Southside School patrons overwhelmingly approved a proposed millage increase on Tuesday to help fund a large building project that will help address growth in the district.
In the works over the past three years, the millage boost passed with 440 “For,” and 217 “Against.”
(Click here for more details on the Southside School Future Story plan from White River Now.)
Sixty-seven percent of the district’s eligible voters supported the school’s plan and its funding. The majority of patrons, 58 percent, chose to early vote — 383 voted early and 272 voted on election day. There were two absentee votes.
The millage increase of 4.8 mills will help raise the district’s share of the $39 million building project. It is a project that starts at the elementary school and continues with improvements at the middle school, junior high, and high school levels.
The Arkansas Department of Education had already committed $23 million to the improvements. It was a huge amount of money that would have been lost by the district if it could not come up with the local share of funding. Instead, that money would have gone to some other district or districts in the state to make improvements in their district.
Southside Superintendent Dion Stevens spoke with White River Now’s Gary Bridgman this morning about the resounding vote of support.
“Our community has always rallied around the school,” said Stevens. “We just want to say thank you to our school community, our Southside community, and really everyone that we’ve communicated with. They gave us a chance, and that’s what we asked for at the beginning: Let us lay everything out. Let us tell you the plan. And if it’s something that people could accept, then we sure look forward to their vote.”
“So many people had a hand in this — you know, from Mr. (Roger) Rich, the outgoing superintendent that kind of laid the foundation. We’ve got an awesome school board that is just so supportive and just loves the school so much and the community. So it was a big night for us, and I told my wife last night the first thing I want to do is just go, and when we open the cafeteria, and just watch the kids eat in a brand new cafeteria — I think that will be awesome. We’re so appreciative to our community. They’ve always supported the school, ever since its existence, and we just continue to value their trust in us,” said Stevens.
Listen to his comments below.
In the Batesville School District, there was a very light turnout, only 97 voters, in a school board race for a Zone 5 position. Dwight E. Ford was the winner with 82 percent of the vote.
The election was for the position previously held by the late George Latus. Ford is an executive vice-president and the chief credit officer at First Community Bank in Batesville.
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