Springdale Seeks Millage to Build Eight Schools

Millage approval would provide $100 million for school construction over long term

Springdale voters will decide on March 13 whether to approve a 3-mill property tax increase to help accommodate students in the fastest-growing school district in Arkansas. Springdale had an increase of 700 students this year, bringing the total to about 11,000. By 2010, enrollment is expected to top 18,000.

The millage increase would bring in an additional $1.8 million per year (in today’s dollars) for the Springdale School District and help fund the construction of eight new schools — five elementary schools, one middle school, one junior high school and one high school.

On the same ballot, voters will decide whether to extend the current 35-mill property tax for 25 years. That would bring in $35 million initially to help pay for school construction. A mill is one-tenth of a penny per dollar of assessed real estate property value.

Both issues are presented as one on the ballot. If voters reject the proposal, the current 35-mill tax will continue to be in effect instead of the proposed 38-mill tax.

Superintendent Jim Rollins said the millage rededication and additional three mills would bring in $100 million for construction over the long term.

Construction is scheduled to begin in March on the first of these schools, a 67,000-SF elementary school on Butterfield Coach Road. That school is scheduled to be open by August 2002.

“We’re going to build that one regardless,” said Greg Murry, assistant superintendent.

Rollins said Springdale’s millage is slightly above the state average of 33. The school millage is 44 in Fayetteville and 46.5 in Little Rock, he said.

The school district’s budget for the current year was $54.2 million. Of that amount, 59 percent came from state equalization funding ($4,492 per student). An additional 4 percent was from the state for specific purposes. And the remainder ($19.7 million) was raised through the local school millage.

ESL Funding

The Springdale School District is also facing an influx of non-English speaking students.

In 1989, Springdale had 74 Hispanic students and 94 that were from Asia or the Pacific Islands. In 2000, the number of Hispanic students had jumped to 2,208 (almost 20 percent of the student body), and the Asian and Pacific Island students had increased to about 500 (4 percent of the student population).

In the 1999 session, the Arkansas General Assembly approved the state Department of Education’s budget, which asked for $4 million per year to teach English as a second language.

Of that amount, Springdale received $732,000 per year based on a formula that paid the school districts $439.46 per student last year to teach English as a second language. But that wasn’t enough, Rollins said. The school district had to kick in more than $1 million per year to help teach English to the new residents.

State Sen. Dave Bisbee, R-Rogers, said legislators are reluctant to propose a bill asking for additional ESL funding for particular school districts. He said it could throw off the federal range ratio and jeopardize federal funding if the richest district in the state ends up receiving 20 percent more in state funds than the poorest district.