Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Public meeting scheduled for Prescott millage

A public meeting will be held Monday, May 5, to discuss the special election, scheduled for May 13.

The meeting will take place at the St. Michael's Community Room at 7 p.m. This is to give the public the chance to get information and ask questions about the election. The Prescott School Board is sponsoring the event.

The reason for the special election is to bring Prescott's millage up to the 25 mill for maintenance and operation (M&O) as required by the Arkansas Supreme Court in the Lake View case.

The district will need to restructure its bonded indebtedness to transfer 7.6 mill from the its debt budget to M&O. Should this measure fail on May 13, the Nevada County Quorum Court would be required to step in and raise the millage mandatorily.

However, the Prescott district is seeking a 3 mill increase to do some necessary building projects.

Several buildings on the Prescott High School campus are dilapidated and in need of being replaced. At this time, the district doesn't have the money for the construction.

A section of roof over the first grade area at Prescott Elementary School is in need of repair as well, and part of the funds from the 3 mill would go toward this also.

Currently, Prescott's millage rate is 32.1. If the issue passes, it will be raised to 35.1. But, if it fails and the court has to step in, the rate would be raised to 39.7 mill.

As Jeff Haynes, a member of the board said at a recent meeting, "We can pay 3 mill now or 7.6 later."

However, if the issue is approved by voters, the district's bonded indebtedness would be restructured, with 7.6 mill being moved to the M&O budget. The district would also have the funds needed for the new construction.

Prescott Superintendent Hyacinth Deon said the money from the 3 mill would be used to build a multi-purpose complex, which would contain a field house for the Curley Cub football teams, storage space for the athletic department, a distance learning lab, the family and consumer science facilities and classrooms, along with repairing the roof at PES.

Other improvements needed include renovating the bathrooms at Cummins Stadium, upgrading the air conditioning in the fifth and sixth grade building at McRae Middle School, possibly buying a metal building to be used for physical therapy and a classroom at PES and a new fence outside the football field.

The construction plans are being done to prepare the district for the possibility of having to expand its student population to 1,500 under a proposal by Gov. Mike Huckabee.

Huckabee has submitted a plan to the Arkansas General Assembly which would require all school districts to have student populations of 1,500. It has been modified, somewhat, but the governor is holding fast on the 1,500 number of students.

Prescott will likely be a host school for smaller districts, Deon said, should Huckabee's plan come to fruition in a special session later this year.