Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

State will hear appeal on auditorium funding

The Gurdon School District will get an appeal before the Arkansas Department of Education on the agencys decision to cut the amount promised for the construction of a new auditorium by more than $300,000.

Superintendent Bobby Smithson told the Gurdon School Board of the appeal during its meeting on Tuesday, Nov. 20. Due to a busy schedule at the department of education, the appeal has been set for January.

Were going to go to the meeting, and were going to carry the architect and were going to carry a lawyer, Smithson said.

The department of education has said that the state cannot supplement the construction of a 1,200 seat auditorium as the school has planned. The state originally approved the project, but later said that they could only fund a much smaller auditorium for a school the size of Gurdon.

Auditoriums are not funded at the elementary and middle school level, and it is anticipated that any general meeting requirements will be met by a cafetorium, said Douglas Eaton, director of the ADE division of public school academic facilities and transportation in a letter to Smithson. At the high school level, however, auditoriums are considered academic space and are funded based on a formula commensurate with the number of students in that school.

Smithson said he felt as if there were a double standard where this policy is concerned. He noted several nearby district that will be building gymnasiums in the near future with state assistance. He said that the gyms will hold far more people than the population of the high schools.

Despite the hold up on funding from the state, the district is planning to proceed with the construction of the 1,200 seat auditorium. Architect Wayne Trull has sent out the invitation for bids on the project, and three bids had been received as of the day of the school board meeting. Trull expects several more bids to come in before the opening date of Dec. 11.

Smithson said he wished the district had already been able to move on the project.

I feel like weve lost money by waiting, he said. Weve reached a point of no return.

Smithson expects the board to be able to make a decision on the bids at its next board meeting in December.

Also during the meeting, the board voted to pay 75 percent of the salary of School Resource Officer Thomas Free. Last year, the officers salary was paid by a grant from the Horace Cabe Foundation. Clark County officials applied for the same grant for the current year, but their request was turned down, Smithson said.

We agreed last year to assume a percentage of Mr. Frees salary, as long as our budget would allow, Smithson said. We have already employed Mr. Free for the 2007-2008 school year.

Clark County has agreed to pay the additional 25 percent of Frees salary. Free is on the county payroll and bills the school district for the 75 percent of the salary. The school district will give Free a 3 percent salary increase from his 2006-2007 salary.

The school districts portion of the salary is $21,258.

Ive heard some schools say their resource officer isnt worth their salary. Ours is. Hes a good guy, Smithson said. Hes done a tremendous job for us, I think.

In other business, the board was told of a new fence installed at Gurdon Primary School. Smithson said the fence cost $5,000 and was installed due to security concerns voiced by parents. All of the work was done by school personnel. The gates are locked during the school day, forcing all visitors to the front door.

The board also agreed to allow the primary schools PTO to purchase a vacant lot across from the school to be used as extra parking. We have so many people over there they cant find a place to park, Smithson said.

The district will do some minor clearing and gravel work to the lot to make it suitable for parking.