The Rockwood School District will ask voters on Nov. 7 to allow it to shift 54 cents from its debt service levy to its operating tax levy over two years.
The Board of Education voted 6-0 Aug. 17 to place the measure on the ballot. Board member Izzy Imig was absent.
The measure will be called Proposition 3, which stands for three categories the additional operating revenue primarily will be used for – safety, technology and facilities – board member Jaime Bayes said.
“We’ll always be looking at and examining our horizon when it comes to safety,” Superintendent Curtis Cain told the board. “But there are pieces that we can improve upon. We will need funding in order to do so.”
The Prop 3 ballot language will read: “Shall the Board of Education of the Rockwood R-VI School District, St. Louis County, Missouri, for the purpose of funding improvements to the safety and security of students and staff, updating technology devices and infrastructure, maintenance of buildings and equipment and other capital improvements, and general operating expenses of the District, be authorized to increase the operating tax levy ceiling by $0.36 to an estimated $3.8160 per $100 of assessed valuation in tax year 2024, and by an estimated additional $0.18 to $3.9960 per $100 of assessed valuation in tax year 2025? If this question is approved, the District plans voluntary reductions to the District’s debt service tax levy of $0.36 per $100 of assessed valuation in tax year 2024 and an additional reduction of $0.18 per $100 of assessed valuation in tax year 2025 resulting in the total tax levy of the District to remain unchanged,” according to board documents.
According to the district’s website, if Prop 3 is approved, Rockwood’s operating revenue would increase by somewhere between $26 million and $27 million annually after the tax shift is completed.
The measure needs a simple majority to pass, chief communications officer Mary LaPak said.
If voters approve the shift, Rockwood’s current tax levy of $4.1483 per $100 of assessed valuation will not increase.
However, because debt service levies expire as bond debt is paid down, if the measure passes and the debt service levy is shifted to the operating levy, the 54 cents would become a permanent tax.
LaPak said the district had an outstanding debt of $119,490,000 as of Aug. 17. The last debt payment is currently scheduled for Feb. 1, 2038, she said.
“If the district does not issue any additional bonds between now and 2038, the debt service levy would gradually decrease beginning in 2027 (through 2038) as the current debt is paid off,” LaPak said.
At that time, the owner of a home valued at $150,000 by the Assessor’s Office would pay $153.90 less in real estate taxes per year, again if no additional bonds were issued.
Bayes said it’s important that the board communicates with voters that Prop 3 will improve education.
“Just today, I received a message from a teacher whose classroom is 80 degrees,” Bayes said. “When they have an additional 20 first graders in that room and it’s much hotter outside, those degrees are going to go up. That is absolutely going to impact the education that is going on in that room.”
Chief financial officer Cynthia Byous said the district requires $30 million a year to keep facilities and technology updated.
“The debt service levy has supported approximately $30 million annually in school safety and security, technology and facility maintenance costs by providing the necessary funds to service debt issued for those purposes,” LaPak said. “These resources will still be required for operation of the district even if Proposition 3 does not pass. In that event, additional debt will be one of the funding options Rockwood will have to consider.”
Rockwood is spending the remaining funds from a $95.5 million bond issue voters approved in 2017, according to the 2023-2024 budget.
Dan Steinbruegge, Rockwood’s finance director, said because the proceeds from the bond issue will be spent this fiscal year, which began July 1 and ends June 30, 2024, some improvement projects will be delayed until a new funding source is secured.
Byous said students will feel the lack of funds soon.
“Probably the piece that is going to hit the hardest and be noticed the most is our technology student and staff device refresh,” Byous said. “All of our incoming fifth graders would typically have received a new Chromebook this year, as would incoming ninth graders, and they (did not receive those when school started last week.)”
On Aug. 17, board members discussed alternate funding avenues, including a bond issue. Board Member Robert Cadigan said the timing wasn’t right for another bond issue.
“The environment we have today is not the environment we had two or three years ago,” he said. “Two years ago, I bought a house with a 2.7 percent interest rate. Today if I tried to buy that same house, it would be 7 percent.”
He said a bond issue in the current market would obligate the district to pay similarly high interest rates.
Cain said a bond issue would not be fiscally responsible because Rockwood is not planning to schedule any major construction or renovation projects at this time.
“I’ve already heard a rumor that I want to go ahead and squelch,” he said. “What you will not see when it comes to this proposition (the Prop 3 tax shift) is the construction of a new building. That is absolutely not a part of the consideration nor the strategy that we’re employing when it comes to this proposition.”
Rockwood has created a website, rsdmo.org/Prop3, to provide information on the proposed tax shift.
“Paying for significant new additions to district facilities, whether it be a large building addition or a new building, generally requires a bond issue for adequate funding,” LaPak said. “There are no current plans for significant new additions to our facilities. However, there are still areas of the district in which growth could result in the need for additional facilities.”