Higher millage OK’d in Blytheville district

Voters back teacher raises, new gym

Blytheville School District patrons approved a 7.11-mill increase during a special election Tuesday that will help the district to retain teachers by increasing their salaries and to build a new gymnasium and improve its athletic department.

Complete but unofficial results are:

For . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 647 Against . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 517

The Mississippi County Election Commission will certify the results this afternoon, a county deputy clerk said.

The district’s millage will increase from 33.39 mills to 40.50 mills. Property is assessed at 20 percent of its appraised value. A mill is one-tenth of a cent.

School officials have said the increase will raise property taxes on a home assessed at $80,000 by about $9.50 a month.

Plans call for creating a new 28-year pay plan for teachers based upon years of experience. Currently, teachers with no experience earn a starting salary of $39,000 a year in the Blytheville School District, board member Henrietta Watt said.

In the Gosnell School District, about 10 miles north of Blytheville, its starting teachers are paid $43,000 a year, Watt said.

The millage increase also will fund construction of the new gymnasium, installing artificial turf on the football field and resurfacing its track. The projects will cost $12.7 million, Superintendent Richard Atwill said when touting the increase last month.

It is the district’s first millage election since 2009, when Blytheville School District voters turned down a 2.61-mill increase.

In May, Blytheville voters approved a one-half percent citywide sales tax that will be used to raise salaries for the city’s police officers and firefighters. Mayor James Sanders said then that, like the school millage, the tax is a way to retain the town’s experienced officers rather than lose them to other, higher-paying towns.