• Increase safety and security
• Prioritize all employees by increasing compensation and benefits

We’ve already provided more details about how Prop S will help KSD hire three additional safety and security staff members and address staff salaries and benefits if it is approved on Aug. 8. This week, we’re focusing on how this measure will impact our budget and property taxes for our residents.

Focus: Budget & Finance

In Missouri, residential property is assessed at 19% of the county’s appraised valuation. If Proposition S is approved, the 45-cent increase will be applied to every $100 of the assessed valuation. Commercial properties are assessed at a higher rate.

Residential Property Tax Increase Formula:
(County’s Appraised Valuation x 19%) / 100 x 0.45 = tax increase due to Prop S

Estimated Impact on Homeowners

Kearney School District currently has the lowest property tax levy among our 12 peer school districts. We will be in eighth place if Proposition S is approved. KSD’s levy rate was $5.3455 per $100 of assessed valuation in 2018. Our rate will be $5.2378 if Proposition S is approved. That means that our levy rate will still be nearly 11 cents less than it was five years ago.

Levy Rate Compared with Peer School Districts

Expenditures Per Pupil

KSD Levy Since 2018

There are two primary reasons the district’s tax rate has lowered over the last five years. The Hancock Amendment restricts school districts from receiving a “windfall” of profits. It restricts operating revenue increases to the lesser of the following: the percent of assessed valuation growth, the consumer price index (CPI), or 5%. This decrease reflects the constitutional requirement to lower the operating levy from $4.1553 to $3.5976 over the last five years. KSD has also voluntarily rolled back the debt service levy by $1.5115 over the last five years for a net revenue loss of $6,680,718 to maintain the 1.1902 debt service levy. 

KSD Levy Rollbacks

This is important as there is a recent trend of school districts with higher debt service levies seeking voter approval to transfer funds to the general fund for salary increases instead of voluntary rollbacks. Tax rates are simply a way to calculate how district revenue from local taxpayers will be paid by each individual taxpayer. Our tax rate is essentially a calculation of our allowed tax revenues in a given year (predetermined by the state) divided by the value of property within the district. State law governs our available local tax revenue every year based on a strict formula that does not increase by much, if at all. School boards can only increase the revenue they receive on existing property within a district by asking residents to increase the current tax rate via a special election. In other words, even as the value of the property within the district changes, revenues from local taxes will remain relatively close year over year. Because of growth in value within the community, our rate has decreased in recent years. This just means that the state formula capped revenues from existing properties by reducing our available rate.

Some people have asked why we can’t reallocate funds generated by the Proposition B zero-tax-rate-increase bond to help address the needs that will be addressed if Proposition S is approved. The simple answer is faculty versus facilities. Missouri schools have two types of tax levies: an operating levy for paying things like salaries and bills; and a debt service levy for paying back debt used to pay for facility improvements. The levies are separate and treated as separate by state law. Prop B, in 2022, was for the purpose of issuing debt to improve facilities and was done at a “no tax rate increase” to district patrons. Prop S is an operating levy question for use on salaries and staff hiring.

The funds generated through Proposition S will be dedicated to the designated purposes of enhancing safety and security and increasing staff compensation, as stated in the ballot initiative. The allocation of funds between the safety and security team and staff compensation will be based on the needs and priorities of Kearney School District. The specific breakdown of the allocation will be determined through careful planning and consideration by the district administration and the school board. We currently project that it will cost approximately $200,000 to hire three additional safety and security professionals and approximately $2 million to increase staff salaries.

You may also visit www.ksdr1.net/PropS to learn more about Proposition S.

Paid for by Kearney School District, Superintendent Emily Miller, 425 W. Washington St., Kearney, MO 64060.

The post Prop S Deep Dive: Budget & Finance appeared first on Kearney School District.

• Increase safety and security
• Prioritize all employees by increasing compensation and benefits

Last week’s email provided more details about how Prop S will help KSD hire three additional safety and security staff members if it is approved on Aug. 8. This week, we’re focusing on how this measure will help us support our teachers and other staff by increasing salaries and benefits.

Focus: Staff Support

One of the strategic priorities created by our community members is to “prioritize all employees by increasing compensation and benefits…” If the proposed 45-cent levy increase is approved on Aug. 8, the additional revenue will also be used to increase compensation for our teachers and other employees in addition to boosting our safety and security team. We anticipate that Proposition S will generate approximately $2 million that will be applied towards compensation.

The latest academic achievement data places KSD in the top eight percent of the 553 public school districts in Missouri. KSD students scored in the top three on 15 out of the 19 Missouri Assessment Program and End-of-Course exams among our 12 peer school districts. That put our students in first place for English Language Arts and Science, and second in math. We were fourth among peer districts in social studies.

Annual Progress Report Results

Top Three Assessment Exam Results Among Peer School Districts

The data shows that KSD’s students consistently demonstrate academic mastery in comparison with our peer districts. At the same time, our levy rate is the lowest and our teacher and support staff compensation is below several of our peer districts.

KSD employee compensation is set by salary schedules for each staff category. This is standard practice for public school districts. There are several salary schedules, including those for certified staff (teachers, etc.), classified employees (custodians, grounds and maintenance, etc.) and administrators (principals, assistant principals, etc.). These schedules establish compensation based on years of service and – in the case of certified staff – level of education. Staff salaries in KSD are not and will not be based on so-called merit pay. The schedules are reviewed and revised regularly through a collaborative process by district administrators and staff members who are part of the Human Resources department’s Salary and Benefits Committee. The updated salary schedules are ultimately submitted annually to the Board of Education for approval. KSD’s current salary schedules are available on the district website at www.ksdr1.net/district/about-us/employment.

Under the 2023-2024 salary schedule, KSD teachers will be paid between $41,894 as a starting salary and a maximum salary of $81,127 (which is only available to teachers with at least two Master’s degrees and at least 33 years of experience). KSD’s teachers have an average of 15 years of experience. In 2022, several teachers resigned from KSD to take positions with our peer districts with higher compensation. They had an average of 18 years of experience and a cumulative 107 years of teaching under their belts. We also had 13 certified staff members choose to retire this year, and retirements have increased steadily over the last three school years. The number of certified staff in KSD who have opted to leave education altogether has increased significantly since the 2020-2021 academic year. At the same time, there is a well-documented shortage of candidates in the teacher employment pool. Fewer people are choosing to pursue or maintain careers in public education.

If it passes, Proposition S will generate additional funds to increase staff compensation. This is an important step in attracting and retaining talented educators and staff members who play a crucial role in the academic success and overall well-being of students. KSD’s salary schedule is competitive for starting teachers, But our neighboring districts offer more money for more experienced teachers compared to our salary schedule. For instance, KSD teachers with 15 or more years of experience can potentially make about $15,000 more by taking a position with a neighboring district. Salaries for classified positions also need to be continually reviewed and adjusted in order to ensure that we are market competitive with other school districts and the private industry.

As a reminder, increasing staff salaries is just one of the two KSD strategic priorities that Prop S will help us address if it is approved. The other portion of the levy increase will be used to add up to three additional safety and security team members.

We will share additional details next week about how KSD manages its budget, how our expenditures and levy rates compare with our peer school districts and the potential impact of Prop S on property taxes.

The post Prop S Deep Dive: Staff Support appeared first on Kearney School District.

• Increase safety and security
• Prioritize all employees by increasing compensation and benefits

Focus: Safety & Security

Safety and security are a source of genuine concern for our students, parents/guardians, staff and community members. Alarming incidents seem to happen on an almost weekly basis around the country. Thankfully, we’ve avoided any serious incidents in KSD. But the message received during the strategic planning process was loud and clear: parents/guardians, staff, and students identified safety and security as among our most important priorities.

We’ve spent time over the last year taking a close look at our safety and security policies, procedures and measures. Steps have been taken to make improvements within our current resources, including updates to our entry procedures and the relaunch of our collaboration with local law enforcement agencies. Our team engaged in this work concluded that adding safety personnel would be a priority moving forward.

We currently have one School Resource Officer (SRO). This person has operational authority over nine campuses and the central office. Response time during an incident could be as much as 10 minutes. The table below compares KSD’s safety and security staffing to neighboring school districts.

If Prop S is approved, a portion of the levy increase will be used to add up to three additional safety and security team members, which would reduce response time by about 75 percent. Each of those staff members would be assigned to specific schools. These staff members will also be able to coordinate in response to a potential major incident. It is anticipated that it will cost approximately $200,000 annually to retain three additional safety and security team members.

We will share additional details next week about why we want to prioritize all employees by increasing compensation and benefits, and how – if voters approve it – Prop S will help us achieve that goal.

Prop S Informational Open House

You are invited to an informational open house about Prop S from 6 to 7 p.m. on Thursday, July 27 at our central office, which is located at 425 W. Washington St. This event will be an opportunity for members of the public to have one-on-one conversations with KSD leaders about the Prop S ballot initiative.

You may also visit www.ksdr1.net/PropS to learn more about Proposition S.

Paid for by Kearney School District, Superintendent Emily Miller, 425 W. Washington St., Kearney, MO 64060.

The post Prop S Deep Dive: Safety & Security appeared first on Kearney School District.