2 Pulaski County districts arrive at fund-sharing deal

Leaders of the Pulaski County Special and Jacksonville/North Pulaski school districts have reached a proposed "true-up agreement" in which the Pulaski Special district will transfer more than $7 million of its year-end balances to the new district.

The Pulaski Special district already sent $4.585 million to the new Jacksonville/North Pulaski district on July 1. That leaves $2,512,069.98 still to be moved to the new district, per the agreement.

An additional $347,146 will also be transferred from the Pulaski Special district to Jacksonville over the course of this school year for funding alternative education and English language learning programs in the new district. State desegregation aid and revenue from delinquent tax payments also will be divided proportionately between the districts as they become available over the school year.

The proposed agreement that divides up the year-end balances in the Pulaski County Special district's operating fund -- as well as its building, technology and federal funds -- was presented Tuesday night to the Community Advisory Board for the Pulaski County Special School District by Superintendent Jerry Guess.

The state-appointed advisory board is made up of community representatives to give advice to Guess and to Arkansas Education Commissioner Johnny Key, in the absence of a locally elected school board in the state-controlled district.

The two-page agreement, with its two small, attached spreadsheets, is a follow-up document to a longer July 29, 2015, "Detachment Agreement" that was approved by the Arkansas Board of Education. That detachment agreement came after residents of the Jacksonville/North Pulaski County area voted in September 2014 to form their own school district carved out of the Pulaski County Special district.

The state Education Board subsequently ordered the creation of the new school district, which elected its own School Board and hired a staff in preparation for operating on its own -- apart from Pulaski County Special -- effective July 1 of this year. The new, 100-square-mile district is serving almost 4,000 students.

The financial "true-up" proposal has not yet been signed by either Guess or Jacksonville/North Pulaski Superintendent Tony Wood.

Guess said Tuesday that the superintendents wanted to share the agreement with attorneys for the districts as well as the advisory board and the Jacksonville/North Pulaski School Board before finalizing it.

Guess called the agreement and the detailed work leading up to it "remarkable.

"This has never been done before," he said.

Guess and members of his staff described for the Community Advisory Board the efforts made -- including the hiring of more than 100 temporary workers -- to assist the Jacksonville district in preparing schools and offices for the start of school in the newly detached district.

Mike Kemp, the advisory board's newest member and an unopposed candidate for election to the Pulaski district's new School Board, thanked the staff for the extra efforts to ensure success of both districts.

The division of the year-end balances varied slightly for the different funds. A total of 23.5 percent of the operating fund balances went to Jacksonville, for example. Fifteen percent of the technology balance and 23.9 percent of the building fund balances make up the Jacksonville district's share of the available funds, taking into account various provisions in the earlier detachment agreement and in state and federal law.

The districts will participate in future "true-up" agreements in early 2017 if a state audit determines that further fund transfers are required.

Metro on 09/14/2016

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