Resident John Adams was joined May 18 by several members of the community who voted against the April 7 No-Tax-Increase Bond Issue for the Gasconade County R-2 School District, and addressed the Board of Education regarding “budget risk assessment” and “common ground.”

While the last three No-Tax-Increase Bond Issues were approved by a simple majority of over 50 percent, it requires a four-sevenths majority to pass. Adams said he reviewed the district’s budget risk assessment, provided by Assistant Superintendent Dr. Staci Johnson.

“A lot of us old fogeys and jerks, as we’ve been commonly referred to on social media, read it, and we found a lot of common ground,” he said. “We’ve been voting for 40 years or more, and we’re not opposed to the school district.”

Adams said he wanted to read things into the minutes as a record on the public discourse.

“On the executive summary, it says the core argument: when the debt service levy retires in August of 2026, the district’s total levy naturally drops from $3.85 to $3.18 per $100 assessed valuation, a 67-cent reduction that fulfills the original bond promise,” Adams said. “This position holds that the board should honor that reduction, operate within the $3.18 rate for two to three years, and return to voters in 2028, only if and when data unambiguously demands it. We’re not for voting every bond issue down. We have all voted for every single bond issue, except the last three, which we feel are too extravagant.”

Adams said he had 10 arguments for not raising the operating levy of $3.18 per $100 of assessed valuation, or the district requesting another debt service levy. Board member listened respectfully.

Adams’s arguments included:

• Honor the bond promise to let the levy expire after the bond is repaid.

“Replacing it immediately with a new operational levy before a single reduced tax bill arrives breaks that promise in spirit, if not in law,” Adams said.

Johnson later assured the audience during her report that the district was not immediately requesting a bond issue or an operations levy increase.

• Use the $11.27 million in reserves. “A 50 percent unrestricted fund balance isn’t just a safety net, it’s the board’s most powerful tool,” Adams said.

Johnson later reported during the budget review that the district would be deficit spending by more than $300,000 in the 2026 school year and is projected to deficit spend more than $500,000 next year, as local funding decreases, along with state and federal funding.

“The district can absorb three to four years of structural deficit while community conversations mature,” Adams said. “Maybe some of us old fogeys will die, and operational efficiencies will be identified. The case for future revenue is built on observed data, not projections.”

• Districts are required to project budgets based on legislation and local, state and federal economy.

“It’s important to understand that when you’re talking about reserves, you are only talking about the operational fund, which is used to run the daily operations of the district. It does not include the fund that pays back debt or large capital projects,” Johnson said.

• A decrease in funding forces financial discipline.

“Now this is where it might get hard for you all. A leaner revenue environment creates urgency for efficiency reviews that rarely happen when money is comfortable,” Adams said. “Shared services, renegotiated contracts, staffing model reviews, structural reforms that improve long-term sustainability become actionable under $3.18 in ways they may not be if a new levy simply replaces the revenue.”

Administrators have noted that they are saving around $100,000 in salaries and benefits by not replacing positions when staff are leaving. The board discussed the dangers of going too far and causing stress on staff due to shortages.

• A 2028 levy should run from demonstrated need, not projections.

“Voters respond to visible problems, which we do when fund balances are actually declining, and program-level impacts are felt,” Adams said. “The community self-motivates to pass a levy, and that’s true. A 2026 levy asks people to trust a spreadsheet. A 2028 levy shows them reality.”

• Careful stewardship under pressure, the budget is still favorable at $3.18 per $100 of assessed valuation.

“This is one that you know, I don’t care what other schools are doing, because this is my school here, but at $3.18, Gasconade County R-2 remains competitive with or below several peer districts,” Adams said. “The district is not the lowest-funded school in the region at $3.18, it simply gives back the bond premium.”

He believes locking in a new levy rate before understanding the full impact of potential rate reductions is premature.

Adams reached his five-minute limit, and the board voted 6-0 to allow him more time. Board President Glenn Ely asked him to continue. “This affects the rest of my life,” Adams said, before continuing. “Expenditure growth assumptions may be conservative. The three percent annual expenditure growth used in the five-year model is a planning assumption.”

“If we want to continue to build our competitiveness and salary schedule, $3.18 is not sustainable in the long term,” Johnson advised.

• If enrollment stabilizes, state formulas improve, and operational efficiencies are realized, the fiscal cliff may arrive at a smaller gap, and projections suggest acting on projections alone may be premature.

“If the district chooses the $3.18 now, the August 2028 low turnout election window is still available, and will be available every two years indefinitely,” Adams said. The board previously discussed legislation that would combine the nonpartisan April elections with the November general elections.

• Rep. Bruce Sassmann wrote in the May 13 edition of The Republican that appropriations for the 2025-26 school funding formula were at $4.2 billion, the highest in Missouri history, and the same is expected for 2026-27.

“So you’re not getting a cut from the state,” Adams said. “The conversations about cuts in education were about the lack of appropriations to fund increases in the formula.”

“Legislatures are patting themselves on the back for allocating this to the budget, but it doesn’t exist,” said Johnson. “The money that is supposed to be there from lottery, gaming and cigarette taxes is not coming in. It’s not real dollars.”

Johnson explained during the budget report that the state had appropriated (budgeted) $4.2 billion this year and next year, but the funds weren’t there to give.

“It is complicated because legislatures say they budgeted $4.2 billion and they are budgeting $4.2 billion again,” Johnson said. “The problem is that the amount was not appropriated for this year, so DESE had to go back to request an additional amount in order to get fully funded. They did not get that either. So now, next year, they asked for an additional $118 million just to fill the gap.”

• The bond is ready to be paid off in August.

“I got the payoff.  $2.3 million, that much is in our debt service account right now, as you all know, the balance on the 2017 refinance bond is $2,235,000,” Adams said.

He added that his math was $1.86 million remaining and said someone should call to check the number. “The actual final payment of the bond won’t be until March 2027, but we will lower our tax rate on our debt service in August because we don’t need to collect that much money to make the final payment,” Johnson said.

• Adams said the district’s assessed valuation is $218,767,000 and growing, not including new construction since the beginning of the fiscal year. It does not include personal property tax.

Ely thanked Adams for coming in to share.