New panel to revise Central school plans after tax defeat
Print
Email
Save
Share
Del.icio.us
Digg
Facebook
Reddit
CENTRAL — Five months after voters rejected higher taxes to fund a new school complex, the Central Community School Board is reprising the community panel that devised the failed plan.
The expanded 35-member steering committee, which now includes original committee members and a few new members, met Tuesday night at Central High School.
The last committee’s proposal, a $98 million education complex funded by sales and property tax increases, was roundly defeated in July.
Voters rejected the 25-year, three-quarter-cent sales tax and a second proposition that would have given the school system the authority to issue up to $49.2 million in 20-year bonds backed by a 29-mill property tax.
The new committee’s task is to draft a different capital improvement plan that historically tax-averse Central residents will approve. The committee will recommend the plan to the School Board, which will ultimately decide whether and when to call an election.
Central broke away from the parish school system last year and formed its own system. Now it is trying to absorb an expected several thousand new students over the next four years. School officials say the system’s facilities can’t handle that growth.
Superintendent Michael Faulk began Tuesday’s meeting by reviewing the five proposals the previous committee considered.
Those proposals ranged from a $69 million plan that focused mostly on renovating facilities to the new $95 million single-site complex that was ultimately sent to voters. All the proposals included the construction of a either a new high school or a middle school, and any new plan will likely include one of those major construction projects, school officials have said.
Faulk said the school system is already getting proposals from two consulting firms to do a detailed analysis of the system’s buildings and equipment. The consultant could then draft several proposals for the committee to consider or tweak, he said.
Faulk said having outside experts help analyze the school system’s needs could help gain the trust of skeptical voters.
But Faulk said it is first important for the committee to review the previous proposals before devising a new one.
Susan Watts, a committee member who teaches at Central Middle, said educating the public about the condition of the local schools, especially the deteriorating middle school, is key to winning support for any new plan.
“I think they are scared by more taxes, having to pay more money,” Watts said. “If they’d understand the benefit of it and that it’s really not going to cost that much, I think they’ll pass it.”
 | ||||
| Most Popular | Most Emailed | Hot Topics | ||
