BENTONVILLE -- School district officials emphasized Friday that the millage increase they are seeking this spring is the smallest request the district has ever made.
If approved, the 1.9-mill property tax increase would pay for two elementary schools, one middle school and one junior high school. All would be built in the next five years.
The election is May 9.
Superintendent Debbie Jones and Finance Director Janet Schwanhausser explained the details of the proposal to about 60 people who attended the Greater Bentonville Area Chamber of Commerce's Business Matters Breakfast at Avondale Chapel.
"We have a problem of overcrowding that's preventable and predictable," Jones said.
She showed photos from Willowbrook Elementary School, including one of a hallway in which art classes are conducted because there is no classroom available for art. Students going outside for recess walk through the middle of art classes to get to the door, she said.
District enrollment has grown at least 3 percent for four of the past five years. October enrollment was 16,609, an increase of 549 students from a year earlier.
The district predicts an average of 3.5 percent growth each year for the next decade.
"That's not at all aggressive," Jones said. "That's a number we feel strongly about, and [we] think we'll hit that number."
The district will not open a new building until enrollment at the elementary, middle or junior high level has surpassed 90 percent of capacity in the existing buildings, Jones said.
Schwanhausser explained the mechanism by which the district intends to pay for the buildings. The district will refinance 2010 and 2013 series bonds, so its payments will be a little more and for a little longer, she said. The 1.9 mills will help the district make its new payments after the bonds are refinanced, she said.
She acknowledged the district's millage rate of 46.6 is already the highest in Northwest Arkansas but said foundation funding provided by the state on a per-student basis does not take into account the need for additional facilities.
"So the reality is, when you have this growth quickly and you have to keep building new schools, there has to be an alternative way other than state foundation funding to fund it," Schwanhausser said.
The state provides money for building projects to districts that apply for help through the Academic Facilities Partnership Program. Bentonville has benefited from that program in the past and would become eligible for up to $3 million per school planned under the millage proposal if voters approve it, Schwanhausser said.
Homeowners would pay an additional $38 in taxes for every $100,000 of home value if voters approve the millage increase.
The School Board last month approved three land purchases, a combined 217 acres at a cost of $4.5 million, for future construction. The board is expected to vote Tuesday on buying a fourth site, a 40-acre site on Haxton Road just south of Central Park Elementary School. The seller is Thrilled Land Investments, and the proposed purchase price is $1,056,000, according to district documents.
Travis Riggs, board president, asked audience members for their support and to share information about the millage.
"I'm a little worried about this millage," Riggs said. "Historically we lose millages when the patrons don't feel the pain of our growth. They tend to not see the need and therefore they tend to not vote yes for a millage increase."
If the millage attempt fails, Jones said, more elementary schools will begin to experience the kind of overcrowding Willowbrook has seen this year. Schwanhausser also said the opening of the 12th elementary school -- scheduled for the 2019-2020 school year -- would be delayed if the millage attempt fails, and the district may have to resort to using more portable classrooms.
State Desk on 02/18/2017