Carthage School District to host public forum Monday
CARTHAGE, Mo. — The Carthage School District will hold a public forum at 6:30 p.m. Monday, March 24, at the Carthage R-9 auditorium to provide information and answer questions about the two school tax issues on the April 8 ballot.
Carthage voters will be asked to approve two separate property tax issues:
• The district is asking voters to increase the operating levy from $3.05 per $100 of assessed valuation to $3.60 to help the district pay rising prices on utilities, costs to run school buses, costs for paper and office supplies, and to give raises to teachers.
This measure needs a simple majority to pass.
If it does not pass, the district's operating levy will fall to $2.75 per $100 of assessed valuation next year when a 10-year operating levy increase to build David Haffner Stadium expires.
In 2015, voters approved a 40-cent levy increase, but that levy has been dropping since then because of the state's Hancock Amendment limits on the property tax revenue the district can collect
Carthage Superintendent Luke Boyer has said costs to run the school district have increased due to inflation, but revenue from the state and local sources has not kept up.
He said the district is anticipating a $1.8 million deficit in its current annual budget. The district has healthy reserves to cover that deficit, but those reserves won't last much longer.
The state provides a little less than half the district's revenue, but state appropriations to schools have remained static at around $26 million since 2018.
Boyer said the district is having trouble recruiting and retaining teachers because the district's minimum teacher salary, at $41,000 a year, is lower than others in Jasper County and the Central Ozark Conference.
The operating levy increase would help address that.
• The district is also asking voters to extend the district's 83-cent debt service levy for a maximum of five years to raise $25 million in bonds to build a new auditorium with classrooms and a tornado shelter at Carthage High School.
This measure needs a four-sevenths, or 57.1% majority to pass.
The Carthage Board of Education has said the operating levy increase is the priority and if it doesn't pass and the bond issue does, the district won't be able to build the auditorium because of increased expenses after its completion.
Boyer and other school officials will be on hand at the forum to answer questions about the two ballot measures.
Information sheets with more reasons the district says it needs both issues can be found on the district's website https://carthagetigers.org/89944_3 or on the district's Facebook page.
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