Voters OK district’s tax extension

Jacksonville/North Pulaski plan to raise $60M for 4 schools

Voters in Tuesday’s annual school election approved the Jacksonville/North Pulaski School District’s proposal to extend an existing property tax by 13 years to raise about $60 million to go toward the replacement of as many as four schools.

The complete but unofficial results were: For .................................... 909 Against ............................ 806

Also Tuesday, incumbent Jacksonville/North Pulaski School Board members Ron McDaniel and Marcia Dornblaser were re-elected in uncontested races.

The election results are scheduled to be certified, or made final, by the Pulaski County Election Commission at a May 31 meeting at 5 p.m. Before that, the commission will meet at 5 p.m. Thursday to review and decide whether to accept provisional ballots.

“It’s a great day to be a Titan,” Jacksonville/North Pulaski Superintendent Bryan Duffie said late Tuesday, referring to the district’s mascot and the election outcome. “We appreciate the community’s support as we continue forward on our facilities plan — on progressing toward new facilities for all students.”

The tax extension won with 53% of the vote. Voter turnout was 8.55% of the 20,111 eligible voters in the district.

The newly approved tax plan calls for a 13-year extension of 22.4 debt service mills out of the district’s total 48.3-mill tax rate. The debt service mills that were to expire in 2042 will now expire in 2055.

The extension will not increase a resident’s annual property-tax payment, but will increase the number of years in which the taxes must be paid.

The extended levy will enable the district to pay the long-term debt on newly issued construction bonds — the first of which will be issued early this summer. The bond money will be used for new campuses — a new middle school and as many as three elementaries — in a district that is in the midst of constructing all new campuses to fulfill commitments made in a long-running fed

eral school desegregation lawsuit.

Robert Price, economic director for the city of Jacksonville and the chairman of the millage campaign, attributed the 103-vote margin of victory Tuesday to “a major team effort by a lot of people.”

“There will be new buildings, for sure,” Price said. “This will give us a new school in every area of the city. All of our kids within a few years will be in a new school, which is fantastic.”

Price also said the improvements in the district’s schools “will make a real difference” in the economic well-being of the city.

The Jacksonville/North Pulaski School District’s 22.4 existing debt-service mills — including a 7.6-mill voter-approved tax increase in February 2016 — generated money at that time for the purchase of schools from the Pulaski County Special district and for the construction of the new Bobby G. Lester Elementary School, the multi-purpose rooms at Bayou Meto and Murrell Taylor elementaries and the new Jacksonville High School that will open this August.

The district will now proceed with plans to build a middle school and elementary school on Linda Lane, on the site of the existing high school, which will be demolished.

The new elementary at the site will replace the existing Pinewood and Dupree elementaries. Replacements for Bayou Meto Elementary and Murrell Taylor Elementary will follow by 2026 if funding flows as anticipated.

The newly approved tax extension allows for the refinancing of the district’s existing debt and generates an additional $60 million — making available $116,340,000 for the district’s share of the capital construction program.

That new bond revenue will be paired with school construction aid from the state, Duffie has said.

The state’s share of construction costs for academic space has been as high as 47% for the district. That is expected to decrease over time but still constitute as much as a third of project costs.

Had the millage extension failed to get voter approval, district leaders said the system could pay for the middle school and one elementary school by issuing second-lien bonds that don’t require voter approval. But second-lien bonds would not cover the cost of the final two elementary schools the district has committed to build to win release from federal court monitoring of its facilities.

The Jacksonville/North Pulaski district was established in 2016 when it detached from the Pulaski County Special School District.

As part of the detachment, the Jacksonville district inherited the federal court-approved desegregation obligations of the Pulaski County Special district — including the obligation to make its campuses comparable with the new, more modern schools in the Pulaski County Special district.

U.S. District Judge D. Price Marshall Jr. ruled last September that the Jacksonville district will be entitled to be released from federal court supervision of its buildings by 2026 if it follows through on its commitments.

Marshall is the presiding judge in the 36-year-old Pulaski County school desegregation lawsuit.

The millage extension won in 11 precincts, lost in three and tied in two. The tax extension lost at the precincts housed at Bayou Meto Baptist Church on Arkansas 107, McArthur Assembly of God on John Harden Drive, and Kellogg Valley Baptist Church on Bamboo Lane.

Jacksonville/North Pulaski was the only district in Pulaski County to hold a school election this month.

The Little Rock, North Little Rock and Pulaski County Special districts will hold their school board and/ or tax elections in November.

Arkansas school boards said goodbye in 2017 to the annual, stand-alone September school board and tax elections and are now operating under the provisions in Act 910 of 2017 that called for districts to choose to hold elections in either May or November.

In even-numbered years, the school elections are held either in conjunction with the May preferential primary elections or the November general election. The general election is held on the first Tuesday following the first Monday of the month.

In odd-numbered years, including this year, the school board elections are held on the dates that the primary or general elections would be held if they were to take place.