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Voters Deciding If Jacksonville Forms New School District

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Voters in Jacksonville are deciding Tuesday if they want to separate from the Pulaski County Special School District and form their own district. Residents of Jacksonville were given the option of creating their own district, after a ruling in January by a federal judge ended a long-running desegregation case.

Jerry Guess, the Superintendent of the state’s third-largest school district, said Jacksonville’s schools are in “bad shape” and breaking away allows them to get state funding, otherwise unavailable.

“The assessed value of property in this district is so high that we don’t get any partnership money. If Jacksonville separates they’d be able to get partnership money, meaning that if they did $100 million worth of construction they would get 60-65 percent of that provided by the state. In an effort to address the facilities in that area we agreed that separation of Jacksonville was actually a benefit to them and to PCSSD,” said Guess.

He said PCSSD currently has over 17,000 students and can absorb the loss and even benefit from not having to service the Jacksonville area schools which are farther away than most district schools from centralized administrative and service locations.

“It will certainly be a matter of reducing expenses in PCSSD to such a degree that the loss of 4,000 kids will not hurt the finances of PCSSD,” said Guess.

He made the same argument that efficiency for Jacksonville area schools would also be improved if administrative and maintenance services were closer to area schools and facilities. Guess said in an era of state-wide consolidation he believes it’s an exciting prospect for many in Jacksonville.

“I believe that Jacksonville has wanted their own district for so long that they’re going to be really committed to making it work. I think it’s an exciting development for them,’ said Guess.

There is no organized opposition for the vote.

Jacob Kauffman is a former news anchor and reporter for KUAR.
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