JACKSON SCHOOLS PLAN VOTE STRATEGY

JACKSON -- More than 75 Jackson School District residents met Tuesday night to develop a strategy they hope will win voter approval of two school funding issues to be considered at the polls in August.

The group met with the Board of Education and administrators to discuss how they plan to garner support for a $6 million bond issue and 40-cent increase in the operating tax levy that will be submitted to voters. If approved, the two measures would amount to a total tax levy increase of 50 cents per $100 assessed valuation to expand the junior high school and provide additional funding to cover increased operating costs.

A four-sevenths majority is needed for passage of the bond issue. A simple majority is required for the operating tax proposal.

The school board has scheduled a number of community meetings since similar funding issues failed to pass during April elections. Based on community input, the board delayed a funding request to build another elementary school.

The latest meeting was led by community member Jack Litzelfelner Jr., who said people need to take charge of the campaign to show it has community support.

Litzelfelner said board president Dr. T. Wayne Lewis and the entire board "have done a tremendous job of getting this out to the public and holding meetings to find out what are the public's concerns, but to promote this campaign properly it might be better if we could promote it as a community."

The committee identified issues of concern that could sway voters to reject the funding measures. While some concern was mentioned regarding trust in the school board and whether any long-range planning has occurred, more people said the committee needed to concentrate on rebutting negative comments circulating in the community.

"We need to remind people how great the school district is and how it affects the rest of the community," said one woman. "We need to concentrate on the core school community and get some positive word of mouth out there."

Six subcommittees were created to promote passage of the issues. Members will work in groups in the following areas: fund raising, to finance the election campaign; grass roots, to develop telephone lists and other means of contacting voters directly; marketing, to develop advertisements and a mission statement; endorsements, to identify businesses and individuals who support the measures; a speaker's bureau, to address civic groups and other organizations; and a Speak Out rebuttal committee, to write letters to the editor and use other tools to address comments in Speak Out, a column of reader comments in the Southeast Missourian.

Litzelfelner said the election committee has just eight weeks to convince voters they should support the two funding proposals. The district's need is evident, but a strong push must be made to ensure that voters understand exactly what issues the district faces, he said.

Lewis said the district lags behind others of similar size in many areas. Passage of the two issues would help improve things like staff salaries, student-teacher ratios and other issues, he said.

"It would be nice to say we don't need the additional money, but if we want the best for our students we're going to have to do better," Lewis said.

The election committee will meet at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday at Jackson Middle School to update progress made by its subcommittees. The meeting is open to the public.