Tax Levy Forum Held in Leonard

By Editor | March 13, 2024

By Mark Requet

The first of three tax levy hearings, hosted by the North Shelby Levy Committee, was held at the Leonard Community Center on Tuesday, March 5, 2024. Approximately 25 people were in attendance for the meeting.

Chris Beach, Vice President of the Levy Committee, opened the meeting and explained how the school board had asked members of the community to be participants of a committee that would go out and inform the residents of the district the importance of voting in favor of increasing the tax levy at the polls on April 2, 2024.

“As a levy committee, we sat down with the board, we looked at what the current budget is with things, kind of what historically it had been in the past, in hopes of trying to raise teacher pay up to a $40,000 base,” said Beach during the meeting. “Currently it’s sitting at $35,500. In order to raise the current base for a starting teacher, it was estimated using a program that former Superintendent Larry Smoot implemented. We plugged everything in, figuring the state money coming in, tax revenues from the county, and to increase the base salary pay, it was going to take $1.20 without doing any severe budget cuts to our current budget of operating expenses.”

The ballot issue failed the first time on August 8, 2023, when the school board was originally asking for $1.45, which would have put the base pay for North Shelby teachers at $42,000.

The levy committee and the school board worked together and lowered the numbers in hopes of trying to get it to pass in the April election.

“It comes down to that we all know that things have increased in cost the last few years, and that’s putting it very lightly,” stated Beach. “In order to retain quality staff, support staff, teachers, aides, you name it across the board, we’re going to have to start paying them more. To do that, a tax levy increase is going to be the easiest way to do it.”

Beach added that they could look into doing some severe cuts to the budget, looking at programs they could cut, but he said it was pretty hard to just start going in there and cutting things out of the budget.

“The other option, and it’s not even a great option, is going to a four-day school week,” stated Beach. “The four-day school week isn’t going to really do anything to save money per se for the district, but it is something that is an attractant for the teachers because they only have to work four days a week.”

A current North Shelby teacher in attendance expressed she would also not want to see the school move to four days a week.

Beach said North Shelby has had a history of excellence based on the people that are working there.

“As a business owner myself, I can tell you that employees can be the absolute biggest cost to a business in more ways than one,” said Beach. “If you’re not having good employees and not paying them good money, your production is going to be going down and the quality of product that you’re putting out is not as good. So, when you have good people and you want to attract good people, you pay them good wages. It’s pretty simple.”

A question from an attendee at the meeting asked, “Will the money strictly go to salaries?”

Beach stated that the money will go to not only salaries, but also retirement and insurance.

“Will it be going to teachers, support staff, and administration? Yes ma’am, that is what it’s for. It’s not going for building upgrades. It is not going for a football field. It is not going for any other facility upgrades. This is for teachers and support staff,” stated Beach. “Right now, there are currently 40 teachers, 25 support staff, and three administrators on payroll at North Shelby. Your support staff are going to be your bus drivers, cooks, paras or aides, and custodians.”

“I know there have been some people that have asked the question, just simple math if you want to go through and see what it might add. $507,903 is what it’s projected to add to the tax base of the school as far as money into the budget per year,” said Beach. “Simple math, divided by 68, that’s $7,000 per teacher or support staff. Looking at the salary charts, which are available because it’s public knowledge, three teachers start out at the base salary right now with $35,500. Each year of service, they go up in pay based on a percent. It’s not necessarily going to be $7,000 per person, because like I said earlier, part of it goes to retirement and insurance.”

Beach is hoping between increases in evaluation, as far as other tax revenues coming, and adjusting budgets, they won’t have to come back and ask for more money again years down the road.

“We’re trying to get the right number now, so we don’t have to come back in five years or later to ask again,” said Beach “It’s been almost 30 years since we’ve done an increase in a tax levy, I don’t want to have to come back in five years and do another one. Let’s try to get it right this time, do it one time, and be done with it.”

Beach said North Shelby is adequately staffed. They’re not hurting for staff and definitely not overstaffed.

“If you start looking around at local districts in northeast Missouri, there are a lot of schools that have a lot of open positions right now and they’re not getting them filled,” said Beach. “The school district in the south had people that were teaching that weren’t even certified in the that position just to try to fill the spot for that year to get them through because they couldn’t get anybody hired.”

Right now, at North Shelby, according to Beach, they are not at that point and are hoping they never reach that point.

“I want to try and fix it before were at that point. We’ve got great kids, we got great tests scores, it’s overall a great school and there are teachers that are coming to teach and bring their students there because they want them to be at North Shelby,” Beach said. “But there have also been some teachers that have left because the pay scale is where it is at. They can go to a neighboring county and get more pay or go to a four-day school week.”

Superintendent Tinna Croy said that Covid money was brought up by an individual earlier this year.

“Covid money was not for staffing. It was for building and facility upgrades, along with safety equipment to make things safer,” said Croy during the meeting. “The last two items the board decided to do with the money was a new camera system and new door locking system. This money was a one-time thing. When it’s gone, it’s gone.”

Croy said the school used some of the money for new cafeteria tables, plumbing, electric work, HVAC, and several other items.

A resident at the meeting asked how the increase in pay would compare to other school districts in the area if the levy passed.

According to numbers provided at the meeting, other area schools currently have base salaries as follows:

Knox County – $42,000

Paris – $41,000

Mark Twain – $40,000

Palmyra – $39,000

Scotland County – $38,500

Marion County – $38,000

Monroe City – $37,750

South Shelby – $37,500

Clark County – $36,000

North Shelby – $35,500

Schuyler County – $35,000

La Plata – $33,500

Brashear – $33,200

Atlanta – $30,000

“With the increase it would bump North Shelby up to even with Mark Twain, and put us over South Shelby,” said Beach.

Beach closed the meeting by encouraging residents to check for themselves to see how much extra it would cost them on their taxes.

The next tax levy forum was held at the Bethel Christian Church on Tuesday, March 12. The third and final tax levy forum will be held in Shelbyville at the Open Door Fellowship Hall on Tuesday, March 26, beginning at 6:30 p.m.

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