St. Joseph community debates school district culture change on eve of Proposition 1 vote
November 6, 2017
By Johnny Kampis
Editor's note: This is the sixth part of a series of stories that Ballotpedia published regarding the St. Joseph School District and its property tax levy. Click here, here, here, here, and here for the first five installments.
The St. Joseph School District in Missouri has undergone a lot of change in the past several years. Several administrators were fired and a former superintendent and school board president went to jail. There’s a new superintendent and new board members. However, community members continue to debate whether the culture at the heart of that turmoil has really changed.
That debate will influence Tuesday’s vote on Proposition 1, a permanent property tax levy increase of $1.15 per $100 in assessed value. That would be a 38 percent increase, which means an extra $245 per year in property taxes for the owner of a home valued at $112,000 (the median price in St. Joseph).
The school district estimates that it will receive an additional $11.5 million each year if the measure is successful. District leadership have advocated for the levy increase on the basis that the district needs the money. In 2015, the board declined to place a sunsetting 63-cent tax levy on the ballot for renewal. Deficit spending by the district has resulted in its $40 million reserve being cut in half, and it’s now fallen below the board policy requirement of 20 percent of operating revenue.
Eric Bruder, a former board member who was appointed to replace Dan Colgan after he resigned in 2015, told Ballotpedia that the spend-down of the reserve money was a public relations move made by Superintendent Robert Newhart and the district to bolster support for Proposition 1.
“We were told to our faces by Dr. Newhart that his plan was to spend down the reserves so that he could get public support for a larger tax levy moving forward,” Bruder said. “And we informed him at that time that that was irresponsible.”
In an emailed response to Ballotpedia, Superintendent Newhart said that was not the case.
“The current state of SJSD finances has not been a ploy to engage the sympathy of the public,” he wrote. “The district has chosen to deficit spend to increase salaries for teachers and support staff members to retain them so that our students are able to receive a quality education despite the challenges this district has recently gone through.”
Supporters see change underway
The website for the pro-levy group, the Committee To Move St. Joseph Forward, has a section responding to culture criticisms. It says, "Since the controversy that rocked our community, the St. Joseph School District has overhauled its administration and addressed the audit issues. In the time since, a tax levy wasn’t renewed, forcing the district to make budget cuts and dive deep into its reserves. While these new faces and many reforms will bring positive benefits to the district into the future, the negative impact on the budget must be addressed. The St. Joseph School District now ranks 85th out 88 Northwest Missouri school districts in funding, operating at a $7 million deficit annually. This is not sustainable."[1]
Pat Dillon, a pro-levy committee co-chair and the vice president of advocacy and government relations for Mosaic Life Care, acknowledged that St. Joseph residents had a good reason to be angry, but said that students shouldn’t be penalized for the past mistakes.
"All we do now is punish the teachers and punish the teachers and the kids and the community,” he said. “If you have a problem going forward, do it by going to the ballot box with your board members. Get the right board members you want to move forward. Don't punish the kids and teachers anymore."[2]
On November 5, former chief financial officer and district whistleblower Beau Musser announced his support for Proposition 1.[3] In a video posted by the pro-levy committee, Musser said, “I’m confident things are now being done the right way. Without properly funded schools, our ability to attract new businesses and quality teachers will only become harder. Worse yet, our children won’t get the quality education they deserve.”[4]
In 2014, Musser was falsely accused by the district of sexual misconduct and creating a hostile workplace. These allegations followed his discovery of improper business practices within the district as well as his assistance uncovering the unauthorized administrator stipends overseen by Dan Colgan and Superintendent Fred Czerwonka. He was put on paid administrative leave for seven months, and eventually sued the district for slander. The district and Musser reached a settlement in April 2015.
Opponents express doubts
Those who oppose the tax levy increase say the district’s culture has not changed enough. An online poll conducted by the St. Joseph News-Press in the week before the election found that 71.56 percent of likely voters do not believe the district has restored trust. The same poll found that 35.22 percent of likely voters supported the levy and 64.78 percent opposed it. The poll’s margin of error was 4.16 percent.[5]
Chris Danford, who spent 25 years in the school system as a teacher and counselor before serving on the board for five years and acting as a key whistleblower alongside Musser, told Ballotpedia that deficit spending has become systemic in St. Joseph. She said, “That is the mentality of the administration – if that’s what’s budgeted that’s what we’ll spend.”
“There’s no allocation process with this,” she said of the tax levy. “It’s just ‘Give us the money and trust us.’ Past history has shown that doesn’t work. I think it should be the community that says ‘Hey, it’s our dollars, tell us why you want these dollars. Tell us how you’re going to improve our student achievement’ because that is the mission of our district.” She also claimed that student achievement was “almost never” discussed in board meetings. “I started asking after a motion would come up about how that would affect student achievement. There isn’t that focus on that that should be there. Teachers in this district want to do what they can for the students, but I think they’re handcuffed,” she said.
Superintendent Newhart recently told Ballotpedia that the potential tax levy revenue’s earmarks include money for teacher raises and new teacher hires, as well as better inclusion opportunities for special education students.
Bruder said there are other ways to trim the fat so that more focus could be put on hiring additional teachers to reduce the student-teacher ratio. He suggested eliminating facilities, and indicated that studies had shown the district operates about 10 more schools and support buildings than it needs with the current enrollment.
Bruder said, “The public would definitely support, and I would support, and Chris Danford would support, a levy of 40 or 50 cents where all of that is going towards teacher salaries, teacher head count, temporary classroom space, and then a facilities plan needs to be tied to that. They want $12 million a year extra forever tied to no facilities plan. We continue to update facilities that might ultimately be closed or rationalized into a redistricting program.” He added, “I think they’re using scare tactics and emotional extortion to scare the public and to scare their own employees. They’ve told teachers their class sizes will go up if we don’t pass this levy and that’s nonsense. They need to cut the overhead expenses and everything will be fine.”
Bruder claimed that despite Colgan’s imprisonment, Czerwonka’s termination, and other district leadership turnover, the district culture remains the same. “That same culture still exists there. The same culture of spend, spend, spend, because if I don’t I won’t get it next year in my budget. And that’s a major problem,” he said. “When the 63-cent tax levy was removed it didn’t require them to change anything because they still had a massive reserve. So now that the reserve is down to the state minimum standards, if we hand them more money right now it’s not going to force them to change what they need to change. They’re going to keep doing the same things.”
Both Proposition 1’s supporters and opponents have aired their advertisements and made their arguments. The voters will determine the levy’s outcome and the district’s direction on Tuesday, November 7.
Johnny Kampis is an investigative reporter who has recently worked for the Taxpayers Protection Alliance Foundation and Watchdog.org. Over the course of his nearly 20 years in journalism, he has been published in such outlets as the New York Times, Time, Fox News, and Daily Caller.
See also
Footnotes
- ↑ Committee to Move St. Joseph Forward, "Home," accessed November 6, 2017
- ↑ St. Joe Channel, "SJSD Tax Levy Campaign Urging Voters to "Move Forward"," October 11, 2017
- ↑ St. Joseph News-Press, "Former school district executive endorses Prop 1," November 5, 2017
- ↑ Facebook, "Move St Joseph Forward," November 5, 2017
- ↑ St. Joseph News-Press, "Survey gives look at public opinion on Proposition 1," November 4, 2017
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