STE. GENEVIEVE – The Ste. Genevieve County School District R-II Board of Education has voted to keep the 2025 SGHS Graduation on May 10 – which is one week prior to the date of the 2024 graduation.
In making this decision the board went against the recommendation of the district staff, according to the unofficial “board briefs” the school district released Thursday, August 29.
“The District Calendar for the following school year is created during the prior Spring Semester by the Calendar Committee. This past Spring, the decision was made to move the Class of 2025’s graduation date up by one week (from May 17, 2025 to May 10, 2025) in order to avoid the State Track Meet, which was to be held on May 17, 2025.
“Since that time, MSHSAA has rolled back its calendar, and the State Track Meet will now be held on May 24, 2024, removing the original scheduling conflict that led to an earlier graduation date being approved.
“In addition, Senate Bill 727 has implications for the district’s plans for creating a separate senior calendar. A separate senior calendar can no longer be utilized, as the district would lose state funding due to provisions in the bill. As the district can no longer create a separate senior calendar, by keeping graduation on May 10, 2025, seniors would lose several more days of attendance, which impacts the district’s average daily attendance (ADA), and will result in some loss of ADA funding, as well as a loss of MSIP points due to the lower ADA.
“Due to these unforeseen circumstances, the district administration recommended to the Board of Education that the graduation date be moved back from May 10, 2025 to May 17, 2025.
“The Board of Education voted to keep the graduation date scheduled for May 10, 2025.”
Board Briefs from Aug. 27, 2024 Tax Rate Hearing & Regular Meeting
This information includes highlights from the Ste. Genevieve R-II Board of Education’s Aug. 27, 2024, Tax Rate Hearing and Regular Meeting. This is an unofficial record. The official Board Minutes are posted on the district website and are located on BoardDocs, linked here. The video of the meeting can be found on the district’s Youtube Channel, SGDragonsTV.
TAX RATE HEARING
The Board of Education held its annual tax rate hearing. Superintendent Dr. Paul Taylor presented the tax rate information to the Board members and patrons present for the meeting. After the presentation, board members and patrons were given the opportunity to participate in a question and answer session to seek clarification and additional information on the tax rate.
Dr. Taylor’s presentation included an overview of the district’s planning and projections for the 2024-2025 year, including contingency planning for uncertain tax revenue and possible legal expenditures.
Tax Rate Recommendations
- Dr. Taylor presented the district’s recommendation to set the operating levy at $2.9155, the debt service level at $0.4400, and the capital projects levy at $0.0500 for a total levy of $3.4055 for the 2024-2025 school year.
- The maximum calculated rate the district could have set the debt service rate is 0.5068 cents; Dr. Taylor recommended a voluntary rollback to keep the debt service rate at 0.4400 cents.
Understanding the Tax Rate
- Public school districts have four funds, as required by state statute:
- Incidental (General): for all resources except those in another fund
- Teacher (Special): for all teachers’ salaries and benefits and also tuition payments to other districts
- Debt Service: for long-term debt payments
- Capital Projects: facility acquisition, construction, lease, purchase, principal and interest payments, etc.
- When the district sets its tax rate, there are two different rates that need to be determined:
- Debt Service Levy (Fund 3): SG R-II is not raising the debt service levy for the 2024-2025 school year. The debt service levy was 0.4400 cents for 2023-2024, and it will remain at 0.4400 cents this school year. As promised, the debt service levy is not going to increase with the passage of Prop SG.
- Operating Levy (Funds 1, 2, and 4): This portion of the tax rate will be adjusted from $2.9650 in 2023-2024 to $2.9655 in 2024-2025. This is a difference of 0.0005 cents, which equates to approximately one-twentieth of a penny, for the overall 2024-2025 tax rate. This adjustment comes directly from the state auditor’s calculations, which generates the tax rate. The calculation uses data from the prior year tax rate, prior year assessed valuation, prior year revenue from state assessed property, the current year assessed valuation, and the projected revenue from state assessed property funds.
- Dr. Taylor shared the following comparison sheets for tax projections. These do not take into account any other taxing entities’ tax increases, nor do they account for any improvements made to homes: Commercial, Residential, and Agricultural.
- Out of 20 local districts, the district is the fourth-lowest in total tax rate for the 2023-2024 school year. (We are unable to create a comparison for the 2024-2025 school year because the deadline in some counties for their tax rates to be set is Oct. 1.)
Uncertain Tax Revenue:
- LafargeHolcim filed a protest with the local Board of Equalization regarding the value of some of its properties and subsequent taxation for the 2021-2022 year. The Board of Equalization upheld the assessor office values, and LafargeHolcim protested and appealed the valuation to the Missouri Tax Commission. If the Missouri Tax Commission were to uphold the assessor office values, the next level of appeal would be the court system. This process could take several years. During this time, the tax revenue that would be paid to the taxing entities is being held in escrow until the protest is resolved.
○ LafargeHolcim has filed an appeal for the 2021-2022, 2022-2023, 2023-2024 school years, and is anticipated to file an appeal for the 2024-2025 school year. The total taxes from LafargeHolcim currently held in escrow for the three school years is approximately $ 25,757,568.32.
○ Mississippi Lime Company filed a similar protest regarding the value of some of its property for the 2022-2023 and 2023-2024 school years, and is anticipated to file an appeal for the 2024-2025 school year.
○ Lhoist filed a similar protest for the 2023-2024 school year and is anticipated to file a similar protest for the 2024-2025 school year.
- Altogether, with three years of appeals from LaFargeHolcim, two years of appeals from Mississippi Lime and one appeal from Lhoist, the total of the district’s portion of this tax revenue that is currently held in escrow is approximately $ 27,116,814.43, an amount that will be held until the protests are resolved.
- The district took the uncertainty of this situation into consideration when creating budget projections for the 2024-2025 school year.
- Also, the district receives approximately 75% of local taxes. If the appeal makes its way through the court system, the legal fees for the district could be in the $3 to 4.5 million range. The legal fees the district has paid to date regarding these tax protests totals approximately $716,760. See the breakdown by fiscal year below:
○ FY24 – $176,533.99
○ FY23 – $226,652.83
○ FY22 – $242,063.47
○ FY21 – $57,130.00
○ FY20 – $14,380.27
- Dr. Taylor has shared that the Board and administration are committed to rolling back the tax rate once the tax revenue is settled, if possible.
2024-2025 Tax Revenue Projections:
- Utilizing the recommended tax rate of $3.4055, Dr. Taylor shared the projected tax revenues for the district. This projection takes into account the following:
○ For the 2024-2025 year, the district would receive approximately $30.2 million with a 100% collection rate for taxes. The district received an approximately 63% collection rate for the 2022-2023 school year and a 64% collection rate for the 2023-2024 school year.
○ This lower collection rate is due in most part to the appealed taxes that are being held in escrow. Due to this, the district is assuming a lower collection rate of 63% for the 2024-2025 school year.
○ Tax collection fees are typically about 3%.
REGULAR MEETING
MSBA MONTHLY REPORT
The MSBA August Board Report takes a look at how Artificial Intelligence will impact education in the coming school year and what resources MSBA has to help. This month’s report also includes a tribute to Mike Reid, and information about the upcoming MSBA Annual Conference and the Carter D. Ward Excellence in Advocacy Award.
The MSBA Board Report is a monthly five to seven-minute video program featuring the latest news from MSBA about public education in Missouri. The program is designed to be shown during local school board meetings.
PUBLIC PARTICIPATION
Board members and administrators listen to concerns and respond when appropriate by mail or telephone at a later date. The Board does not respond within the meeting to those who come to offer public comment. In order to speak during public participation, a Public Comment Form must be filled out and submitted to the Board President prior to the beginning of the meeting. See Policy BDDH-1: Public Participation at Board Meetings for guidelines and procedures.
Three high school seniors— Shay Coleman, Karlie Basler, and Kayden Huck— participated in the Public Comment, and spoke on the topic of the May 10, 2025 graduation date potentially being moved back one week to be held on May 17, 2025. See “High School Graduation Date Change” under New Business for more information.
REPORT OF THE SUPERINTENDENT
Back to School Professional Development Days. Assistant Superintendent Dr. Lance McClard reviewed the professional development events for all employees that took place prior to the start of the school year. The week included annual safety and security training, discussions surrounding competency-based learning, required videos, building level meetings, and collaboration with grade level and subject level teams.
This year’s back-to-school keynote speaker was Dr. Jared Cooney Horvath, an award-winning cognitive neuroscientist, best-selling author and renowned keynote speaker with an expertise in human learning, memory, and brain stimulation. Dr. Cooney Horvath, an educator and neuroscientist, investigates how technology influences learning, delving into the physiological, social, and cognitive factors involved. The presentation underscored two primary insights: that learning is driven by secure and emotionally connected relationships, and that technology should be used selectively to enhance learning, rather than simply for convenience or ease of access.
DESE – 2024 Annual Determination of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). Dr. Taylor presented the 2024 Annual Determination of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) from DESE for the Ste. Genevieve County R-II School District. This is an annual review of the special education programs for public schools in Missouri. The scores that districts can earn range from 1 to 4, with 4 being the highest. An average score of 3.33 or higher in an area results in a Meets Requirements determination for that area. This year, in all of the areas for which SG R-II was evaluated, our district achieved all scores of 4, the highest possible to achieve. Dr. Taylor pointed out that there are a few areas where the District hopes to improve yet, but that our Director of Student Services, our process coordinators, and special education teachers and paraprofessionals do a phenomenal job of making sure that we are meeting the needs of our students.
Handbooks for the 2024-2025 School Year. Dr. Taylor shared the various student and parent handbooks for the 2024-2025 school year.
UNFINISHED BUSINESS
Prop SG Update. Superintendent Dr. Paul Taylor presented an update on Prop SG.
Ste. Genevieve Middle School:
- Following an initial inspection earlier this summer, it was determined that a mini split needed to be installed in the mechanical room for the elevator. The district is addressing this issue, and another inspection will follow.
Early Childhood Center:
- Masonry work is being completed on the Early Childhood Center. The classrooms are coming together with drywall.
Ste. Genevieve Elementary:
- During the first week of school, students and staff were getting into the groove of a different bus drop-off and pick-up process, and getting used to utilizing alternative entrances for Ste. Genevieve Elementary.
- At this time, construction is anticipated to take approximately 13 months to complete.
- Crews have begun building the block walls of the gymnasium.
Parking:
- The front lot parking projects that were launched to coincide with the Ste. Genevieve Elementary construction project are nearly complete. They include an addition of between 35 and 40 spots, as well as a retaining wall between the front parking lot and the entrance near the Maintenance Department. Dr. Taylor shared that Bauman Excavating has done a wonderful job on these parking areas, as well as the retaining wall.
- With the start of school, there were concerns over a lack of parking spaces in the front lot due to construction; however, district and building administration were excited to share that during the first few weeks of school, plenty of spaces are open in the front lot, with at least 20 spaces open on a daily basis (and these spaces do not include the 16 additional spots by the Maintenance Department).
Other Projects:
- Along with the typical summer workload, our maintenance and summer crews have also undertaken a renovation of the girls’ locker room, as the District identified some priorities that could be completed in-house outside of the scope of Prop SG. Crews have power washed the walls and ceilings, given the locker room a fresh coat of paint, replaced the lights with LED lights, swapped out old lockers for new, added mirrors and shelving to the walls, updated the plumbing for the showers, and more.
- This summer, crews installed the same type of fencing to Yanks South, and added gravel to the original site of the Red Barn to provide more options for parking.
NEW BUSINESS
High School Graduation Date Change. The District Calendar for the following school year is created during the prior Spring Semester by the Calendar Committee. This past Spring, the decision was made to move the Class of 2025’s graduation date up by one week (from May 17, 2025 to May 10, 2025) in order to avoid the State Track Meet, which was to be held on May 17, 2025.
Since that time, MSHSAA has rolled back its calendar, and the State Track Meet will now be held on May 24, 2024, removing the original scheduling conflict that led to an earlier graduation date being approved. In addition, Senate Bill 727 has implications for the district’s plans for creating a separate senior calendar. A separate senior calendar can no longer be utilized, as the district would lose state funding due to provisions in the bill. As the district can no longer create a separate senior calendar, by keeping graduation on May 10, 2025, seniors would lose several more days of attendance, which impacts the district’s average daily attendance (ADA), and will result in some loss of ADA funding, as well as a loss of MSIP points due to the lower ADA. Due to these unforeseen circumstances, the district administration recommended to the Board of Education that the graduation date be moved back from May 10, 2025 to May 17, 2025. The Board of Education voted to keep the graduation date scheduled for May 10, 2025.
Summer of 2024 MSHSAA Dead Period for Activities. The Board of Education approved the MSHSAA Dead Period of Activities for the Summer 2025 to be held Aug. 2, 2025, through Aug. 10, 2025. This date range meets the MSHSAA requirements to start on a Saturday and run for nine consecutive days.
Redemption of $1,100,000 Principal Mount of General Obligation Refunding Bonds – Series 2020.
The Board of Education approved a resolution authorizing the redemption of a $1.1 million prepayment on March 1, 2026, of the $5,380,000 General Obligation Refunding Bonds, Series 2020. This prepayment of principal will save the District $94,000 in future interest expense.
Setting the Tax Rate. The Board of Education approved setting the operating levy at $2.9155, the debt service levy at $0.4400, and the capital projects levy at $0.0500 for a total levy of $3.4055 for the 2024-2025 school year.
UPCOMING MEETINGS
The next Board of Education meeting will be a Regular Session Meeting on Tuesday, Sept. 24, at 6:30 p.m. in the SGHS Projection Room.