Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Board To Offer Church Opportunity To Buy Land

Gurdon's School Board rescinded it's previous motion to sell the timber and donate an acre of land to the Crossroads Baptist Church of Gurdon, at the July 18 meeting.

Board member, Stan Escalante said, "I was totally shocked to see the ACLU mentioned. The church has been using it for near 60 years, it's more theirs than ours anyway."

Jesse Runyan, board president, said, "What I'd like to do is to not have the timber appraised or the land appraised and sell it for $400 per acre. Then all they would have to do is sell off the timber.

"A member of the church, Betty Gattis said she was in favor of selling the land to her instead of the church."

Charles Hatley, board member, questioned the properties current benefit to the district.

Superintendent Bobby Smithson said, "We didn't even know we owned it. None of us intended to violate the law. If we sold the timber off the land, it's not going to be of any value to anyone else. The church has been using it since 1940."

In information provided at the school board meeting, Smithson described his conversation with Christine Gould, attorney from the Arkansas School Board Association (ASBA). Smithson said, "I asked her if it would be legal to charge a fee of $10 for the property and her response was no. It had to sell for fair market value. She said our auditor would write us up,' if we sold the property for less fair market value."

Continuing, Smithson said, "I called David Terrell, the supervising auditor of our area, . . . his response was that the school board has broad discretionary power in selling school property. He thought charging a small fee would be perfectly legal, and didn't fully understand why Ms. Gould took the position she stated."

Afterwards, Smithson reported he received a fax from Terrell. The fax was a copy of a letter written by Arkansas Attorney General, Winston Bryant in June 1996, to Sam Angel, state representative, concerning the Lake Village School District's selling of an old school building to a non-profit group.

Excerpts from the letter state, "Although such a sale for adequate consideration, would, if the proceeds were applied for school purposes, appear not to be prohibited, a sale for less than adequate consideration might be challenged as a diversion of school property or funds." Op Att'y Gen. 93-057."

Also from the letter is this statement, "Any disposition of school property must be for the benefit of the school district and not a gift to other persons. So a disposition of school property must be consistent with good business judgement and sound business principles, and the board may not convey such property without consideration. . ."

According to information provided, Terrell stated, "He could not reach a definite conclusion without knowing the specifics involved in the transaction."

The board ceased debate on the issue and motioned to table it.

Smithson said Tommy Overbey, a member of the board, will talk the church and see if it's interested in buying the land, reporting its answer back the board at its August meeting.

However, he added, it's likely if the church doesn't buy it, the land will remain school property with the church members continuing to use it as a parking lot the way they do now. But, Smithson said, what the board will do isn't known at this time.

The church, he said, doesn't have any plumbing and has a couple of outhouses for its congregation to use. The church was concerned if the district cut the trees the outhouses would be visible from the road.

The school board passed a motion to raise the price of school lunches by 15 cents. Lunches will now cost: primary, $1, high school $1.15, and adult, $1.50.

"The ones it will hurt are already on reduced lunches. It's not going to hurt them all that much," said Smithson.

Explaining the nearly $19,000 over in the food service budget, Smithson said, "We've increased our labor by 5 percent over the past two years; bought equipment and included a one time $7,000 retirement bonus. Our food is pretty good." Hatley said, "I just have a problem with it."

"I contacted Prescott, Arkadelphia, Bismarck, and Sparkman, this is just about where they are," said Betsy Hearst, Gurdon School District treasurer.

Out of these four, only Sparkman is of comparable size to Gurdon. Two of the four schools mentioned are AA' and one, Arkadelphia, is a AAAA school.

The board accepted the lowest bid from Pioneer Distributing Co. of North Little Rock, toward the purchase of equipment for the primary school cafeteria.

Items to be purchased are as follows: an electric serving counter, utility counter, utility tray stand, 60-inch gas range, a refrigerator, and walk-in freezer. The total purchase cost $16,743. This amount will be taken out of the operating funds, and will not be deducted from the $60,000 grant recently received.

Installation of this equipment and the finishing touches on the flooring are expected to be completed before the beginning of school, Aug. 21.

According to information provided, Southwest Construction has begun to apply the latex coating on the track. There are three layers of latex applied to the asphalt base. They should be finished with this phase in about two weeks.

Discussions have begun between Anita Cabe and the district for the purpose of employing an architect for a new auditorium. During the meeting Smithson mentioned the name of Wayne Trull, whom the district has worked with before.

Smithson said, "We do not, by law, have to interview multiple architects, but we are free to employ anyone we so desire. I have made no commitment to Wayne nor to anyone else."

During executive session the board hired seven and decided to advertise for three more.

Hired for the position of primary school special education was Holly Orsburn. Filling the position of primary school media specialist is Tonja Lewis. The middle school counselor and media specialist will be Mary Leamons. To fill the position of sixth grade reading for one year, the board hired Senna Clark. Hired for the position of high school English and social studies teacher was Dawn Higgs.

Also hired, Charles Failla will fill the position of assistant high school principal and teacher. Failla is not currently certified as a principal, but is in the process to become certified.

Van Williams was hired for the In-School Suspension' teaching position. While, Tommy Frisbi was hired as a handicap aide.

The board accepted the resignation of Gurdon High School business education teacher, Freddie Horne. Horne has accepted an assistant principal position in Nashville.