It’s voting season…at least for the Bryant community.

On March 10, the community will vote whether or not its millage should be raised 4.7 mills to 42.1. If the millage passes, the community will have the highest millage rate in the county. If it doesn’t pass, the community will try to continue to finance the soon to be largest high school in the state on the lowest millage rate in the county.

Superintendent Dr. Tom Kimbrell met with a group of Student Senate members Feb. 5 to assist him in educating the student body of the opportunities students and the community will have if the millage passes.

“I want to be on the positive side,” Kimbrell said. “I want to talk about opportunities. I want to talk about what we can have, but yet again that’s been my philosophy and Abby [Washkowiak] made me rethink my philosophy because people want to know what they stand to lose.”

Kimbrell said he has been to many public events, held numerous press conferences and talked to a great number of students to ensure everyone is up to date on what changes they will see if the millage passes or not. Kimbrell is not a proponent of just getting the millage passed, but he is an advocate for moving the district forward.

“I’m one of those guys who always think the glass is half full,” Kimbrell said. “We’re (the school) going to make things happen, we’re going to be okay because most people want things to work out. I cannot take my time or anybody’s time to say anything except factual information. I can’t ask you (Student Senate) to ask anyone to vote yes. I can’t ask you to ask anyone to vote. What I’m here to do today is to show you what the opportunities are for students in this school district in the future.”

Kimbrell believes many facilities throughout the district needs to be either built or upgraded. Bryant is one of the fastest growing districts in the state with a little over 9,000 students and growing by 300 students each school year. At this rate, the district will be forced to build new facilities to accommodate the number of students moving into the district.

“Bryant Elementary is the only school that we have that has any space at all,” Kimbrell said. “We are adding on to our smaller elementary schools so they are the same size as others. We are a unique school district because the district has actually grown 100 students since October. We’re one of the few school districts also who continues to grow throughout the year.”

The district has been on a “building frenzy” over the last several years because of the steady increase of students. Even though the district has been able to accommodate for the steady growth in the past, Kimbrell believes the district is beginning to see a strain with keeping up with the growing population.

“I, unfortunately, feel that what’s going on in Little Rock will actually increase the number of students with the state taking the Little Rock School District over,” Kimbrell said. “The school district has had to build a new elementary every five to six years for the last several years, but this was only when the district was averaging an increase of 200 students per year.”

Because people are not exactly sure what they would see if the millage passes, the district has

provided a website for parents, students and faculty to see what changes they would expect over the next 10 years.

“This website has factual information and answers a lot of questions,” Kimbrell said. “The most exciting thing, I think, it has is that it has some drawings of what the new facilities would look like if the millage passes. I want people to know what they would see.”