Action News 5 - Memphis, TennesseeArlington to vote on municipal school district

Arlington to vote on municipal school district

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The City of Arlington will become the first Shelby County suburb to put the creation of a municipal school district up for a vote. The City of Arlington will become the first Shelby County suburb to put the creation of a municipal school district up for a vote.
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(WMC-TV) - The City of Arlington will become the first Shelby County suburb to put the creation of a municipal school district up for a vote.

Residents will vote on the referendum May 10.

The referendum will be on the ballot in May and if it passes, return to the polls to elect a school board in November and a superintendent would be in place in 2013, said Arlington Mayor Mike Wissman said the timeline to get a municipal school district in place stretches into the future a little more than a year from now.

"Even though we haven't set the amount, people are saying do it and we'll pay for it," he said.

On May 10 voters will only decide if they want a municipal school district.

If that passes and Shelby County Commissioners leave tax rates unchanged, then Arlington would ask voters to approve a half cent sales tax increase and a property tax increase.

"We're not trying to decide what the property tax would be right now because we are working on issues with the buildings, whether it's with the school board or the TPC," said Wissman. "Hopefully we can come up with some sort of resolution sooner rather than later."

The school buildings are the big unknown right now and Wissman hopes that's resolved quickly.

"We know that the municipalities are at least to do some sort of attempt to have local control over their schools and let's get back to educating the children and quit fighting over the politics of everything," he said.

Residents need to be registered by April 10 in order to vote in the referendum.

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