The proposal seeks voter approval to extend the current 36-mill property tax, which already has 16 years remaining, in order to generate $50 million in funding. According to the verbiage on the ballot, the tax will not increase the current millage rate in its first year.
All Schools in Eastside districts to benefit
In District E, $20 million will be designated to build a new elementary school in the Richwood area.
The plan is to merge three aging elementary schools—Shady Grove, Robinson, and Swayze—into a single modern facility designed to serve approximately 400 students.
These schools, which currently operate with low student populations and high maintenance costs, would be consolidated into a state-of-the-art building better suited to 21st-century learning.
Rev. Harold McCoy, the school board’s only Black member and a longtime advocate for educational improvement in underserved areas, is urging residents to vote in favor of the bond.
“A new school will provide our children the opportunity to be educated in a more modern 21st-century facility,” he said.
“Swayze is one of the schools slated to be closed. The principals and staff will be reassigned. The population in the area has been declining for years. At one time, each school housed more than 500 students, but now there are fewer than 700 students combined.”
Rev. McCoy said increased maintenance cost plus declining school populations mandated the need for just one school to house all elementary students in the area.
Rev. McCoy sees the measure as a necessary step to address declining enrollment while ensuring that students in the Richwood area are not left behind in outdated facilities.
“This is an investment in our children’s future,” he added.
If approved, the new school would be built in the Richwood area, providing a centralized and updated campus for students currently spread across three under-capacity buildings.
District F
District F will have $9 million for improvements at Jack Hayes Elementary School (Front drive canopy), Lakeshore Elementary (Front office renovation, roof repair and front canopy expansion); Swartz Lower Elementary (Replace classroom windows and upgrade front entrance); Swartz Upper Elementary (automatic door for safety, painting); East Ouachita Junior High, (New Multi-purpose building); Ouachita Junior High (track replacement and upgrade to football game and practice field); Ouachita High School (Tur field for baseball and softball).
District G
District G will have $9 million for Sterlington High School (Classroom and lab expansion, turf for baseball and softball fields, concession stand and ticket booths, side and rear walls for baseball grandstand, roofing for grandstand, baseball grandstand seating and prefab press box, tennis court construction and lights, female athletic fieldhouse complex)
Early voting is already underway and will continue through Saturday, April 26.
