CCSD Edges Closer To Partnership Funds

RISON - The Cleveland County School District could soon learn the fate of about $2.8 million in state partnership money for a new gym and a secure entrance at Rison Elementary after one school district in Northeast Arkansas set to receive $7.5 million in partnership money failed to pass its millage last week.For the third time since 2020, voters in the Pocahontas School District rejected a request for a millage increase that would have supported construction of a new cafeteria, gym and classrooms. The district was seeking a 2.95 mill tax increase. Pocahontas was scheduled to receive nearly $7.5 million in partnership money to help pay for those projects. However, unless the district can come up with the matching funds to accept it, that money will go back to the state and offered to the next project on the list, which happens to be the Cleveland County School District’s gym project.Earlier this year, the Arkansas Department of Education’s Division of Public School Facilities and Transportation informed Cleveland County it had been approved for two partnership projects: $2,707,623.36 to help build a new gym and $138,714.14 for a new secure entrance to Rison Elementary. While both projects were approved, neither were among the projects to initially receive funding.The partnership program is a state-funded program that shares in the cost of major construction and renovation projects for school districts. The portion the state pays is based on the district’s wealth index, which is essentially a formula that measures a district’s ability to raise money on its own.The state budgets a certain amount of money for the partnership program every two years, and there are usually more projects than money to fund them. As a result, the Division of Public School Facilities and Transportation ranks the approved projects based on wealth index and enrollment, and the partnership money is awarded to the projects ranked highest on list. O...