Roger Estlack

An armed safety officer will soon be working at Clarendon CISD as the school complies with a new state requirement.

State Trooper Kelly Hill will be retiring from his current position and taking on the new role through cooperation with the Donley County Sheriff’s office.

Superintendent Jarod Bellar said the new position is an unfunded mandate from the Legislature.
“House Bill 3 requires that we have a licenses peace officer on each campus effective September 1,” Bellar said.

Clarendon CISD technically has three campuses – high school, junior high, and elementary – but Hill will be the safety officer over the entire school under a Good Faith Exception resolution approved by the school board.

The state is providing $15,000 per campus for the first year, plus $10 per student, which amounts to a total of about $49,000 in state funds for the first year. There’s no guarantee that money will be available in the future, and the total is not enough to cover the expense of employing and equipping Hill’s position, Bellar said.

“We’ll have to use some of our own money,” he said.

In addition, the school will work with Hill to identify potential school employees who would be willing and able to be trained to carry a weapon for those times when Hill is absent or not available.

“Kelly will bring a lot of experience and knowledge to the job,” Bellar said. “He will be a real asset to the district. It gives me a feeling that a weight has been lifted knowing we have someone who will run towards a threat.”

Hill will technically be a deputy of the Donley County Sheriff’s Office, which will carry his commission as a peace officer, but all the expense of his position will be the responsibility of the school district.

Before going to work for the DPS, Hill served as a deputy under Sheriff Butch Blackburn.
“I would only do this with certain candidates – someone I was familiar with,” Blackburn said. “Kelly will have our kids best interests and safety at heart,”

Blackburn said Hedley school officials are planning to arm additional teachers to comply with the new state requirements.

Enrollment is up at Clarendon College this fall as the school celebrates its 125th anniversary.
Total headcount following the 12th class day last week was reported at 1,373, an increase of 6.8 percent over last year’s fall enrollment of 1,285.

CC President Tex Buckhaults said growth was primarily in dual credit classes and enrollment in prison classes. Headcount was up slightly on the Clarendon campus from 288 last year to 291 this year, while enrollments at the Pampa, Childress, and Amarillo centers remained flat with enrollments of 100, 34, and 66 respectively.

Dual credit students through area high schools totaled 659 up from 616 a year ago.
The number of students taking courses through area correctional facilities grew to 124 compared to 81 last fall.

Distance education students – those taking classes strictly online – dropped one from 100 to 99.

Students attending CC this year will benefit from three new positions designed to improve student success rates. Buckhaults said the college has hired Dr. Mitch Parker as the new dean of students along with Tamara Bains and Charlata King as student support specialists. CC will be trying to improve early alerts that might indicate students in need of help whether the problem is attendance or trouble logging into classes, Buckhalts said.

State funding is going to be measured on student success going forward. CC received an additional $2.6 million in state funds this year, pushing its overall budget to $12.59 million. In addition to the new positions, Buckhaults said the college was able to boost all employee salaries by $1,800 per year and other compensation for stipends and adjunct pay were also increased.

Buckhaults said the student supports specialists’ work over the summer shows promise for the future as it resulted in higher passing grades for students.

The Mulkey Theatre will host its second mystery dinner on Sunday, September 24, as “Love on the Titanic” embarks on a memorable voyage.

The maiden voyage of the Titanic is underway. The captain and his crew have an evening planned full of entertainment. There is even a wedding being planned on this maiden voyage. However, shortly after you set sail, the captain is beginning to look nervous, and the crew is frantically taking drastic measures. Is there a problem or just a sinking feeling?

Participants are encouraged to come dressed in costume. This is set in the early 1900s when guests were boarding the Titanic. You can dress as first-class customers or guests on the lower decks. You can also come as guests ready to attend the wedding. It promises to be one to remember.

Seating is limited to 60 people, and advance tickets are required and can be purchased at MulkeyTheatre.com and in person at the Clarendon Visitor Center at Mulkey Theatre.

Tickets are $45 per person and include a catered dinner. BYOB is permitted.

This is Mystery Dinner will be produced by Amarillo Escape & Mystery, which previously came to the Mulkey in January 2022.

Sales tax funds could be used to support emergency services in Donley County under a system of County Assistance Districts currently being discussed by local officials.

Donley County Judge John Howard presented information on the subject at the Clarendon Lions Club meeting Tuesday at noon and said the idea would present an equitable way of helping fund law enforcement as possibly other emergency services.

Currently the Donley County Sheriff’s Office is funded primarily by the county, which derives about half of its operating income from property taxes, Howard said. Fifteen percent of the sheriff’s budget in the coming fiscal year will be paid through a contract agreement with the City of Clarendon in the amount of $140,000.

Clarendon’s support of the sheriff’s office by contract dates back to 1981 when the city dissolved its municipal police department resulting in local law enforcement resources and responsibilities being concentrated at the county level.

Howard said the city’s contract cost increased over the years and was scheduled to be about $168,000 this year, but the city determined it could not continue with the three percent annual increases that had been adopted a few years ago.

The city’s trouble, City Administrator David Dockery said, is related to recent changes the state legislature made to how local governments levy property taxes.

“The state has totally changed how we can assess property tax,” Dockery told the Lions Club. “All local governments have been extremely limited in this regard.”

Local governments used to be able to raise property tax rates by up to eight percent before triggering a possible rollback election by voters. The Legislature has pushed that limit down to about 3.5 percent, and the formulas for calculating property tax rates have become more complex. If the county property tax rate went up one penny, it generates about $35,000 for the county, Howard said, which is not enough to fund a single sheriff’s deputy salary, much less the entire cost of the position.

County Assistance Districts would have the ability to levy sales taxes for the emergency services, provide a more equitable income source, and offer predictability for future planning. County Assistance Districts funds could be spent on law enforcement, fire departments, jails, economic development, and libraries, Howard said.

Howard said the idea would be to create four County Assistance Districts – one for the county that excludes the incorporated areas of Clarendon, Hedley, and Howardwick, and one in each of those cities. All four districts would have to be approved by local voters, and all four would be governed by a board comprised of the county commissioners.

Local sales tax rates cannot exceed 2.0 percent. There is currently no local sales tax in the unincorporated areas of the county, Hedley’s sales tax is 1.0 percent, and Howardwick’s sales tax is 1.25 percent. Those communities could determine what additional sales tax to set if any, but Clarendon, which already maxed out at 2.0 percent would have to give up part of its sales tax to a County Assistance District.

Currently, Clarendon officials are talking about giving up 0.625 percentage points to the proposed assistance district, the amount that would generate about $140,000 currently provided by Clarendon to the sheriff’s department.

Howard said he has not yet discussed the assistance district plan with Hedley or Howardwick officials but plans to do so soon.