By Malcolm Butler and Kyle Roberts
After a much contested bond proposal was sent to a public vote, the voters of the Ruston School District loudly cast a NO vote at the ballot box Saturday.
At least those that took the time to vote.
When the dust settled, a bond that would have generated $65 million over the next 20 years and that would have led to a consolidation of the four elementary schools within the parish was soundly defeated by a vote of 1,856 to 814 (70 percent to 30 percent).
Only 14 percent of a total of 18,761 eligible voters turned out at the polls. Of that percentage, early voting accounted for 46 percent of that total.
Lincoln Parish School Board Superintendent Ricky Durrett said that he isn’t 100 percent sure what would be next, but that he feels that for the time being its best to move forward as is.
“I am not sure what the next step is right now,” said Durrett. “We wanted to let everybody have a say. I think right now we will leave it like it is and continue with the way we have the schools presently.”
Members of the Coalition Against School Closures have been adamant that the plan would be detrimental to the black community.
“We are here for one purpose and one purpose only, hoping that the school board will reconsider consolidating our four elementary schools into two enhanced schools on the north side of Interstate 20,” said Co-Chair of the CASC Terence Flucas during the April school board meeting. “We believe that closing two schools on the south side of I-20 will be a detriment to our community. We understand that this Board took a vote back in the month of February to consolidate four elementary schools, but in the best interest of this school system we believe that this is a decision that should have been made with input from the community.”
Dr. Liz White, Co-Chair of the Coalition Against School Closures, said late tonight she was happy with the results.
“We still have a lot of work to do,” said Dr. White. “I think the people — and when I say the people I mean those who took an interest and voted — got involved in what was going on. They used their voice which is the ballot to vote. I am really happy that they did that. I just pray and hope that this will be an indication of what we will do in the future. This is what democracy is all about. If we don’t vote, then we are saying we don’t matter.”
The topic of consolidating the schools was first publicly addressed by the Lincoln Parish School Board in the February meeting. Some critics claimed that not enough time was given and enough clarity provided for the public to fully understand the details of the millages and the long-term affects of consolidating the elementary schools.
If the April 29 vote had passed, it would mean an existing 17.5 millage would be extended thus generating $65 million, the majority of that earmarked to restructure existing elementary schools within the parish.
The plan would have combined Hillcrest Elementary and Glen View Elementary back into K-5 schools and would have repurposed the two Ruston elementary schools on the south side of the city – Ruston Elementary and Cypress Springs. Both buildings would have been utilized for other purposes, including plans to move the LPSB central office to Cypress Springs.
“I think it was the right time to do it,” said Durrett. “I think we put a lot of time and effort in trying to figure out the options. I don’t think we did a good enough job of getting the clear message out there exactly what we were doing and how we got to that point. We will just stay with what we got. There may be a time, but people just don’t want to do anything right now. I still think we have good school system; good kids, good parents and good teachers working. We will continue to do that under the current system we have.”
Another portion of the $65 million was earmarked for construction of a multi-purpose covered facility at Ruston High School as well as upgrades to the Ruston High School baseball field. The multi-purpose covered facility at Ruston High School would have been used by soccer, football, band, cheerleaders, baseball and softball.
“We really needed a bond issue to be able to do (those projects),” said Durrett. “Those will be put off until maybe we can go back to the voters, whether it be in another year or three or four down the road. We just don’t have the money to do it out of the general fund. That will have to be put on hold for now.”
