Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Nevada Board Looks At Reassessment

Reassessment reared its ugly head at the Nevada School Board meeting Thursday night, Oct. 21.

Nevada Superintendent Rick McAffee told the board there are 22 counties in the state which will be reassessed by law, with Nevada County being one of them.

Only one company bid on doing the reassessment work in the county, he informed the panel, and its bid totaled $408,000. This, McAffee said, breaks down to $7 per parcel per year over a two-year period.

However, the good news on this is, the state will pick up $200,000 of the total cost, leaving the remainder to be paid by those entities receiving funds from property tax.

In the Nevada district, he said, there are 305 parcels of land. Nevada's share of the bill will be 31 percent or $62,543.44. This breaks down to 24 payments of $2,605.98 per month.

Overall, the school districts in the area will be picking up 75 percent of the tab.

McAffee said Prescott's share will be $76,793.72, with its monthly payments being $3,199.74.

Emmet's portion is considerably smaller at $7,429.84.

The Stamps and Stephens districts also have parcels of property in Nevada County. Stamps will be hit with $2,108.93, while Stephens will be billed $968.30.

The three districts fully in Nevada County, he said, will pay a total of $150,024.23.

The bad news, McAffee told the board, is the payments begin next month. And, he added, a group is working to get a proposal on the Nov. 2000 ballot to remove property tax.

Should this issue get on the ballot and pass, he said, the districts will have paid on the reassessment for a year and will get none of the money back.

McAffee said the company doing the reassessment will begin in Prescott and literally go door-to-door gathering information. Once this work is complete, if the tax increase is not more than 10 percent a year over a three year period, the millage will remain the same. If the increase is more than 10 percent a year for three years, districts will have their millages reduced accordingly.

"It's a complicated process," he said, adding a special meeting on the reassessment will be held at a later date.

The board also heard about the Smart Start program being instituted for grades K-4, with plans to soon include grades 5-8. However, Nevada Elementary Principal Natalie Sherwood said, the curriculum for the upper grades has not been downloaded yet.

At this time, studies are being done to see which courses will be age appropriate.

McAffee said Smart Start is another mandated program from the state, with the district having to send curriculum and goals for all grade levels involved.

Parents, he said, will also be involved in this program and need to work with their children to make sure they stay on course for their grade level.

Parents will get report cards on the school from the state, with the "grades" based on the district's test scores, attendance, the percentage of students who graduate and the percentage needing remediation at the college level.

The report cards, McAffee said, will be mailed for each school, so, in some cases, families will get report cards for NES and NHS both.

Still, he said, the Arkansas Department of Education isn't comparing apples to apples with this program. He gave the example of students in the fourth grade this year being compared to those in the fourth grade last year, instead of the third grade, which would be more accurate.

He added special need students will not be considered in the mix under the Smart Start program.

Sherwood said NES also picked the top math program in the nation for its middle school math. This program is called Connected Mathematics.

Other than the trip bus being in the shop at Texarkana, Jim Cross, maintenance and transportation director, said, there are no serious problems at the school.

The bus, he said, was getting oil injected into the fuel system, but it is being corrected at no cost to the district as the bus is still under warranty.

The board agreed to continue its tuition agreement with Emmet, which has both districts splitting the money received per student involved from the state.

Debra McMillan was hired as the elementary class reduction teacher, and will be paid with funds the district received in a grant

D. Godwin tendered a letter of resignation as she has been offered a position at Hope. The board agreed to accept the resignation, releasing Godwin from her contract as soon as a replacement is found.

The board was reorganized as this was the first meeting after the September School Elections. The district has had a history of rotating the members with the one in their fifth year serving as president, the fourth year person being vice president and the third year member being secretary.

This has Jerry Bishop as president, Beverly Curtis as vice president and Don Callicott in the secretaries position. The panel also welcomed Mack Bridges as the new member from the Willisville area.