RISON - The Cleveland County School Board will hold a financial workshop at 6 p.m. Thursday, July 25, at the administration building in Rison, Superintendent Davy King said.Jason Holsclaw with Stephens, Inc., the Cleveland County School District's financial adviser, and Steve Elliott, the district's architect, are scheduled to be at the meeting, King said.The purpose of the meeting is to give the school board a current overview of the district's finances as it considers seeking a possible millage increase to support construction of a new gym/multi-purpose center at the Rison School campus.Earlier this year the Arkansas Division of Public School Facilities and Transportation announced that the Cleveland County School District had been included in its latest partnership funding cycle. The district was approved for $2,707,623.36 to help pay for construction of a new gym/multipurpose center and $138,714.14 for a security entrance at Rison Elementary.While neither project was among those to receive funding in the initial launch, those familiar with the partnership program said there is a strong possibility that the district could receive those funds since the district's ahead of them on the funding list must have their matching funds in place to take advantage of the partnership funding.Under the partnership program, the state pays a certain percentage of the construction costs with the receiving school district responsible for covering the rest. If the district does not have those matching funds available, the partnership money is turned back to the state to be awarded to the next project on the list.Scotty Holderfield, the school facilities coordinator for the Southeast Arkansas Education Cooperative, said every district that was on the partnership funding list over the past two cycles ended up getting their money even if they were not among the projects to initially be funded....
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