Greenland district officials look for support of tax increase
Posted on Friday, May 16, 2008
URL: http://www.nwanews.com/nwat/News/65227/
BRENTWOOD — Winslow residents were encouraged Thursday to think beyond hurt feelings when voting in the June 10 millage election.
Greenland School District officials hope their patrons to the south won’t be swayed by the former Winslow School District’s annexation into the Greenland district and its subsequent school closings.
“ There are a lot of bad feelings about this thing. We have to move forward. We have to focus on the kids, ” said Bill Groom, Greenland Board of Education president.
Groom, most school board members and several volunteers for a millage election committee hosted an informational session Thursday at the Brentwood Community Center. Superintendent Ron Brawner, who returned to work Wednesday from medical leave, also attended the meeting.
The district is seeking a 2. 6-mill tax increase and bond restructuring. The move is designed to provide the district with more money for expenses and help get it off the Arkansas Department of Education’s fiscal distress list.
“ I’m telling you the key to it is pass this thing, ” Groom said.
The district has an enrollment of about 930 students.
Groom and presenter Jeri Freshwater said without the money from the bond restructuring and tax increase, it will be difficult for the district to work itself off the fiscal distress list. That could lead to a takeover from the state or a forced consolidation, likely with the West Fork or Fayetteville School District.
The 2. 6 mills would increase Greenland’s tax rate from 36. 9 mills to 39. 5 mills.
The board arrived at that amount based on the notion that 39. 5 is what the tax rate would be without mandated rollbacks in recent years. The rollbacks were due to state limits on how much property assessments can increase.
Freshwater noted Fayetteville’s tax rate is 42. 9 mills, while West Fork’s is 38. 6 mills.
“ We’re in this thing together, ” Groom said. “ Your millage rate is going to go up one way or another. Otherwise, you’re rolling the dice. ”
There is no way to tell what the state would decide to do if the district doesn’t pass the measure and Greenland cannot get off the fiscal distress list.
A consolidation with Fayetteville will mean sending students to a “ megaschool, ” Groom said.
Freshwater said Greenland’s current school size enables the staff to keep track of students and give them each their due attention.
Greenland High School Principal Hope Dorman spoke about how she started meeting every couple of weeks with seniors who were at risk of not graduating.
It is doubtful a principal at a large high school would give an individual student that kind of attention, Freshwater said.
She claimed one of her children who transferred from Greenland to Fayetteville High School didn’t find out she was short a credit to graduate until just before the commencement ceremony.
A forced consolidation with West Fork would nearly double the number of students in that district and could lead to awkward facility arrangements, Groom said.
“ They could also send one guy in from Little Rock and he would be the czar, ” Groom said, referring to the possibility that Greenland could be run by the state.
Greenland resident Steve Greer asked several questions about how the district was already cutting costs and funding positions, but he expressed support for the ballot measure.
“ That’s the bottom line, ” he said. “ If we don’t fund it, we lose control. ”
Leah Jackson, a Greenland Elementary library aide who lives in Winslow, said she would support the increase to prevent another annexation or consolidation.
Not all of the approximately 30 people who attended the meeting seemed to favor the increase.
Winslow resident J. R. Wood complained the district hadn’t done enough to curb spending following the last time it was on fiscal distress in 2004-05. The district was removed from the list in the spring 2006 before being placed on it again last month.
“ In less than three years, we’re back where we started, ” he said.
Despite a statement by Jackson that the Greenland staff and administrators were good, hard-working people, one woman was unimpressed. She complained that Winslow residents were “ treated like aliens from outer space” the last time they attempted to address the school board on an issue.