School district to present tax plan Monday

The Lincoln Parish School District is exploring another bond proposal for Ruston voters this spring to finance improvement projects at the high school and junior high, and officials want to hear feedback from the public.

Superintendent Ricky Durrett and his staff will present their plan for a roughly $17.5 million bond issue at a public meeting Monday at 6 p.m. in the Ruston High School auditorium, ahead of the school board’s Feb. 6 meeting where members are expected to vote on the plan.

“We’re looking at things the schools are telling us they need, not just things they want,” Durrett said. “We’ll do a PowerPoint and present the plan (Monday). What it would mean for their taxes, the projects we’re proposing, and then have feedback from the community of what they think of it.”

Types of projects being considered include roof replacements at Ruston High School, security upgrades at RHS and Ruston Junior High School, additional parking at both schools, purchasing activity buses, and athletics facilities upgrades.

The Ruston school district has an ongoing property tax to pay back old bond issues on previous projects.

This proposal would extend that tax for an additional five years without raising the millage rate beyond the 16.75 mills to be levied this year. That would bring in about $17.5 million.

If the board agrees to move forward at its Feb. 6 meeting, an election would be held in the Ruston district on April 27 to approve the measure.

“This would be a shortterm bond issue to try to do some things we thought people would have supported last time,” Durrett said.

A year ago the school board approved a $65 million capital improvement plan, largely to finance consolidation of Ruston’s four elementary schools into two sites, but also some RHS athletics improvements.

But after the consolidation plan received publish pushback, voters capsized the bond proposal at the polls, and none of those projects took place.

Now a proposed $ 5 million covered, multisport practice facility for RHS is back on the table from last year’s list.

Styled after a similar facility at El Dorado High School in El Dorado, Arkansas, it would include two turf fields where RHS football, soccer, baseball, softball, cheer and band could practice throughout the year.

“That helps and reaches a lot of people,” Durrett said. “El Dorado told us theirs is the most used facility on their campus.”

Also on the table this time around: security upgrades at RHS and RJHS, such as new doorways, new gates and fencing, and advanced body scan machines that can distinguish concealed weapons from everyday items.

In the case of RJHS, Durrett said part of the urgency in upgrading security is the upcoming Buc- ee’s travel center that’s planned to open across the street from the school in 2025.

“The junior high’s going to have to have some gates and fencing in the front so that if Buc-ee’s is coming across the street, we don’t have somebody just taking a wrong turn and pulling in (the school’s parking lot),” he said. “Trying to secure that campus where it’s not as easily accessible to everybody.”

The school district has the bond proposal itself ironed out, but the exact projects the bonds would pay for is still a “fluid list” until the public and board members get their say.

“Do we need to do some adjusting, do we need to take something out, is there something we haven’t thought of, and if so, what is it?” Durrett said.

Despite there being seven school sites in the Ruston district, only two schools have potential projects in this proposal.

That’s because after this short- term round of financing, Durrett’s administration hopes to bring in an outside consultant to perform an in-depth study on the future of the Ruston district — school locations, population changes, improvement projects, the works.

“Get a fresh set of eyes on it, what they’d see that we’d need to do with the elementary schools, where they’re located, what do we need to repair, do we need new ones,” Durrett said.

But for now, parents and community members in the Ruston district have an opportunity Monday to weigh in on the upcoming bond proposal and associated projects before the school board takes its turn the following week.