If at first you don’t ...
Greenbrier voters say ‘yes’ to new school
Texting. Posting on Facebook. Making phone calls. Knocking on doors. Submitting newspaper articles. Greenbrier School Board President Greg Oaks said the combined efforts worked, and voters approved a 2.9-mill property-tax increase in Tuesday’s special election to build an elementary school in Springhill, a safe room and a gymnasium.
“We’re excited,” he said Wednesday. “We are ready to go.”
Bids will be let in April, and groundbreaking is expected in May on the estimated $15 million project, which includes furnishings, technology and fees, Oaks said. The state is kicking in $3.5 million toward the project.
The elementary school is scheduled to open in fall 2016.
Oaks said 1,160 people turned out to vote in Tuesday’s special election, a drastic difference from the first attempt. In September, only about 400 people voted on a proposal for the same increase — and it failed by 31 votes.
The difference was in dissemination of information, Oaks said.
“Honestly, the big difference was we actually put a committee together this time that consisted of about 10 to 12 people in the community, and we used Facebook. Obviously, we ran some articles in the paper,” Oaks said. “We just did a better job
of really getting the word out to voters. I think that was the big thing that everyone complained about last time. I ran across people who said, ‘ We didn’t even know there was a vote.’ We just tried to use social media, texting, calling. I think some people did some door knocking,” he said.
Oaks said credit goes to the parents and community for supporting the Greenbrier School District. He also praised the school superintendent for his role in getting the millage proposal passed.
“Scott Spainhour did a really good job this time. He met with the chamber; he went to a Holland City Council meeting,” Oaks said. He said Spainhour held public meetings for the Greenbrier community in which administrators and board members answered questions.
“The first time, I don’t think people feel like they were informed,” Oaks said. “We gave everybody plenty of opportunity to ask tough questions, and I think we had answers for them.”
Oaks and school board member Randy Goodnight also attended an Arkansas School Board Association class and met with officials from school districts that had successfully passed millage increases, Oaks said.
“We picked up a few ideas from them,” he said. “Facebook was one of them.”
It wasn’t new to Greenbrier officials to use Facebook, but they got tips on how to use it, Oaks said. “Not just putting it out at one time — putting something out today, maybe two or three days later, put something else out,” he said.
Spainhour said in an earlier interview that the Greenbrier School District is growing by an average of almost 100 students per year. Building an elementary school on Elliott Road in Springhill will reduce the number of students in the other three elementary schools from 600 students to about 400 each, Spainhour said.
Oaks s aid t hat when school board members toured schools in the district, there were only two empty classrooms in one elementary school that could be used, and they are utilized for special-needs students to get therapy.
“We are basically out of room,” Oaks said. “In five years, we would be in bad shape if we didn’t do something.
“I think we’ve done a great job over a number of years for kids. The school board, in general, over the last 10 or 15 … has done a good job in providing the facilities our students need. In order to do that, you’ve got to have space for them.”
Shellie O’Quinn, chairwoman of the Greenbrier Millage Committee, said school administrators have been “excellent stewards of their resources.”
“We haven’t had a millage increase since 1998, and we have the best facilities and best schools in the state, in my opinion,” she said.
“Our teachers get raises regularly, and our schools have always operated within their budgets. I am more proud today than I have ever been of our schools and our community,” she said.
The Greenbrier School District’s millage will increase from 38 to 40.9. Based on owning a $150,000 home, the increase will cost taxpayers an additional $87 per year.