Advance school officials say a tax levy increase on the ballot is needed to maintain classes as they are

ADVANCE, MO. -- One teacher, 34 students.

That's a ratio that doesn't equal academic success, according to Stan Seiler, superintendent of the Advance School District.

But this year, an Advance fifth-grade class has 34 students, and a sixth-grade class numbers 30. While the district has kept elementary class sizes at 15 to 19 students, Seiler said, rising pupil-to-teacher ratios are a reality of today's revenue-strapped public school systems.

Class sizes, Seiler said, will more than likely rise if district voters don't approve a higher tax levy at the polls a week from today.

The Advance School District is asking voters to authorize a 25-cent increase to the operating tax levy, now at $2.75 per $100 assessed valuation. It would generate about $72,000 annually and help the district make ends meet, Seiler said.

"This would mean the ability for us to maintain what we're currently doing," he said. "With reductions in funding from the federal government and the state of Missouri, we're asking voters to maintain our current level of staffing."

The levy increase, as minimal as some see it, would cost the owner of a $100,000 home about $47 more a year in property taxes. District officials say they know that asking taxpayers to pay more in challenging economic times is a tall order.

"Certainly a tax increase is not something anyone wants to do," said Harold Miles, vice president of the Advance School Board, now in his ninth year and running for another term.

But Miles said the district is a vital economic piece of the community and the tax increase should be viewed as an investment in helping sustain Advance's economic engine.

"The school district provides that mode of preparing our kids to get to where they need to go, and I think the community understands that," he said. "It's about sacrifice, about what's your priorities. In past elections, the school has been a priority."

Miles pointed to strong voter support for a 2006 bond issue to pay for improvements and expansion of the district's 50-year-old elementary school building.

"That speaks to the frugality of our district, when we can maintain a facility for that long," he said.

Seiler said Advance is already one of the leanest districts in the region. Of 21 districts in Southeast Missouri, Seiler said, Advance ranks 20th in per-pupil spending at $6,521 per student. The district plans to dip into its reserve funds to help cover some of the shortfall, too.

"With that lean budget, it's difficult to find any room in the budget to cut," he said. "It gets down to, unfortunately, cutting people, and that takes the form of teachers."

Wages and benefits make up about 75 percent of the district's $3.6 million budget. Last year, the school system of about 440 students eliminated a bus route and a driver position in the face of declining revenue, Seiler said. The year before, it eliminated two elementary school teaching positions. The district also has cut back on textbooks and supply purchases.

Ultimately, Seiler said, you can't keep cutting without feeling the bite on academic performance.

"We are trying to do everything we can to keep from negatively affecting education," he said. "But all the measures, No Child Left Behind, annual yearly progress, it will show up in those reports. With our yearly MAP testing, it will be difficult to do that as well as required."

The current operating levy, at $2.75, combined with the 36-cent debt service levy, puts the total levy at $3.11. Should the levy increase be approved, the total levy would rise to $3.36, still lower than the $3.43 in 2009, thanks to the district's decision to lower its tax rate last year, Miles said.

Miles said many of the residents he has spoken to understand the sense of urgency tied to the tax question, but he said it's hard to know if that is a common theme.

Some say a tax increase of any kind won't go over well.

"I'm against it because it's going to raise taxes, and I don't think we can stand anymore taxes," said Jeff Liley, who lives in an apartment in Advance.

The bigger issue might be getting eligible voters to the polls. Of about 10 Advance residents the Southeast Missourian polled about the tax question Monday, two said they had heard about it.

Jennifer Roberts hadn't.

"I don't really know much about it," she said, adding that she probably wouldn't like the increase too much but more than likely won't vote in next week's election.

Seiler, a former principal in the Cape Girardeau and Jackson school districts, is in his first year as Advance superintendent. The thought of cutting jobs, he said, makes him sad.

"I don't want to think about having to do that," Seiler said. "It's not something a superintendent relishes, especially a new one."

mkittle@semissourian.com

388-3627