The Arkansas Department of Higher Education coordinating board on Friday rejected Southeast Arkansas College’s resolution to construct a student center and residential hall.
A member of the higher education board made a motion to approve the plan during a meeting Friday, but it died for lack of a second. The lack of approval puts on hold a project that school officials have said would have helped the two-year college address barriers that some students face including lack of transportation to classes and food insecurity. The board meeting was held virtually.
School President Steven Bloomberg said higher ed board members may have been confused about the language in the updated resolution, adding he will reach out to the department again to provide supplemental documents in hopes of clarifying the matter and gain approval to start building.
“I’m not certain that they understand it was an appendage to the original document,” Bloomberg said. “We’ll have discussions with ADHE. It’s disappointing, but somewhere we have to provide additional information.”
The college’s board on April 5 approved a modification to the original resolution passed in December that stated its intent to fund the 30,000-square foot student center and 65,o00-square foot, 158-unit (316-bed) residential hall in two phases rather than one. The change called for the building project to be split in two parts in response to increasing interest rates.
Independent reporting for Pine Bluff & Jefferson County since 1879.
The ADHE agenda item, however, did not refer to the split but stated it supplemented a lease purchase agreement the coordinating board approved in an October meeting. That agreement was for $33 million for up to 30 years with an estimated interest rate of up to 6% and an approximate annual base payment of $2,271,700.
SEARK indicated its estimated 2023-24 net operating revenue at $2,759,517, meeting the 120% threshold for total annual auxiliary debt service under coordinating board policy.
Bloomberg at the time estimated the total cost of both buildings between $37 million and $39 million. SEARK has $8 million in funding and $3 in American Rescue Plan funding from Jefferson County with potential for $6 million more, he said.
With the $8 million, construction would have begun on the student center, Bloomberg said, allowing SEARK more time to sell bonds for the student center.
Contractors and college leaders planned to break ground on the project by this month and complete it by June 2023, but the decision by the ADHE will push back that timeline, assuming its board finally gives SEARK building approval.
The earliest SEARK could present its case to the ADHE again would be July.
“It’s like a lot of things in life. Things may not be explained well enough,” Bloomberg said.