GENTRY -- School board members in Gentry voted unanimously to move forward with plans to put before the voters a new high school facility for the Gentry School District when they adopted a resolution to apply for partnership funding for the building project and to ask voters for a millage increase next fall.

The plan would be to build a new high school facility, including a competition gym, at a price tag of approximately $20 million, and then move the middle school into the existing high school facility and the intermediate school into the existing middle school facility.

The board made the decision to move forward with plans on Monday because a decision was necessary if the school district wished to apply for approximately $6 million in state partnership funding from the Arkansas Division of Public School Academic Facilities and Transportation. If no decision was made at the December meeting, the district would have to wait for the next two-year cycle to apply and the funding might no longer be available at that time, according to Randy Barrett, superintendent of Gentry schools.

According to a conservative estimate from the school district's fiscal advisor, Stephens, Inc., the district would have to ask the voters to approve a millage increase of 4.5 mills at the next school election, in September of 2014. The increase, according to Dennis Hunt, senior vice president and manager of Stephens, Inc., would amount to a property tax increase of approximately $90 annually for every $100,000 worth of taxable property.

The increase in annual debt service for the district for a 30-year bond would be a maximum of $645,000, Hunt said.

While saying this was a huge decision for the board to make, Barrett pointed out that board members were giving the ultimate decision to the voters to make in the September election. He told board members they could pass a resolution to move forward with plans to build a new high school, choose instead to build a new intermediate school for a significantly lower cost and put off a high school upgrade, or do nothing and wait until the next cycle to apply for state funding. He pointed out that to wait could mean state funding is no longer available since discussion is under way at the state level to discontinue or reduce state partnership funding for public school facilities and transportation.

Several board members said constituents had told them they favored building a new high school, and Barrett said building a new high school would be of benefit to all the students in the district since the high school is the final step in Gentry Public School education.

Barrett also expressed confidence that voters, if they know the needs of the intermediate school and the high school, will approve the millage increase for the benefit of all Gentry students.

Following the vote, Barrett confirmed with the board that it would continue to use Stephens, Inc., as its financial advisor and Hight-Jackson Associates as its architectural firm.