State sandbags Greenland
Posted on Saturday, June 21, 2008
The good folks of Greenland must feel as if they’ve been played by our state Department of Education like the trusting victims of a good ole backwoods Arkansas sandbagging. This community on Fayetteville’s southern border was coerced by the threat of losing its school district into narrowly approving a millage increase last week. The state assured them repeatedly that no millage increase would ensure the end of Greenland schools. The jeopardy was real. Greenland was placed on the state’s fiscal-distress list two months ago because of a declining balance and projected revenue shortfall. Accordingly, diligent administrators trimmed more than $ 1 million in expenses. Then the voters spoke. The issue squeezed past by eight votes, 394-386. The voters’ decision meant that the district would increase its millage from 36. 9 to 39. 5. There also would be some restructuring to raise about another $ 1 million for capital improvements.
Then the boot heel fell. Practically before the voting machines could be stored away, the Arkansas Department of Education basically thumbed its nose at the vote and told the community, “Thanks for all the extra money, but gotcha ! We are consolidating your district anyway.” Greenland school officials have vowed to fight that move for as long as it takes. I say hooray for them.
Fayetteville Superintendent Bobby New, whose district could be forced to absorb nearly 1, 000 students as a result of this decision, was praising the Greenland vote within hours.
“Greenland’s millage passing should take some pressure off them as far as any annexation or consolidation,” Northwest Arkansas Times reporter Brett Bennett quoted him as saying.
However, Education Department spokeswoman Julie Thompson said the millage just wasn’t enough to address Greenland’s projected $ 300, 000 budget shortfall and that the department was concerned about the district’s ability to pay its employees. Oh, really ? Was that concern made known before the election ? Did officials know that Greenland already had axed more than $ 1 million in expenses just for that reason ?
“They’re basically out of money,” Thompson told Bennett. “This is not something we do lightly.... It’s no personal vendetta ever.” Out of money ? Horse hockey. I’d certainly like to see how these state education folks in their fine facility down in Little Rock handle a decision they do take lightly.
State Education Commissioner Kenneth James began making his decision known in a letter sent out on the Friday following the Tuesday election, Bennett reported. The letter indicated that copies were sent to area legislators and officials from the six districts that border Greenland.
What a disgraceful, unacceptable way for our state to treat its citizens and taxpayers. Why didn’t the bureaucracy give voters this news before the election ? Surely these public servants in Little Rock who repose with regularity around their tax-purchased walnut conference tables with heavily sugared double lattes for endless meetings, knew this was in the works well before a vote was ever cast. They cannot possibly expect anyone with an I. Q. above that of a blind, uneducated one-legged yard mole to believe otherwise.
Greenland School Board member Ginger Fritch said the Education Department’s motives don’t seem to be in the students’ interests.
“I don’t know why they’re doing this, but I will fight it with everything in me,” she told the Times. You go, Ginger.
Fritch represents part of the former Winslow School District. Ironically, that district was annexed by Greenland in 2004 under a new state law which demanded that districts with fewer than 350 students consolidate. Winslow’s schools closed within three years of that action.
Bill Groom, the Greenland board president, told Bennett that he understood from James’ letter that the department plans to consider annexing Greenland to a contiguous district during its July 14 meeting.
“It’s a shock to me that they’re considering doing this [considering ] that we passed a millage on Tuesday,” he said. “The timing seems really, really curious to me.” Groom added that he did not believe that the department had current information about Greenland’s concerted efforts to reduce expenses.
What makes this even more distasteful is that earlier this year, long before he millage election, Groom and the Greenland superintendent, Ron Brawner, listened to Education Department officials express their support for the proposed 2. 6 millage increase and the bond debt restructuring.
Had the millage failed, Groom said, the situation might be more understandable. But even in that instance, the district should have been given time to improve itself.
“It doesn’t make logical sense for them to do this right now,” Groom told Bennett. “My initial reaction is it smacks of something behind the scenes, but I don’t have any proof of that.... It’s blowing me away that they would be that heavy-handed.” In my view, Mr. Groom, it is beyond heavy-handed. It reeks of a government agency run amok with power over the smaller communities across our state to the point of dealing with them with stunning arrogance and insincerity. The government of Arkansas, with its elected and appointed public servants paid with our taxes, needs to climb off the backs of the good citizens, a. k. a., the people, of Greenland and allow them to retain the school district they are trying so sincerely to keep and sustain.
—–––––•–––––—Staff columnist Mike Masterson is the former editor of three Arkansas daily newspapers.
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