It’s business as usual for the 75 students in the Stet R-15 School District today, but following Tuesday’s failed bond issue, the future of the kindergarten through 12th grade school is in doubt.
Patrons of the district voted down a bond issue that would brought in an additional $60,000 annually to the school which has been struggling with a double-whammy of declining state funding and increasing expenses.
“We are literally losing revenue and getting more bills,” said superintendent Thomas Challendar.
After taking a long hard look at the school system’s finances, the board placed the bond issue before voters which would raise the operating tax levy to $5.9999 per $100 of assessed valuation. If successful, the R-15 district would have carried one of the highest tax levies in the state, jumping up from its current position of within the top 15 percent.
Proponents of the issue were somewhat optimistic because the district carried a tax levy higher than the one proposed back in the 1980s. Challendar said that a 6.0 bond levy received voter approval 25 years ago.
Despite a town hall meeting in October and a committee’s efforts to persuade patrons via a letter-writing campaign, the issue failed 145 to 108.
Challendar speculated that the issue likely failed because of two reasons: an influx of new families in the district without ties to the school system and the struggling economy.
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Chillicothe, Mo. —
