PATTY MACDONALD, March 10, 2022
Points to Ponder
Current Hot Springs Village property taxes are “shorting” two-thirds of our Village school children. Hot Springs Village lies in two counties, Garland and Saline. School district boundaries do not strictly follow county lines, so approximately 200 Village children go to Fountain Lake School District [FLSD] while almost 400 attend Jessieville School District. Village property taxes from parts of both counties flow into each district, although in vastly different amounts. Let me explain how this situation evolved.
A half-century ago, HSV was in its early development; homes were built primarily near the West Gate in Garland County. The education of Village children has fallen primarily on our two closest school districts, Jessieville and FLSD, both located in Garland. Each county and both school districts have different tax structures and millage rates, but the primary difference is in the underlying values of the real estate that make up their respective tax bases.
Now the path of growth in HSV is clearly toward the East Gate. Local Realtor Lloyd Sherman wrote that in 2021 the average Village home in Garland County sold for $235,278 or $115 per sq. ft. At the same time in Saline County, the average home sale was for $369,691 or $145 per sq. ft. The increased size and price of these newer Village homes has been a “cash cow” for FLSD.
Older homes near the West Gate are more affordable and draw young families with children. This area sends 380 Village children to Jessieville. These differences are reflected in the AR Dept. of Education’s “2020-2021 Revenues per student” report: FLSD spent $11,326 educating each student last year, while Jessieville spent $10,837. Other reasons may account for some of this difference of $490/yr. or almost $6,000 over a student’s 12 school years. This causes an injustice of educational opportunity for our Village students who go to Jessieville. FLSD won’t want to roll back its millage rate, just as Jessieville homeowners won’t want to raise theirs. If we really care about our Village children, please give this untenable situation some constructive thought.
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AC Watts
03/10/2022 — 4:36 pm
I’m curious as to where the $11,326 and $10,837 per student amounts stack up the statewide average. I have always been under the impression that since the village has more older residents who have long ago raised their children and it also presumably has higher home values than most of the state, that this would be beneficial to the two school districts.
Bob McCleskey
03/13/2022 — 11:53 am
AC, the #’s in the spreadsheet are from the AR State Aid Notices for the school year 2020-2021 and unfortunately the only statewide averages are for school year 2019-2020 which are published on a UA-OEP web site. The statewide average for that year was $10,013. The URL for the web site is: http://www.officeforeducationpolicy.org/arkansas-schools-data-finances/
Regarding your impression of older residents and fewer children benefiting the two school districts the story is somewhat different than you think. The HSV property values in the Jessieville district versus the # of students (796) in HSV is reflected in the Assessed Value of $130.8M/student for Jessieville and is $300.9M/student (1,321) for Fountain Lake. Thus Fountain Lake receives much more property tax revenues than Jessieville.
David Ellison
03/13/2022 — 12:43 pm
I thought the increase was defeated: https://digital.olivesoftware.com/olive/odn/hotsprings/shared/ShowArticle.aspx?doc=THESENREC%2F2022%2F02%2F11&entity=Ar00104&sk=0F77B777