Fox C-6 School District voters will determine Tuesday, Aug. 8, if the district receives a tax levy increase of 92.07 cents per $100 assessed valuation.
If the proposition, called Proposition I and stands for invest in our students, our school and our community, passes, the school district’s tax levy would increase from $4.2617 per $100 assessed valuation to $5.1824 per $100 assessed valuation, according to Jefferson County Assessor Office records.
If the tax increase is passed, all the revenue would go to the district’s operating levy, which currently is $3.8716 per $100 assessed valuation and would rise to $4.7923 per $100 assessed valuation, said former Fox CFO John Stewart, who retired on July 1.
Amy Vandevender is the district’s new CFO.
The district’s overall tax levy also includes 39.01 cents per $100 assessed valuation in the debt service levy, which would remain the same because the increase would be for the operating levy only, Stewart said.
If the tax increase is approved, a district resident with a home valued at $200,000 by the Assessor’s Office would pay an additional $349.87 per year.
District residents with a home the Assessor’s Office values at $200,000 currently pay a total of $1,619.45 in real estate taxes a year.
Superintendent Paul Fregeau said if the increase passes, Fox may collect up to $12 million more in revenue each year.
“I am just glad we have the opportunity to ask our public after 19 years about changing our funding for the district,” he said. “I am glad we have made progress that we can put something on the ballot and hear from our voters about how they feel about our district.”
Fox has not had a tax levy increase since 2004 when voters approved an additional $1.2207 per $100 assessed valuation.
Some district residents are opposed to the tax increase, such as the Jeffco Patriots, a volunteer organization that has 1,148 members in its Facebook group.
Jeffco Patriots director Alan Leaderbrand said he opposes the tax increase because Board of Education members approved a three-year teachers contract that raised salaries by 6.53 percent for the 2022-2023 school year, 2.35 percent this school year and 2.17 percent for the 2024-2025 school year.
“This started a little over a year ago when the board approved a huge raise for the teachers, knowing that the district could not afford it,” Leaderbrand said. “The CFO said blatantly we can’t afford this, and they did it anyway. Then they gave 3 percent raises to all of the administrators. They have given raises to basically everyone.”
Leaderbrand also said the district already has been receiving more revenue because property values have risen, and he does not think the tax increase is necessary because enrollment has been declining.
“They complain that they haven’t had a tax increase, yet the revenue from the local levy tax has increased 19 percent over the past six years. Enrollment is down 8 percent, but they haven’t addressed the issue of whether they should close a school. When your enrollment is going down substantially, why are we still having the same number of teachers, the same number of schools? That is an issue that hasn’t been addressed.”
Fregeau said based on the district’s research, Fox is not overspending when compared to other area school districts.
According to school officials, the district spends $10,232.87 per student per year, which is the 31st lowest per pupil spending out of 33 school districts in Jefferson and St. Louis counties, according to the district.
“That speaks to we are not inefficient, and we are not overspending,” Fregeau said. “People are going to feel the way they feel, and all we can do is present the facts as they exist.”
However, Fox had incorrectly reported its total tax levy on its website and in an informational flyer it recently mailed to district residents. The district listed its tax levy at $4.2526 per $100 assessed value, which is slightly lower than the actual rate.
“We started looking into this in early fall 2022,” Fregeau said. “The only comparison data that we had that was up to date and relevant was the tax rates off the DESE website that were available in November 2022.
“We wanted to have a consistent message, and we were comparing levies based on the most available data. We didn’t want to change that information moving forward. (The current tax levy) is marginally higher, but we are trying to compare apples to apples throughout the region. It wasn’t intendent to be deceptive. That was the most available comparable data as you look at 33 districts at the time we started talking about the levy.”
Fregeau also said the Fox district has seen an 8 percent decrease in its weighted average daily attendance, a measure the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) uses to calculate how much state funding a district receives each year.
He said the Fox district’s enrollment decreased by 4.25 percent between 2018 and 2022, dropping from 11,280 to about 10,200 students.
“We have to staff for enrollment,” he said. “We have to work very hard for kids to attend school.”
Before placing the tax levy increase on the ballot, the district eliminated 27 teaching positions and two administrative positions through attrition to save about $2.4 million in salary and benefit costs for this school year. It also reduced the budget for all its school buildings by a total of $250,000 and delayed spending $500,000 on new Chromebooks for this school year.
In addition, the district also is expected to increase its operating budget by $1.5 million when it asks the board to shift 15 cents from its capital improvement levy to its operating funds.
Fregeau said the teaching staff reduction has increased class sizes, and he expects class sizes to increase more if voters do not approve the tax levy increase.
He also has said if the tax increase is not passed and the district loses $5 million in state funding, which has been projected for the 2024-2025 school year, school officials likely will have to reduce staff again. It also would need to cut academic and athletic programs.
During the July 18 Board of Education meeting, three district parents spoke in favor of the tax increase.
“I am excited for Proposition I that is on the ballot in August,” said Zach Ederer of Arnold, who has children in the district and owns a small business outside the district’s boundaries. “I sincerely hope that it passes. The reason being is I believe it will attract more small businesses and put us on par with the surrounding school districts.”
The 92.07-cent tax increase is the only issue on the Aug. 8 ballot for Fox district residents, so the district has paid the county about $80,500 for the special election, according to Board of Education documents.
However, district officials said that is an estimated cost, and Fox may be charged more or receive a refund after the election.