FORT SMITH — Voting is underway on a proposal that would increase the Fort Smith School District’s millage by 5.558 mills to finance a five-year, $120 million improvement plan.
Early voting began Monday at four locations in Fort Smith and will continue until 5 p.m. May 21, the day before the primary.
If approved, the school tax increase would be the first in Fort Smith since 1987 and would raise the millage from 36.5 mills to 42.058 mills.
The district calculates the increase would add about $111 to the annual tax bill of a person with a house appraised at $100,000, which is assessed at $20,000. A mill is a taxing unit equal to one-tenth of a cent. Each mill is charged against each dollar of assessed value and produces $1 of property tax for each $1,000 valuation.
School Board President Susan McFerran said the millage increase was important to provide better safety and security for students and staff. Other improvements in the plan not only would provide a better education for students but would also make Fort Smith more attractive for businesses and industries, she said.
“I get so excited about it, if I was a cheerleader, I’d do a cheer for it right now,” said McFerran, adding that she voted Monday morning and took her mother with her.
There is opposition to the proposed increase. Fort Smith real estate appraiser Jack Swink said a new tech center for noncollege career training was a good idea, but it should be supported more by the businesses and industries that will benefit from it. Instead, Swink said, the proposal calls for taxpayers to shoulder the cost.
He said Fort Smith citizens already are burdened with among the highest utility costs in the state, noting that residents are paying for wastewater system improvements mandated by the federal government that are estimated to cost $480 million over 12 years.
“Taxpayers are loaded down in Fort Smith,” he said.
At the top of the list of school improvements is $5.5 million for safety and security. That will pay for controlled access systems for every campus, security entry storefronts at all elementary schools that aren’t currently equipped, exterior lighting improvements at all campuses, and interior and exterior Americans with Disabilities Act improvements at all campuses.
Plans to add walls to open classroom space at Barling, Cook, Morrison and Woods elementary schools also are considered security improvements. Currently, open spaces that contain two to four classrooms don’t have doors that can be locked.
The two high schools would be expanded and remodeled to accommodate ninth-graders. The schools would each get a new or expanded cafeteria, and each campus would get two new tornado shelters. Improvements to Southside High School are estimated to cost more than $22.2 million, while improvements to Northside High School would cost nearly $21.2 million.
Plans also call for each high school to get new 2,500-seat, multipurpose competition gymnasiums and locker rooms that would cost $15.8 million for South-side and $13.5 million for Northside.
Darby and Ramsey junior high schools would be renovated at an estimated cost of $12.7 million.
More than $13.7 million would go toward developing a career and technology center with specialized lab spaces and classrooms for studies in subjects such as health care, information technology and manufacturing.
All student computer devices would be put on a replacement cycle that would cost $825,000 annually.
The School Board also approved a recommendation by a citizens committee that drew up the improvement plan to shift the student population. Ninth-graders would move from junior high school to the high school, and sixth-graders would move from elementary school to newly created middle schools with seventh- and eighth-graders.
The shifts would create more room in the elementary schools and eliminate the need to transfer 450 students a day from their attendance areas because of the lack of space.
Polling places are the Sebastian County Courthouse, Room G8, 35 S. Sixth St.; the Ben Geren Regional Park tornado shelter, 7200 Zero St.; Creekmore Park Community Center, 3301 S. M St.; and Harvest Time, 3100 Briarcliff Ave.