Kennett has low school tax levy

Mack Skelton In the Kennett School Board's Tuesday, August 12 work study meeting, board member, Natalie Tate, asked Superintendent Jim Callewaert how much other districts the size of Kennett are taxing their local citizens and Callewaert responded that numbers varied, but Kennett was "probably the lowest in the area," in the Tuesday, August 19 regular session, Callewaert gave the numbers from 2002.

Though Callewaert did not have this year's numbers, his statement couldn't have been more true. Through research provided by the Daily Dunklin Democrat, the Kennett school district not only taxes its district citizens less than almost every other district in the area, but is significantly lower than the state average operating tax levy of $3.35 per $100 assessed valuation.

As of August 19, 2003, the Kennett school district taxes its district citizens an operating levy of $2.75 per $100 assessed valuation. Information provided by superintendents from the following school districts shows that in the fiscal year 2003, the Senath-Hornersville, Hayti, Holcomb, Delta C-7, and Caruthersville school districts taxed their district citizens an operating levy, which includes an incidental fund tax and a teachers fund tax, of $3.43, $3.28, $2.9165, $2.85, and $3.00 respectively. On average, then, area schools tax their patrons an average of $3.0953 per $100 assessed valuation, which is, by average, nearly 35 cents more than Kennett. Of course, you must still take into consideration that not all of the district's residents will pay their taxes. However, Kennett is not the only one being hurt financially.

Where many schools, including Kennett, pick up a little more money is in their debt service taxes. The debt service taxes, which are paid to a separate school account and used for a predetermined, specific purpose such as major construction, are paid for by the local citizens of the school district and are not ran through the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education's basic formula. However, the school cannot touch that money for any purpose other than the one that was predetermined. Therefore, when projects require less money, the debt service tax is less. This is the reason Kennett recently lowered its debt service tax. But with this tax, Kennett moves to $3.0735, which is higher than the overall numbers of Holcomb, Delta C-7, and even Caruthersville until you factor in their debt service tax and only Delta C-7 remains lower, with no debt service tax, as Holcomb moves to $3.4065 and Caruthersville moves to $3.32.

One of the hardest hit schools, when you take into consideration how many students and faculty they have, is Delta C-7. Superintendent James Williams expects that his district will see a negative amount of money in the 2003-2004 school year even before Governor Holden's expected cut.

"With the numbers that I've got right now, we're going to receive approximately $50,000 less than last year," said Williams, "So with the governor's cuts, we'll be looking at starting out with a negative $149,000 budget."

This is not quite different from the negative $607,000 budget that superintendent Callewaert expects after the cut, when you take into consideration the larger Kennett school district.

"We're looking at receiving right around $40,000 more than last year, if we can get 100 percent tax collection," said Callewaert, "But normally, we have anywhere from 96 to 97 percent collection, so we more than likely will not receive even that much. But regardless, after the governor's cut, we're looking at being about $607,000 in the hole."

So how will the smaller schools deal with the cut, especially with rumors of a $922 million cut to education in the state coming in 2005? Williams explains how his district may have to deal with the cuts.

"More than likely the effect will be material," said Williams, "We will have to use older books and deal with things like a leaky roof, instead improving those things. We will probably end up dipping into the reserve just to survive, while at the same time cutting maintenance. But I will guarantee you that we will do everything we can to keep these doors open, because this community doesn't want this school to shut down."

But many schools, who are already in financial distress may be forced to shut down. In an interview with the director of school governance at the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, Tom Quinn, this issue was addressed.

"It is true many of our smaller school districts are seeing the impact of the cuts in school funding plus the withholdings for this school year and will be in serious financial trouble if there are more withholdings or cuts next year. I should add we already have some school districts in serious financial trouble and to be fair, we also have a number of larger school districts that are experiencing some significant financial problems," said Quinn, "The school districts in Missouri that are having the most difficult financial times now are ones that fall in one or all of these categories: highly dependent on the state for the funding of their school district, they have little or no fund balances and/or have declining student enrollment. For school districts that are presently impacted by all three of these categories, and most of them are small school districts, any significant withholdings or cuts in state funding for next year will certainly add to the high probability they will not be able to make it and they will have to close their school district."

When the numbers are thrown in dealing with equity, Dunklin and Pemiscot Counties fall even further behind. With districts near St. Louis, such as the Clayton school district, being able to spend $13,884.50 per eligible pupil and school districts such as Holcomb only being able to spend a mere $4,821 for the same student.

"The numbers are there, we're just not getting our share," said Yancy Poorman, superintendent of Senath-Hornersville school district, "We've got to find away to make things equal."

Though it may sound like Kennett and Delta C-7 are the only ones in great distress, don't be fooled. All of the above mentioned schools are facing cuts equaling $100,000 or better, and for the smaller schools it is devastating. It just so happens to be that Kennett is the hardest hit, by numbers, in the area and the community is not likely to help by allowing the district to raise the tax ceiling.

Many administrators around the area have expressed the opinion that consolidation may be the idea driving the cuts, which would force the smaller schools to close and merge with a larger school district. One example would be to send every school in South Dunklin County to Kennett and North Dunklin County to Malden. But whatever the reason, if something is not done about the budget in the near future, many cities around the area may be without a school.