GREENLAND : Residents hear school annexation options
Posted on Friday, June 20, 2008
URL: http://www.nwanews.com/adg/News/229140/
GREENLAND — Greenland School District residents Thursday signed petitions and gathered donations to fight the threat of annexation as leaders of neighboring districts explored how the merger would effect their schools’ finances.
Greenland Superintendent Ron Brawner met with residents, explaining the annexation process and the district’s financial situation.
Earlier in the day, he met with leaders of six surrounding districts at the Northwest Arkansas Education Services Cooperative in Farmington to discuss how the district might be divided or merged with its neighbors.
“If the state will give us a chance to let this thing play out, we’re going to be fine in two years,” School Board President Bill Groom said.
Brawner and Groom received a letter from state Education Commissioner Ken James on Friday informing them of plans to consider the annexation at an Arkansas Board of Education meeting July 14.
The letter followed the passage of a 2. 6-mill property tax increase three days earlier, billed by supporters as a way to remove the district from the state’s fiscal distress designation.
The state board voted in April to add the district to the fiscal distress list.
Julie Johnson Thompson, an Education Department spokesman, said the Greenland district is projected to end this fiscal year with an deficit of almost $ 300, 000.
A $ 500, 000 short-term cashflow loan acquired by the dis- trict will come due in December, Thompson said.
The June 10 vote, which increased the district’s tax rate to 39. 5 mills, is expected to generate about $ 147, 000 a year, she said. And the money won’t be collected and available to the district until 2010.
“The amount that it will raise when it takes effect is just not enough to impact their situation,” Thompson said.
District officials dispute the state’s calculations. A review of financial statements that ended 15 minutes before the public meeting show, depending on outstanding bills, the district could break even or up to $ 4, 000 in the black, Brawner said.
“This is not hokey pokey,” he said. “This is actual. The money is there.”
The district is current on all salaries, Brawner said. To respond to state concerns over district finances, the School Board cut nearly $ 1 million from next year’s budget, shedding staff through attrition and eliminating boys and girls track programs. The School Board hired the Davis-Wright law firm of Fayetteville to review financials and represent the district before state officials.
PASSING THE HAT When Groom said the board needed $ 4, 000 in private donations to pay the firm’s retainer, people packed into the high school cafeteria immediately pulled out their checkbooks and began dropping cash into a large tin bucket. “I can guarantee you that’s money well spent,” Groom said.
State laws passed in 2003 authorize the Board of Education to classify any of the 245 districts as fiscally distressed and to require districts to develop and comply with a state-approved financial improvement plan. The laws, Arkansas Code 6-20-1901 through -1907, give the district up to two years to remedy its financial issues before the state board is mandated to take action against the district, but state officials can act before the two years expire, if conditions warrant.
A merger could occur as early as this summer before the 2008-09 school year, Thompson said.
Thursday’s meeting turned into an impromptu pep rally as supporters used a question and answer session to share how the district had positively influenced their students. Several attendees suggested holding yard sales and making personal contributions directly to the district’s budget to ensure that it was out of the red before the July 14 meeting.
“I don’t have much, but I’ll give you $ 1, 000 of my incentive check,” Gary Ricker said.
Others questioned the School Board’s ability to balance the budget. Brawner had no response when three people asked him the district’s projected revenue and expenditures for the current fiscal year.
DISTRICT OPTIONS If efforts to stop annexation fail, Greenland schools could be merged as a whole or divided among the six surrounding districts. Districts eligible for the merger are Elkins, Farmington, Fayetteville, Mountainburg, Prairie Grove and West Fork. Fayetteville administrators spent the week assessing Greenland’s financial situation and determining how to integrate it into the larger district’s budget, Superintendent Bobby New said Wednesday.
While New wanted to be “a good neighbor” to Greenland, supporting the district’s efforts against annexation, it’s prudent to consider Fayetteville’s possible role in the process, he said.
“It’s easy to get caught up in the emotions of an annexation,” he said. “At the same time, we have an obligation to present as many of the facts and projections as we can.”
New and Chief Financial Officer Lisa Morstad calculated the cost of paying Greenland’s teachers, whose pay would be raised to Fayetteville levels if the districts merged.
Greenland’s starting teachers with a bachelor’s degree and no experience make $ 30, 008 a year. Fayetteville’s starting teachers earn $ 40, 500.
New will also consider Greenland’s debts and facilities conditions before making a recommendation to the Fayetteville School Board at its June 26 meeting.
The six surrounding districts can argue before the state board if can support Greenland’s facilities and students, Thompson said. But the state will have final say in whether the district is merged and what district it is merged with.
At Thursday’s superintendents meeting, the administrators discussed how to support Greenland’s efforts against the merger and which district was most capable of absorbing the it, Farmington Superintendent Ron Wright said.
“Nobody really wants to assume part of that district,” he said. “You not only get their assets, but you get their liabilities as well.
“ It’s kind of like the drowning man that someone jumps out to save him, and both of them drown.”
Farmington is an unlikely choice for the merger because it is accessible to Greenland residents largely on roads that first pass through Fayetteville, Wright said. Most superintendents at Thursday’s meeting saw West Fork and Fayetteville, the closest neighbors, as the most likely choices for the merger, he said.
SPLIT UNLIKELY They also agreed that splitting Greenland wouldn’t make sense fiscally, because a majority of the district’s tax base is in the northern half. “You’ve got a lot of things to divide besides kids,” Wright said. “It’s a lot more complicated than it looks on the surface.” Greenland board member James Miller advised parents to complete school choice paperwork necessary to transfer their children to other districts if the district closes before school starts in the fall. The paperwork will allow parents to chose their child’s new district, rather than waiting for the state’s decision, he said. High school civics teacher Nancy Green had started e-mailing legislators and drumming up support among fellow teachers to organize opposition to the annexation. “Hopefully, somebody somewhere is a friend of education,” she said.
To contact this reporter: eblad@arkansasonline. com