Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Appeal dropped: School won't fight state for funding

The Gurdon School Board has decided to drop an appeal with the Arkansas Department of Education challenging the departments actions that reduced the amount of state aid for the Gurdon High School auditorium project.

The board addressed the issue in a special meeting on Monday, Dec. 3.

Superintendent Bobby Smithson told board members that he had been told by Fred Cashaw, a consultant from the Dawson Educational Cooperative who is working with the district on state funding for construction projects, that bids for the auditorium project could not be opened until after the states hearing. The hearing would determine whether the state would fund the project at $859,974 or $539,000.

The state had previously approved the higher amount but later said the school only qualified for the lower amount. The hearing had been set for January. Opening the bids before the hearing would result in the school forfeiting all state funds, Smithson said.

This recent finding placed a bind on the Gurdon School District as officials had hoped to open bids for the building on Tuesday, Dec. 11. Smithson said that district architect Wayne Trull said waiting until January to accept bids would cause them to be considerably higher due to the projected increase in the price of steel.

Smithson said that even if the school won the appeal in January, they would likely lose all that they gain because of the potentially higher cost.

Waiting could also cause the cost of the building to go up because contractors may not be as interested in the project, thus causing a lack of competition in the bidding process. We have already lost one of the local contractos who expressed interest in our project, he said.

The board approved Smithsons request to drop the appeal. Later in the week, he said that the bid opening has been pushed back to Tuesday, Dec. 18. The board is expected to take action on the bids later that evening during its regular monthly meeting at 7 p.m. in the GHS Cabe Student Center.