The Pulaski County Special School District's Community Advisory Board voted 6-0 on Monday in support of changing the systemwide construction plan to upgrade two elementary campuses and build a third with money from a proposed property tax increase.
The recommendation for improving Harris and College Station elementaries and building a new school along Interstate 440 for the Scott community and other parts of east Pulaski County will now go to Arkansas Education Commissioner Johnny Key for approval.
Key acts as the School Board for the 17,000-student district that has been under state control since June 2011.
District Superintendent Jerry Guess last week proposed that the districtwide building plan -- the subject of an upcoming May 12 special election on a 5.6-mill property tax increase -- be changed in response to calls from the different school communities.
Initially, the building plan called for closing all three elementary campuses and replacing them with one 800-student elementary in close proximity to the interstate.
But Guess said residents around the College Station and Harris campuses made it clear that they wanted to preserve the campuses, which date back to the 1950s and have some historic significance. Harris in the McAlmont community, for example, was a high school for black students before the federal courts ordered racial desegregation.
He called for the Harris and College Station campuses to instead be improved at a potential cost of $2.5 million to $3 million each, and that Scott Elementary -- already approved for closure at the end of this school year -- remain open until a new, but smaller, school is constructed for about $12 million.
All three projects hinge on the passage of the proposed 5.6-mill tax increase that is also meant to pay for new Mills and Robinson high schools, a significant expansion to Sylvan Hills High, plus new locations for Robinson and Fuller middle schools and improvements to all other campuses in the district.
The advisory board vote to modify the plan came Monday after members of the audience urged that any promises made about construction be kept.
"We don't want to cast our votes and then be forgotten," Mable Bynum of McAlmont told the advisory board.
Brad Montgomery, who heads the district's maintenance department, described the preliminary plans for improvements at Harris and College Station.
A new kitchen would be built at Harris and it, combined with the school cafeteria, could serve as a storm shelter. A new entryway and enclosed corridors are planned, as are changes to the campus' building "B" to make it a pre-kindergarten center. The playground would be enhanced, and separate student drop-off points for cars and buses would be constructed.
"Are we talking more than maintenance? Are we talking about real changes to functionality and the look of it?" advisory board Chairman Lindsey Gustafson asked.
Yes," Montgomery said, adding that painting and other less expensive projects have been done and will be continued.
Montgomery described College Station as a more challenging campus because of its construction in a low or recessed area, with split-level buildings with different roof systems.
The preliminary plans call for enclosing the open-air corridors, moving the small library out of the main building and giving it its own building currently made up of three classrooms. A 1½-story entryway to the school would be constructed to be a focal point and a way to unify the different parts of the current campus, as well as make the front of the school accessible to those with disabilities. Parking would be expanded, and car and school bus access to the school separated and improved.
Donna Houston, who attended College Station Elementary as a child and now has a grandchild at the school, asked the district leaders and the advisory board to be mindful of the needs inside College Station "even before the outside."
"See what children and staff are dealing with," she said. "The inside is so disheartening."
Cloria Dozier, suggested that new state-of-the art schools be constructed at the locations of the current schools.
"They wouldn't have to be big," she said. "We are on the east side [of the district], but we deserve the best as well," she added.
Daniel Gray, a member of the Community Advisory Board, told the audience of about 60 people that the district's building plan is comprehensive and that the elementary "babies" will grow up to go to new and renovated middle and high schools.
"There is only so much money ... that you have got to spread around. I think that all the kids going to these elementary schools will be served at the middle and high school level, as well. Every school is touched. The students will be well served their whole lives in schools, not just in kindergarten through five."
Martin Gipson of Scott said the community will not get to keep its school or get a new school if the millage proposal fails.
"It's not fair," Gipson said. "Whether the tax passes or doesn't pass -- there is no reason why we shouldn't have the same opportunity that College Station and Harris have and that is for the Scott school to stay open."
The tax increase would raise the district's tax from 40.7 to 46.3 mills. It would cost the owner of a $50,000 home an additional $56 per year while the the owner of a $100,000 home would pay an additional $112 per year.
Chelsea Pilkington, a parent from Scott, told the advisory board that she was excited about the possibility of a new school with a gymnasium and an academic theme. The cost of a tax increase would be "worth it," she said.
"I know a lot of people spend that on jeans," she said.
Metro on 04/28/2015