JACKSON SCHOOLS TARGET OCT. 5 ELECTION FOR WAIVER

JACKSON -- The Jackson School District plans to join 49 other school districts in Southeast Missouri this fall to seek voter approval of a waiver of the property tax rollback.

In Jackson, passage would allow the district to retain $170,000 in local tax money.

The rollback issue was discussed at the board's meeting on Tuesday.

The board is expected to approve a resolution at its Aug. 3 meeting to place the waiver issue on the Oct. 5 ballot. The meeting has been moved up one week in order to vote on the resolution.

Under Senate Bill 380, Missouri's new education law, all school districts in the state must raise their tax levy to $2.75 by July 1994. If they don't, a portion of their Proposition C money is deducted by the state.

Excluding the debt service levy, Jackson's current school tax levy is $2.63 cents, 12 cents below the $2.75 minimum. "No matter what happens, the tax levy is going to go up to $2.75," said Superintendent Wayne Maupin. "The only difference is if the school board approves the property tax waiver, the district loses $170,000 in Proposition C money that would normally come back to the district.

"If the voters approve the waiver in October, we keep that money in the district. The issue really has no bearing on taxes, because no matter what we do, the (higher) tax levy is going to be there.

"The penalties for failure to comply with Senate Bill 380 are severe," Maupin continued. "We can't sit back and ignore the bill. We must respond in a pro-active way."

Maupin said the 50 school districts plan to conduct an extensive publicity and educational program in September to explain to the voters why approval of the rollback waiver is necessary.

In other business, the board approved the school district's 1993-94 teacher salary schedule that contains a 6 percent pay increase, the first in the district in over three years. The board voted 6-0 to approve the new schedule, with board member Jeanette Bollinger abstaining.

The schedule raises the starting salary of a teacher in the Jackson district $1,000, from $18,400 to $19,400, and adds a 22nd step to the schedule with a maximum salary of $35,114 for a teacher with a master's degree plus 16 years.

The new schedule brings the average salary for a teacher in the Jackson district to $27,500, slightly below the state-wide average of $28,948.

Total cost of the pay increase is about $400,000, which will be made up from additional state money and local funding growth in the district. The new schedule contains incremental steps of about $582 per step.

The board set Aug. 24 as the date for a public hearing for the 1993-94 tax levy. The hearing will begin at 7:30 p.m., prior to the regular board meeting.

The superintendent reported the school district and contractor are awaiting an erosion control permit from the Missouri Department of Natural Resources before site work can begin on the new Middle School.

Maupin said the application was submitted "weeks ago." The contractor has equipment on the site ready to start moving earth just as soon as we receive the DNR permit," he said.