CAPE SCHOOL OFFICIALS PUSH RAISING LEVY

Cape Girardeau school officials are making the rounds at community meetings to explain what the district will gain from a proposed tax hike voters will consider in August elections.

Schools superintendent Dan Steska fielded questions during a Noon Lions Club meeting Wednesday regarding the 58-cent operating tax levy increase that goes before voters Aug. 7. If approved, the levy would increase to $3.99 per $100 assessed valuation this year, up from the $3.41 levy voters have paid since 1997.

To meet legal mandates, the wording of the ballot proposal will request a 49-cent increase over the current tax-rate ceiling, which is adjusted annually by the state auditor's office to allow some growth for inflation. A simple majority vote is required for passage.

"I have two small children, and I think for us to stay competitive this is something we have to do," said Lion's Club member Matt Hopkins following Steska's presentation. "We have to put the school's needs ahead of anything else."

The increased levy, along with new local revenue received from the growth in residences and businesses in the district, would generate about $19.1 million over five years.

Money for salaries

Steska said a little more than half of the revenue -- about $10.1 million -- would be used to make salaries for the district's 598 employees competitive with others in the region over the next three years.

Teachers' salaries currently fall about $2,600 below local averages and about $4,600 below state averages, he said, and salaries for cooks, custodians and other staff are similarly low.

"The problem we're facing is meeting the market demand," he said. "We can talk about mortar and bricks or administrators or what have you, but the key to affecting our children's instruction is that person in the classroom."

Many staff members have been patient over the past five years while the district completed a massive updating and new construction project, Steska said. However, the district's 52 percent turnover rate over the past three years, with 311 positions having to be refilled after staff members left the district, indicates that a problem exists.

"We've upgraded the buildings. Now we're at a point in time where we're asking voters to complete the people side of the commitment," said Harry Rediger, who serves as publicity chair for the election campaign committee. Rediger said the money to handle the operational expenses would be needed even if salaries were not included in the proposal.

Air-conditioning system

In addition to improving salaries, increased local funding would cover installation of air-conditioning and heating systems at the existing high school and auditorium, districtwide technology maintenance, and increased operating expenses caused by adding 233,000 square feet of additional floor space throughout the district.

The district has been in a precarious financial position for several years. Among its problems is the frozen amount of state aid the district receives due to its hold-harmless status, which has caused the district to dip into reserve balances in recent years.

School officials also are waiting on Gov. Bob Holden to release $1 million that was appropriated last year for the district's new Career and Technology Center that will open in the fall.

The money was held up for a variety of reasons, and reserve balances were spent to pay contractors for their work, Steska said.

The district will just miss being placed on a state watch list for financially distressed schools when the fiscal year ends June 30.

Balances are expected to be at about 3.5 percent of the past year's budget at the end of the month, Steska said. Districts are placed on the watch list if fund balances dip to 3 percent of the district's budget.

The district has avoided the financially stressed designation because of internal cutbacks, Steska said. However, those cutbacks are short-term fixes, and the money will have to be spent eventually.

"This is a harder campaign to present to the community because we aren't showing you a multimillion-dollar building," he said. "Those expenses are still there and they have to be covered at some point."