligence and take our time. We want to have a good product in the end for our learners."

West Memphis has one of the state's lowest millage rates at 29 mills. The district is paying for its share of the capital project from its savings and without asking voters for a property-tax increase. Collins attributed the ability to undertake the project without a tax increase to the money management skills of his predecessor, Bill Kessinger, who was superintendent for 40 years, from 1973 to 2013. He died in January.

Collins said the district has "a pretty healthy balance" and can afford to draw from its savings for the buildings.

In all, the three-member Commission for Public School Academic Facilities and Transportation approved 16 projects that will be new academic space, at a projected state cost of more than $17.36 million. Another five of the projects are categorized as "warm, safe and dry space replacement" at a projected cost of more than $17.16 million.

There are 28 more projects that are warm, safe and dry system replacements, which are projects such as roofs and electrical and plumbing systems. Those were projected to cost $10.67 million. However, the state is restricted to spending no more than $10 million a year on the third category of warm, safe and dry system replacements.

The $10 million limit in the category means that four of the state-approved projects will not be funded in this 2015-17 biennium, said Brad Montgomery, director of the Public School Academic Facilities and Transportation Division of the Arkansas Department of Education.

Those four include a new roof for Ridgeroad Elementary School in the North Little Rock School District. The district had applied for $291,291 for the project.

"We're disappointed in that," North Little Rock Superintendent Kelly Rodgers said. "We were hoping that it would get funding. That would help us out a little bit."

The North Little Rock district is nearing completion of what started as a $265.5 million capital construction program to rebuild or extensively renovate nearly all of its 13 campuses. The district did not receive state approval of funding to renovate North Little Rock Middle School and has been seeking other options for getting that large project done.

"We are going to have to regroup," he said about the roof project. "We are going to look at all our options and see how we can do it. We have to move forward on the middle school, too. That is a priority with our board," Rodgers said.

Montgomery said a district can ask that its approved but unfunded project be included in the next funding cycle. Projects for the 2017-19 biennium will be announced by next May, Montgomery said.

Other warm, safe, dry system replacements that have been approved but are not being funded are the roof on Nettleton High School's fine arts building, the roof on the Marion High School annex and the roof on Sulphur Rock Elementary School.

Montgomery said the state money for this round of school building projects comes largely from a legislative appropriation of $41.8 million. The division also has available to it about $15 million, which is from bonded debt assistance.

This is the second year of the two-year, 2015-17 school building funding cycle. In the first year -- 2015-16 -- 91 projects were approved for about $124 million in state aid.

"As I drive through the state now and actually take notice of these buildings -- it's amazing. Some of these facilities would never have been replaced or upgraded were it not for this program," said Montgomery, who became the division director earlier this year.

The state began contributing to the cost of academic buildings after the Arkansas Supreme Court in 2002 ruled that the public education system was inequitable and inadequate, and therefore unconstitutional.

Act 1181 of 2003 established state funding programs "to ensure that adequate facilities and substantially equal facilities are, and will continue to be provided for Arkansas school children."

A Section on 05/26/2016

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