History was made in the Mehlville School District April 6 when voters passed the first bond issue on the ballot in the district since the 1990s, Proposition S, with over 80 percent of the vote. Projects start this summer.
Proposition S for “Safe Schools, Safe Kids,” a 12-cent, no-tax-rate-increase $35 million bond issue, uses funds that have paid off 2000’s Proposition P lease for facilities upgrades and secure entry vestibules at all of Mehlville’s 18 schools. Mehlville had been the only school district in St. Louis County without a bond issue in several decades.
Prop S passed with 80.1 percent of the vote, well above the 57 percent it needed to pass.
Voters approved the Mehlville School District’s Proposition S bond issue with more than 80 percent of the vote April 6, the first time Mehlville voters have passed a bond issue since 1992.
South County voters also approved Hancock Place School District’s Proposition R bond issue, which is also a no-tax-rate-increase bond.
Mehlville had been the only school district in St. Louis County without a bond issue to fund facilities. Proposition S, a 12-cent, $35 million bond issue, will use part of the funds left from paying off the lease approved by 2000’s Proposition P for facilities to fund secure vestibule entrances at all 18 of Mehlville’s schools, along with basic maintenance and accessibility at all schools. Proposition S stood for “Safe Schools, Safe Kids.”
Once more, the Mehlville School District passed a historic ballot measure last week: Proposition S, a $35 million, 12-cent no-tax-rate-increase bond issue, was approved with over 80 percent of the vote.
It’s hard to believe, but it’s been nearly six years since Mehlville voters passed another historic ballot measure, Proposition R, a 49-cent operational tax-rate increase. True to its name, Proposition R for “Restore,” Mehlville used those funds to restore budget cuts and retain teachers.
Proposition P of 2000 was not structured as a bond issue since district officials at the time did not believe that more than 57 percent of voters would approve it. Two large operational tax-rate hikes failed between 2000 and 2015, which set the district on a cost-cutting course that eventually led to $8 million in budget cuts in 2015, after which more than 73 percent of voters approved Prop R.
To the editor: It’s simple, really. The Mehlville School District’s Proposition S bond issue on the April 6 ballot is a zero-tax-rate increase. It is a reallocation of funds that are already being paid by the taxpayer. Because of oversight, it requires a vote by the people. Secondly, parents have communicated that safety is the.
Mehlville School District voters will weigh in on the district’s first bond issue in nearly 30 years April 6.
Voters will decide whether to approve Proposition S for “Safe Schools, Safe Kids,” a 12-cent no-tax-rate-increase bond issue that would fund $35 million in safety upgrades and maintenance on existing facilities. If passed, the district will voluntarily roll back 12 cents of the 45-cent operational tax-rate increase for facilities, 2000’s Proposition P, which funds bond-like certificates of participation or COPs set to be paid off in 2022.
District residents may be unfamiliar with bond issues since they haven’t passed one since 1992, so Superintendent Chris Gaines held public meetings over the last several years with financial advisers and the Board of Education to outline the pros and cons of going for a bond issue, which is not permanent but requires a higher threshold of 57-percent voter approval, or going for an operational tax-rate increase, which only require