Cabot millage passes by slim margin; Twin Rivers’ fails

By Jeremy Peppas

LITTLE ROCK — Tuesday saw a tale of two districts, and their stories are on opposite ends of the spectrum.

On one side there was Tony Thurman, and on the other was David Gilliland.

Both men are superintendents, and both of their school districts had millage elections on Tuesday.

Cabot, Thurman’s district, approved, by 104 votes, a 3.9-mill increase with 1,190 voting for and 1,086 against.

Twin Rivers, a consolidated district that Gilliland runs in Sharp and Randolph Counties, voted against a 9-mill increase.

Both increases would have been for school construction.

In Cabot, it is all slated for capitolimprovement projects with the big one being a replacement building for Cabot Junior High North, the building that burned to the ground in 2006. That isn’t all, though.

“We have 12 projects that have already been approved by the state,” Thurman said. “This millage has helped us tremendously.”

Thurman explained that the millage increase will raise more than $22million for construction, but thanks to the state, that amount increases to more than $50 million.

“It is because of our wealth index,” Thurman said. “We are considered a poor school district, and because of that the state will pay 60 and we’ll pay 40 percent of approved projects.”

Also on the projects list are a new el-ementary school. Thurman said it would be the district’s ninth elementary, and “we are going to build a new high school cafeteria. The cafeteria we have now, it seats 300, and we feed over 2,000 students a day.”

Other projects include additional classroom space, renovations and a new roof, among others.

With the millage increase Cabot went from 36 mills to 39.9 mills. On a $100,000 home that means that the annual property tax would go from $720 to $798, or a $78 increase.

And as far as Thurman is concerned, it is worth the cost.

“When you get more than $27 million from the state, well you are doing pretty good,” hesaid. “It helps with our projects, it helps with our ending balances. It is really good.”

In Ravenden, home of the administrative offices for Twin Rivers, the sound of disappointment was palpable in Gilliland’s voice.

“We will just wait to see what happens in our regular board meeting,” he said. “That will be March 27, and we’ll discuss what we’ll do then. For now, we are going to have school each day.”

Gilliland is a veteran superintendent, having spent 30 years in administration in Missouri, and he expected the millage to pass.

“Right now we have two campuses 22 miles [apart],” he said. “It is costing a lot of money to keep them both open, and the millage was to build a school in between. It would have been 11 miles between the two, and I thought that the voters wantedthat to happen.

“They didn’t.” On Tuesday, 605 ballots were cast, and 464, or nearly 77 percent, voted against the increase.

The district’s millage is 31.09 mills, and if the increase hadbeen approved, the millage would have raised to 40.09. On a $100,000 home, property tax would have risen from $621.80 per year to $801.80 a year.

- jpeppas@ arkansasonline.com

Three Rivers, Pages 110, 120 on 03/16/2008