LITTLE ROCK — Hoping to get enough money to keep the state off their backs, eight school districts across Arkansas are asking voters to raise property taxes in special elections set for Tuesday.
Two other districts are asking voters to approve debt restructuring to free up money for new construction projects without a tax increase.
The school districts are hoping to fix aging buildings and add classrooms and other facilities. Under a state law passed in response to a 2002 Arkansas Supreme Court decision that found the state's public education system - including buildings - was inequitable, the state can eventually step in and make drastic changes if districts don't make certain improvements.
Five districts - Mena, Huntsville, Quitman, Strong-Huttig and Mountain Home - are trying for the second time since September to raise taxes for projects outlined in their master plans.
If they fail Tuesday, they could be forced to cut programs later to find money to make improvements that the state deems necessary to provide students with an adequate education.
Three districts - Hampton, Mountain Pine and Horatio - will have another chance to seek voter approval next year, under the state rules.
And Two Rivers in Yell County and Cutter-Morning Star in Garland also will have special elections, but to restructure existing bonded debt to pay for construction projects.
Growing districts need classroom space, districts with older buildings need to make repairs and nearly every district in the state says the current budgets just don't allow for big projects.
If proposals fail in the five districts seeking increases for a second time, under the new law they face being put on a "facilities distress list" and other, more extreme state intervention.
Eventually, the state could decide to oust superintendents and school boards or even consolidate districts.
"I'm certainly hoping they are going to be successful, but you don't know what the public [will do]," said Doug Eaton, director of the state Public School Academic Facilities and Transportation Division, which monitors schools' compliance with their master plans.When proposals failed in September, districts pared down their project lists, lowered the rate increase they are asking for and bolstered their pitches to the public, hoping to fend off another visit from state officials.
That's the case in Huntsville, where the district hopes to build a school for sixth through ninth grades. The project will ease overcrowding and let the district close down an aging, unfit building, said Superintendent Alvin Lievsay.
The last time the district went to voters, it proposed building a high school and moving middle schoolers into the old high school building.
Lievsay says the commu-nity seems more supportive of the new plan.
If it fails again, he said the district will likely have to add portable classrooms - an expense he says the state will not help with.
"There would be some cuts to something" to fund adding the portables, he said.
Mena is also asking voters for a smaller increase and has proposed a new plan.
The district cut an animal-sciences building from its wish list and is focusing on building a high school. Superintendent John Ponder has said the current building doesn't meet state standards for space per student.
Quitman Superintendent Larry Freeman wants to add space for a gymnasium, cafeteria and auditorium, and seven classrooms. Freeman has said his district lost nine prospective students who had moved to Cleburne County but chose to attend school in the nearby Heber Springs School District last year because that district had better facilities.
The Mountain Home School District's scaled-down proposal would fund a $45 million building and renovation plan, said Superintendent Charles Scriber. The plan includes a new elementary school for third through fifth grades and additions to existing schools.
The Baxter County Friends of the Taxpayers opposes the district's plan, saying claims of possible state intervention are misleading and exaggerated. The group's founder, Frank Kaye, said the district can meet state mandates with a less-costly building program that wouldn't require a tax increase.
Strong-Huttig also had a failed millage proposal in September.That time, the district was asking for an increase for several future projects and renovations to keep to keep Huttig Elementary School open. It closed in March, and a dozen school employees were laid off.
Now the district is asking voters for an increase for a building to house a cafeteria that's big enough for its high school students.
It also would be a gymnasium and assembly room and two classrooms.
Like other districts, another failure could mean cuts, said Superintendent Paul Lusk.
"We could go back and look at more personnel cuts, maybe even some academic services or extracurricular activities," he said.
But across the state, some residents are leery of more tax increases and question how districts are already spending taxpayer money.
Strong resident O'Neil Wooten says he supports the schools that his grandchildren attend, but he doesn't support the current proposal.
"It's really not so much the increase on taxes - and I ain't for taxes - but the main thing I feel like they [are] misusing the money," he said during a recent interview.
He said the school should look at cutting staff and reallocate those funds.
"I have to cut back when things get tight, and I can't go to my employer and tell him I need some more money," he said.
One mill generates $1 of taxes for every $1,000 of assessed valuation. A property's assessed valuation is equal to 20 percent of its appraised value.
Information for this article was contributed by Julie Stewart special to the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.
Arkansas, Pages 7, 10 on 04/07/2008