Community Members Bring Concerns to Levy Committee

By Editor | March 28, 2024

By Mark Requet

The third and final tax levy forum for Proposition Raiders was held at the Shelbyville Open Door Fellowship Hall on Tuesday, March 26, 2024. Approximately 50 individuals attended.

Vice President of the Levy Committee Chris Beach led the meeting. The ballot language was read, and an explanation was given on how the levy committee was formed.

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 2, 2024, election.

Tim Shockley asked, “If a teacher should be paid based on what they are teaching but was told that a state law requires they follow a certain pay scale for all teachers?” Another concern from Shockley was the money being put in the general fund and being used for other items other than staff salaries.

“One hundred percent, that could happen,” stated Beach. “We have seven board members that we elected as a community. We have to trust our board with what we’re doing.”

Charlie Chinn asked, “How much money needed over the salaries will be collected?”

Beach explained, “In years 1-3 there may be a small surplus that will be put into general fund. In years 4-5, you might be breaking even, and in years 6-7 it is reversed. You’re spending more than what’s coming in, so it’s going to have to come out of the surplus that you accumulated in the first several years.”

Chinn reiterated he thinks teachers need to have a decent salary but stated, “There are people in this room that every time you drop a straw on this camel’s back, it gets a little more lean.”

Shelby County Collector John Chinn asked, “How much money the school had in its savings account right now?”

North Shelby Board President Scot Shively responded with roughly $2.8 million but said they couldn’t take money out of the reserves, or they would deplete their reserves because there is nothing replacing that money.”

John Chinn brought up the Governor’s budget, currently being discussed, which calls for a $40,000 base pay for teachers starting out and a $45,000 base pay for teachers with a master’s degree and at least 10 years of experience, across the state of Missouri. He said that if Senate Bill 727 passes, he wondered if the money collected off the tax levy would be spent on anything else.

NS Board Member Joshlin Yoder pointed out that Senate Bill 727 was only going to affect teachers starting out, not everyone on the payroll. It was also pointed out that if the government were to pull the funding on the bill, then the school would be on the hook for paying the minimum salaries.

A long discussion took place about corporate taxes (railroad and utilities) the school has been receiving. John Chinn said the distribution for 2021 was $486,000, for 2022 it was $509,000, and for 2023 it was $676,000.

Yoder pointed out the school was at less than a one percent increase as a school with income from taxes.

“When we’re talking about less than a percent, I think we would all probably agree that we had more expenses go up more than one percent,” said Yoder. “We had all kinds of other costs besides teachers that we had to pay for. If the Governor passes the bill, only eight people would be affected, and we would still be trying to support the rest of the staff.”

Mike Vanskike said he thought a lot of this was about trying to entice teachers to come to North Shelby and wondered why they couldn’t take money out of the reserve to help pay the incoming teachers and work on paying the rest of the staff later.

Yoder responded with a question, “Would it be fair for incoming teachers to get the same pay as teachers that have been there six to seven years?”

The condition of the high school track was brought up, which is being paid for by a bond. Shockley stated he has heard people ask if the staff was so important to the school board, why didn’t they ask for money for the staff before the track?

“I know it’s different money, but why didn’t the staff salary issue go on the ballot earlier,” said Shockley. “And then now we would be talking about the track money. Why not the staff first?”

Shively responded, “The bond was up for renewal and if we didn’t run a bond issue then, and ran the bond issue later, then it was going to be a tax increase. The way we ran it, it was going to be a non-tax increase, which is what those bonds are. You redo it so it remains a non-tax bond.”

Eric Werr spoke next and wanted to know, “When the red lights were blinking on the salaries, why wasn’t there something in the paper that alerted taxpayers about the salaries before they voted on the track?”

“At the time when we passed that money for the track, one of the last lines of one of the school boards meetings in the paper read ‘As more money comes into our operating account, we would take steps to do more on this sports facility, whether it’s new lights or other things,’” said Werr. “We’re going to start having more money in the operating account if this passes, as that money is there, it is stated in that school board minutes that if we get extra money in the operating money, we will do lights, we will increase that facility.”

Vanskike added what is hurting them is bad timing.

“You got the track, which I understand is a bond, but it’s still taxpayer money,” said Vanskike. “Then here comes the jail and everybody is still butthurt over that. Now all of a sudden, the school wants more money. As far as the public, that’s what is in everyone’s mind, is that they’re getting taxed again.”

Werr added he felt Beach was doing a good job of leading the meetings but couldn’t understand why this meeting was not part of a school board meeting where the superintendent is answering questions backed by the school board.

Kim Gaines said she spent the day in Jefferson City dealing with Senate Bill 727. She stated the basis of that bill is not about public education.

“The basis of the bill is expanding the voucher tax credits for private schools and bringing charter schools to Boone County. That’s the basis of the bill,” said Gaines. “It passed out of the Senate and to make it a little more palatable on the House side, they started throwing in what I call ‘bill candy’, throwing in all of this cash for public schools.

“Every one of those says, ‘due to an appropriation.’ It doesn’t say they have to appropriate it. So, you can’t count on it, so please remember that. The money is not going to automatically appear. The minimum is $540 million dollars for all that little ‘bill candy’ that they’ve added, ballooning to about $800 million by the year 2030. All the representatives that I talked to today are questioning whether it’s sustainable, so you can’t count on it.”

After several minutes of patrons starting to talk over each other, Shively stepped up and stated, “North Shelby is in the top 50 in all the schools in the State of Missouri. We have one of the best schools around.

“If that open enrollment thing passes, we’re probably going to end up with more kids. And we’re going to need more teachers. We’re going to need more money to pay those teachers.”

“We have done things at North Shelby. We decreased your taxes one year. We set a tax rate hearing every year in August,” Shively continued, “We are mandated on what we can charge on that tax rate hearing. We can’t have a surplus of money sitting in a bank account. We can’t charge you guys extra for it.”

Shively said the school board has spent countless hours discussing and trying to figure out how to increase the salaries for NS teachers.

Sue Behrens stated she was all for teachers getting their salaries but said the language on the ballot is where she had a problem.

“You promise, the board members promise that you will not spend excess on other things,” Behrens said. “Board members, you’re here for now, but those who replace you, we can’t depend on them to keep that promise.”

Behrens said she could not vote yes on this ballot in clear conscience because she doesn’t believe that money will be strictly used for teacher’s salaries and sees no reason why the ballot language couldn’t have been worded to say that the money will be spent specifically on staff salaries.

The meeting closed minutes later, but Chinn reminded everyone that whether they are for or against the issue, go to the polls and vote.

“That’s where everybody has a voice. Don’t sit at the coffee shop saying, ‘Well it’s going to pass’ and then it fails and your hurt,” stated Chinn. “Go to the polls and make your voice heard. That’s what America is all about.”

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