By DAVID NICHOL
T-H Staff Writer
Gov. Mike Huckabee made it official on Wednesday, calling a much-expected special session of the Arkansas Legislature to begin Monday.
The Legislature's job will be to begin overhauling Arkansas' public education system, declared unconstitutional by the state Supreme Court. Legislators have until Jan. 1 to develop ways to provide essentially equal educational opportunities for nearly 450,000 students and raise new revenues to pay for the improvements.
State Rep. Danny Ferguson of Forrest City said Wednesday he and most legislators were expecting the call. Huckabee had said earlier this year he would probably call the session, but more recently he said he might not if he felt a consensus was impossible to reach.
Although Ferguson said lawmakers expected the call, he said no one really knows what to expect at the session itself.
"I have no clue," he said. "It could be a train wreck, or there could be a solution coming out. I wouldn't put a nickel on which one of those is going to happen."
Ferguson said he is fairly sure that nothing would pass immediately.
"It may take weeks of hammering. It may happen in days, but most of the people I've talked to think it will be a huge job," he said. "The problem is, education is not a science, there's not really a mathematical or chemical formula."
In spite of the emotional nature of the upcoming debate -- especially as it concerns school consolidation -- the lawmakers will also have to come up with a way to pay for whatever reforms are passed. Ferguson said that could cause problems.
"I think the possibility exists, and I think most of my colleagues do, that the Legislature could pass a school reform bill and not pass the money bill," he said. "I'm not on the Education Committee, but I am on the Revenue and Taxation Committee. And I'm going to be up to my ears."
A lot of revenue producing proposals are expected, one of which is to remove the sales tax exemptions now granted to many services.
"I don't think there's any question that there will be proposals to take exemptions away," Ferguson said. "Some services are already taxed, like mechanic labor. Some, like dry cleaning, are not."
One of the arguments is that by broadening the sales tax base, it would help keep businesses which currently pay the tax from having such a high sales tax that it hurts them.
"I think removing exemptions would be a tough battle, but everything's going to be a tough battle. This is going to be a bear of session. Everyone I've talked to is just absolutely dreading it," Ferguson said. "Your phone messages are full, you get tons of letters every day. The Legislature is absolutely immersed in public education. And with a Jan. 1 deadline it's not going to be fun."
He said most of the lawmakers realize that no matter what happens, they are going to seem like Scrooge this Christmas to some people.
"There is no question, that regardless of what we do, we're going to make everybody in Arkansas mad at something," he said. "But the thing people have to realize is, there is an option of going over there (to Little Rock) and doing absolutely nothing. And that is probably the worst option of all, because that may put the entire public school system of Arkansas into the hands of the courts.
"If you think that if we go over there and do nothing, that nothing will happen, that's not the true picture."
Ferguson still tried to be upbeat about the opportunities at the session.
"We'll survive," he said. "And as difficult as all this is going to be, we can hope that the end result will be that we improve the public education system. Studies show that there is a financial payoff for that down the years."
Only the governor can call a special session and the official proclamation narrows the agenda of items that can be considered.
Huckabee's call authorizes legislators to work on lesser issues not related to public education.
Prior to issuing the proclamation Wednesday, the governor said that merging some small local school districts is key to improving educational opportunities for students statewide.
A circuit judge declared Arkansas' public school funding system unconstitutional in May 2001 and the state Supreme Court affirmed the ruling in November 2002. Both courts rejected the state's argument that tougher education standards should be given more time to work.
The state's highest court gave Arkansas 13 1/2 months to address inequities among schools, but legislators and Huckabee were unable to reach agreement on how best to do that. Huckabee said the state has an obligation to give students an equal chance for a quality education whether they live in wealthy or poor areas of the state.
''We've taken the easy way every stinking time we've had this in front of us. We've always chickened out when it got right down to it,'' the governor said in a Capitol interview. ''We've always said we'll just find another way to put it off until the next generation. Well, we're the generation on whom it's been put off. We've got to stand up and answer for this, and we've got to do it now.''
The governor has proposed merging high schools with fewer than 375 students to better afford costly education reforms such as teacher pay raises, expanding preschool and requiring all districts to teach the 38-unit core curriculum every year.
Consolidation opponents have countered with plans to establish higher standards and give all 308 school districts up to two years to meet them or face consolidation.
By KENDALL OWENS
T-H Staff Writer
New construction figures for St. Francis County in 2003 will top $6.8 million in market value, according to a report from the St. Francis County Assessor's office.
Figures provided by Assessor Craig Jones show the market values for 2003 total $6,858,950 for new construction countywide. The figures represent the market values for the construction and not the assessed values.
"This figure tells us what the market value for all of the new construction in the county is, be it homes, mobile homes, commercial properties, farm buildings, everything. This isn't the value that will be used on the tax roles," Jones said.
The report shows the construction that occurred in each school district including the district's main location and the country areas that support each school district.
According to the report, the total new construction in the Forrest City School District was $5,430,650, with $2,623,000 of that construction in Forrest City country. That total is broken down with $256,900 in Caldwell, $679,450 in Colt, $1,770,650 in Forrest City and $100,650 in Madison.
The Palestine/Wheatley School District saw $1,194,050 in new construction, with most of the construction taking place in Wheatley where there was $742,350 in new construction. According to Jones, an addition to the Riceland facility in Wheatley valued at over $600,000 accounted for most of the work. In Palestine/Wheatley country, there was $343,150 in construction, and in Palestine, there was $108,550 in construction.
In the Hughes School District, new construction valued at $234,250 was completed with $185,450 of that work taking place in Hughes country, while $48,800 of the work took place in Hughes.
According to Jones, comparable figures for 2002 are not available due to miscommunication between his office and the reappraisal company.
"It was just a matter of them thinking that we were going to do it and us thinking that they were handling it. But we got everything nailed down for this year and got our numbers," he said.
Jones cautioned that the figures do not represent the taxable number which will be placed on the books next year. "This is just a little Christmas good news for the county as a whole. This just lets everyone know that things are happening in St. Francis County," Jones said.
By KENDALL OWENS
T-H Staff Writer
Residents on the northern leg of St. Francis County Road 311 may have to take different routes home for two days next week as road crews work to replace a pipe.
According to W.L. Laws with Laws Contracting, the location of the work will be approximately 1 1/2 miles from SFC 311's intersection with Arkansas Highway 284 and close to two miles from Hughes Cemetery. The work area will be almost 150 feet in distance. The work will begin Monday, and according to Laws, crews will work to complete at least half of the work by Monday evening to open access to residents.
"This is definitely a two-day job, but we're hoping that we can get temporary access on at least half of the road so that the people out there can use it," Laws said.
St. Francis County Judge Carl Cisco also said that some access to the road is important due to the road being one of the routes used by Forrest City School District buses.
"The pipe that they're replacing is huge, and they're going to have to close the road Monday, but hopefully they can get at least part of it open that evening because that's one of our bus routes, and we try to get those back up and running quickly," Cisco said.
Residents in the area can access the road either via Barrow Hill Road from the southern end or Hwy. 284 on the northern section.
Seven Forrest City teachers were among the 42 honored recently in Arkansas with the Bessie B. Moore award for excellence in economic education.
One winner was Terry Isringhouse, Forrest Hills Elementary, first place in her category with the project, "The Environment Cries Out For Economics." Winning a third-place award for "And To Think We Learned Economics on Rosser Street," put together by Associate Principal Tammie Mills and teachers Angie Gilbreath, Robin Williams and Robin McKee at Central Elementary. Also taking a third place was Angie Laster of Central Elementary, for "Project G.R.E.E.N. (Get Ready to Enjoy Economics Now."
The award is named for Dr. Bessie B. Moore, who was a founder and the first executive director of the Arkansas Council on Economic Education.
Other teachers recognized for the award teach at schools in Fort Smith, Pulaski County, Rogers, Bentonville, Bryant, Fayetteville, Crossett, Springdale, Harmony Grove, Nettleton and Greenbrier.