Victors in Little Rock millage vote call for board's return

‘Need seat at table,’ rally at school hears

Opponents of the Little Rock School District millage extension, including Anika Whitfield (left), Vincent Tolliver (right) and Vicki Hatter (bottom), rally Wednesday in a park near Martin Luther King Jr. Elementary.
Opponents of the Little Rock School District millage extension, including Anika Whitfield (left), Vincent Tolliver (right) and Vicki Hatter (bottom), rally Wednesday in a park near Martin Luther King Jr. Elementary.

A day after voters trounced the Little Rock School District's proposal to extend a 12.4-mill tax levy by 14 years, victors in the heated contest rallied Wednesday to call for a locally elected school board and a role in long-term planning for the district.

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A listing of LR district election precinct vote totals

"We are not going to stand silent," Vicki Hatter, a district parent and member of the Citizens Against Taxation Without Representation, said at the noon rally at a small park behind Martin Luther King Jr. Elementary School. "We need a seat at the table right when the planning starts. If you don't have chairs, we'll bring our own," she said.

On Tuesday, voters turned down the tax-extension plan that was intended by Superintendent Mike Poore to raise $160 million for new schools and campus improvements without an annual increase in school taxes. Instead of increasing annual taxes, the plan would have required property owners to pay at the same rate for 14 more years, from 2033, when the mills are now due to expire, to 2047.

A total of 7,167 voters, or almost 65 percent of them, cast ballots against the plan, while 3,938 -- 35 percent -- voted for it, according to complete but unofficial results from the Pulaski County Election Commission. The measure drew majority support in nine of 68 precincts.

At Little Rock Fire Station #10 on Kavanaugh Boulevard, where two precincts were combined, the count was 519 for the tax and 224 against. It also won at Woodlawn Baptist Church on Woodlawn Drive, 212 for and 139 against. Another win was at Chenal Valley Church of Christ on Taylor Loop Road, where two precincts voted.

The results were lopsided against the tax extension at many locations. At Franklin Elementary School, which the district is closing next year as a money-saving measure despite opposition from neighbors, 163 voted against the tax extension and 31 voted for it.

Wednesday's rally -- punctuated with chants of "One, two, three: We got the victory!" -- happened the same day that nine state legislators from Pulaski County called for the state Board of Education to reinstate an elected school board in the Little Rock district "as soon as possible but no later than 2018."

The state Education Board voted 5-4 in January 2015 to take control of the district by dismissing the Little Rock School board and placing the superintendent under the direction of the state's education commissioner. That vote was prompted by the district's having six academically distressed schools, a number that has since been reduced to three.

"We were on various sides of the Little Rock School District millage extension campaign," the lawmakers wrote. "However, we are united in our view that the time has come for an elected, empowered school board to return as the decision-making body in LRSD, working in collaboration with Superintendent Mike Poore to create a truly vibrant school district.

"In contrast, we feel that ongoing lack of local control only serves to deepen the divide in the Little Rock community and to restrict the promise of the Little Rock School District," it said.

The statement notes that the state Education Board, which meets at 10 a.m. today and 9 a.m. Friday, has the authority to set a date for an election of school board members who would then take office once they receive training.

Lawmakers whose names are attached to the statement are Sens. Joyce Elliott, Linda Chesterfield and Will Bond and Reps. Fred Love, John Walker, Warwick Sabin, Charles Blake, Clarke Tucker and Fred Allen. All the lawmakers are from Little Rock and are Democrats.

Chesterfield said at the rally that it is important to move toward mending the city's deep wounds.

"But I had great hope when I saw the results of the election by precinct, because across the city, the citizens of this school district sent a message: 'No taxation without representation.' They didn't just say it in southwest or the East End. They said it across the city. This should be a message to these folks: We believe in democracy."

The election divided many of the city's most prominent business, government and education leaders -- even drawing in Gov. Asa Hutchinson, who urged the passage of the tax plan as a way to build a southwest Little Rock high school and make improvements at other campuses.

"Your voice did not prevail on this issue, governor," Chesterfield said, also asserting that the voices of Education Commissioner Johnny Key, the state Education Board and the Little Rock Board of Directors similarly did not prevail.

"The people's voice prevailed on this issue," she said.

Several of the speakers talked angrily about the Board of Directors, the majority of whom voted in support of a resolution favoring the tax extension. They said they would remember the stance of the board at election time.

The Pulaski County Election Commission won't certify the results of the election until May 18. The commission will meet at 4 p.m. today to begin reviewing 56 provisional ballots, which are held out from the totals until the voter's eligibility is evaluated.

Most of the provisional ballots deal with cases in which a person's home and surrounding property are on the city's western edge and in both the Little Rock and Pulaski County Special school districts.

In its campaign, Citizens Against Taxation Without Representation focused largely on the district's lack of a school board to hold accountable for the planning of capital improvement projects and the spending of the money. The group raised about $3,000 for its campaign, compared with more than $30,000 raised by the Committee to Rebuild Our Schools Now to support the tax plan.

Tuesday's election on a change regarding the district's tax rate was the first since 2000.

That is when voters approved a 5-mill tax increase to what is the current total school tax rate of of 46.4 mills. The money generated by that 2000 tax increase was dedicated to repairing, renovating and building schools and expanding school technology systems.

In 2000, there were 16,486 votes cast, with 56.6 percent -- 9,335 -- voting for the tax, and 43.4 percent, or 7,151, opposed to it.

After 2000, the annual school election ballots in the Little Rock district included only the district's current tax rate. No tax changes were proposed, and the district's total tax rate has remained unchanged at 46.4 mills.

A millage question is on the school election ballot every year -- even when no change is proposed -- because Article 14, Section 3, of the Arkansas Constitution requires an annual vote on a school tax rate.

A Section on 05/11/2017

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