Arnold expanded its boundaries just hours before a new state law went into effect restricting how Jefferson County cities may grow.
Arnold City Council members voted 7-0 on Aug. 27 to annex the Fox C-6 School District’s Lone Dell and Simpson elementary schools. Ward 1 Councilman EJ Fleischmann was not at the meeting.
On July 13, Gov. Mike Kehoe signed the bill, which says Jefferson County cities, towns and villages would only be allowed to annex land if 25 percent of the property is contiguous with its border, and cities, towns and villages would only be allowed to annex property once every two years.
Crystal City on Aug. 26 filed a lawsuit seeking to toss out the annexation restrictions.
Fox C-6 Board of Education members voted unanimously on Aug. 25 to request the voluntary annexation of the two schools.
“We wanted to act promptly so we could get both schools annexed,” said Todd Scott, Fox C-6 Board of Education president.
Schools
Fox C-6 board member Travis Lintner said moving the two elementary schools inside Arnold makes sense due to the proximity of the campuses to the city. He also said the move is expected to increase law enforcement response time to Lone Dell and Simpson and allow a school resource officer to be at those schools more often.
Lone Dell, 2500 Tomahawk Drive, previously was surrounded by Arnold on three sides, and Simpson, 3585 Vogel Road, is just south of the city even though it does not share a contiguous border with Arnold.
“It is of a logistics and jurisdictional thing,” Lintner said on Aug. 25. “Simpson and Lone Dell are policed by the Jefferson County Sheriff’s (Office) at this point. This will turn control of that over to the Arnold Police Department. Given the proximity to the police station, it is kind of a no-brainer.”
Fox C-6 has an agreement with Arnold Police to have three officers serve as SROs during the school year. The district pays $50,000 for each officer for a total of $150,000.
The district previously had five schools – Fox High, Fox Middle and Fox, Rockport Heights and Sherwood elementary schools – inside Arnold city limits.
Fox C-6 pays the Sheriff’s Office a minimum of $90,158 for Deputy Marc Gibson to be the primary SRO for its county schools. The district also pays the Sheriff’s Office an overtime rate of $73 per hour for up to two deputies to be SROs at other county schools during the school year.
With Lone Dell and Simpson moving into Arnold, the Sheriff’s Office will be responsible for providing police protection and SRO services to 10 Fox C-6 schools - Seckman High; Antonia, Ridgewood and Seckman middle schools; and Antonia, Clyde Hamrick, Guffey, Hodge, Meramec Heights and Seckman elementary schools.
“The incorporation of the schools will have minimal impact on the Sheriff’s Office or the SRO program,” Sheriff Dave Marshak said. “We work well with Arnold and will support them as we work in concert to keep all our schools safe.”
Scott said law enforcement will be the most noticeable change for the schools. He said Fox C-6 will not adjust the school boundaries, bus services or number of students attending the schools.
“There will be no changes for anything like that,” he said. “All the previous boundaries stay the same.”