Magnolia school leaders break down tax proposal

MAGNOLIA -- Officials behind a campaign to ask voters for a school property tax increase in the Magnolia School District have started a series of meetings to explain the proposal.

The district is proposing to increase the school millage from its current rate of 29.6 mills to 33 mills.

A mill is one-tenth of a cent. One mill levied on an assessed value of $1,000 yields $1 in property taxes. Arkansas counties tax property at 20 percent of appraised or market value, so a $100,000 house has a taxable value of $20,000. That $20,000 multiplied by the proposed 3.4-mill increase would result in a $68 tax increase on a $100,000 home.

On Tuesday evening, the Magnolia School District held its first of five public information meetings regarding the upcoming millage increase election scheduled for Sept. 19.

School Board President Mike Waters told attendees that the school district had not increased its millage since 1998 and that only one time in the district's history has an increase failed to pass. Citing poor communication with the voters during that campaign decades ago, Waters said he feels community forums are the best way to alleviate any concerns and answer any questions residents may have.

"The reason we have these meetings is to be as transparent as possible," he said. "We're not trying to hide where the money would be going."

Superintendent John Ward gave a breakdown of the district's proposed projects if the millage increase passes. Totaling $20,650,000 in new construction costs, the seven major endeavors would benefit every school in the district, he said.

Included in the plans are a ninth-grade academy and a performing arts center at Magnolia High School.

"As far as the high school goes, probably the most important item on the list is the ninth-grade academy," Ward said. "It's about a $6.5 million project. Currently, our plan is to locate it behind the existing [high school] building, but still on campus."

The superintendent said he wanted to stress the importance of a separate facility for ninth-graders.

"They have trouble fitting in at the junior high because they're with the seventh-graders and they're a little grown up for them, and they're not quite old enough to be running around with the seniors over here at the high school," Ward said.

"It would fit well to have them over here on the high school campus because that is where their academic credits, their academic careers, start."

Ward expressed concern about freshmen on a separate campus sometimes not fully grasping the gravity of their inaugural high school year.

"At the junior high, they don't always understand the importance of doing well academically in ninth grade," he said. "Obviously, academics are emphasized and stressed at the junior high level ... but sometimes they don't necessarily understand the importance to do well in school in ninth grade. If you don't, it's going to affect you the rest of your high school career."

The academy proposed by the school district would be a stand-alone, ninth grade-only building that would share just the high school's library and cafeteria with the rest of the high school students.

"They wouldn't be eating with the other students, and they wouldn't be walking through [the other students'] classes," Ward said.

He added that the millage increase would "also create an opportunity for us to restructure some of the other grade levels."

Ward said the school system would move the third grade from its current home at East Side Elementary to the Central Elementary School campus. In turn, sixth-graders would be relocated to the Magnolia Junior High School campus.

"This would create more of a K-2 primary school setting at the East Side campus, more of a true elementary school at Central, and more of a middle school concept at the junior high by housing sixth-, seventh- and eighth-graders," Ward said. "Those groups just kind of fit better together. They relate well, and there's no one age group that's developmentally way above the other. It just kind of works."

The largest commercial project the school system is proposing is the construction of a $7.5 million performing arts center, which would be on the high school campus between Panther Arena and the Lady Panthers' softball field. The age and lack of features at the district's primary show arena -- the junior high school auditorium -- were cited as needs for a new venue.

The capacity of the new facility would be between 650 and 700 seats, and the structure would be similar in design to the performance facility recently built by the El Dorado public school system. The Union County building also hosts many local events not directly associated with the school. The Magnolia superintendent expressed interest in doing the same if a new arts center is built at the Magnolia High School campus.

"We think it will be not only a valuable asset to the school but the community," Ward said.

Projects are also planned for Magnolia elementary schools. At a proposed cost of $500,000, a new pickup and drop-off lane would be constructed at East Side along Hollensworth Street, similar to the offset, crescent-shaped lane in front.

Two projects will be built at Central Elementary School if the new millage passes. An additional parking lot would be laid on the north side of the campus, near the fourth-grade building, at a cost of $150,000, and a medical clinic and support space would be installed at an estimated cost of $2 million.

Also at Central Elementary School, special programs such as literacy, math, Alternative Learning Environment, and physical and occupational therapy are in need of new facilities, according to Ward. "All of those spaces are currently in the existing building, but they're just stuck in every nook and cranny that they can be shoved in," he said. "There are shared rooms, and you might have multiple things going on in some rooms. They're out of room and they need those additional support spaces."

A̶n̶ ̶A̶r̶k̶a̶n̶s̶a̶s̶ ̶C̶h̶i̶l̶d̶r̶e̶n̶'̶s̶ ̶H̶o̶s̶p̶i̶t̶a̶l̶-̶a̶s̶s̶o̶c̶i̶a̶t̶e̶d̶ A health center* housing two exam rooms, a mental health room, a visiting area, and a small reception and office space also would be constructed at Central Elementary School. A medical professional would be present to see ill students. This could greatly benefit working or busy parents and guardians, according to Ward.

"We foresee having a physician's assistant there that could see kids on campus without parents having to take off work and get their kids," he said. "We're not trying to take kids away from any existing doctors here in the community. The kids we want to focus on are kids who are not going to the doctor or who are going to the emergency room for their medical."

The health clinic would be located within the proposed support space at the elementary school. The school system already has a telemedicine machine that gives access to Arkansas Children's Hospital doctors. The nearly $20,000 device was donated by Albemarle Corp. of Magnolia and would be on hand to assist any health workers in the new clinic. Although the facility would be located at Central Elementary School, any student within the district would be granted access.

State Desk on 07/30/2017

*CORRECTION: Arkansas Children’s Hospital has no plans to be part of a health center to be built at an elementary school in the Magnolia School District if a tax proposal passes. A previous version of this article incorrectly reported the hospital’s involvement.

Upcoming Events