The Fayetteville School District is preparing to build a new high school, and last night the school board decided a 4.9-mill increase will be needed to pay for it.
On Thursday, the school board unanimously voted to have the mill increase placed in the hands of the public. A vote will take place September 15.
The increase would create about $113 million in funding. The taxes would include the demolition of some of the current buildings and construction of a new high school on the 40-acre campus. The high school will house grades nine through 12, currently ninth graders attend the junior high schools.
If the millage increase is approved, the average Fayetteville home owner, with a house worth $166,000, will be paying an additional $160 dollars a year in property tax. That's on top of the $1,425 in property tax they're already paying.
"We certainly understand people don't want to pay any more, though we have to," said School Board Vice President, Tim Hudson. "People in years past, passed millage increases, for our elementary, middle and high schools today, so we have to continue passing them so we can have new schools for decades to come."
Also during Thursday's meeting, it was revealed that neighboring districts recently built new high schools for much less. Hudson said there are a number of reasons why the new Fayetteville High School may be more expensive. First, construction will take longer, because the students will still be on campus during the entire project. Plus, the topography of the land is also tougher to develop opposed to other places, and unlike other districts, Fayetteville doesn't receive any state funding, so there's more of a burden on tax payers.
On Thursday, the school board unanimously voted to have the mill increase placed in the hands of the public. A vote will take place September 15.
The increase would create about $113 million in funding. The taxes would include the demolition of some of the current buildings and construction of a new high school on the 40-acre campus. The high school will house grades nine through 12, currently ninth graders attend the junior high schools.
If the millage increase is approved, the average Fayetteville home owner, with a house worth $166,000, will be paying an additional $160 dollars a year in property tax. That's on top of the $1,425 in property tax they're already paying.
"We certainly understand people don't want to pay any more, though we have to," said School Board Vice President, Tim Hudson. "People in years past, passed millage increases, for our elementary, middle and high schools today, so we have to continue passing them so we can have new schools for decades to come."
Also during Thursday's meeting, it was revealed that neighboring districts recently built new high schools for much less. Hudson said there are a number of reasons why the new Fayetteville High School may be more expensive. First, construction will take longer, because the students will still be on campus during the entire project. Plus, the topography of the land is also tougher to develop opposed to other places, and unlike other districts, Fayetteville doesn't receive any state funding, so there's more of a burden on tax payers.
