A tax increase now? $264 million bond plan for Shawnee Mission schools is a tough sell

The Shawnee Mission School District has a unique bond with its patrons.

But this is a unique bond issue.

The district is right now asking voters via mail ballots to issue $264 million in bonds in the teeth of a COVID-19 pandemic that has curtailed and crippled commerce, and therefore people’s ability to pay increased taxes.

The money would be used to rebuild five elementary schools, make assorted other renovations and repairs, and free up enough operational funds to hire 61 new teachers to reduce secondary teachers’ workload.

The last goal is particularly worthy: The district’s secondary teachers currently teach six of seven class periods a day. That’s more than the five per day in neighboring districts, and officials say it doesn’t leave enough time for non-instruction tasks such as grading and planning. And Superintendent Mike Fulton says it makes the goal of creating personalized learning plans for each student — a key component of the district’s strategic plan for student success — hard to achieve.

“That’s the thing that all of us have committed to, we’re responsible for, and we can’t let anything knock us off of,” district spokesman David Smith says of the strategic plan. “We’ve got to move forward. We recognize this is a challenging time.”

Board of Education President Heather Ousley and Vice President Mary Sinclair also warn against delaying the bond issue, which may make projects more costly in the future. Fulton says that would only kick the can down the road.

“It is really important for us to keep moving forward,” Fulton says, “because we’ll come out of this pandemic and the needs are still going to be there.”

True enough. But although we appreciate district leadership’s private-business-style dedication to the strategic plan, COVID-19 has foiled laudable goals across the globe — not the least of which have been in the category of government spending.

Other than the pandemic pinch, opponents of the bond issue, including the Kansas Policy Institute and Northeast Johnson County Conservatives, argue that recent enrollment declines and lagging student performance are reasons to vote against the bond issue.

But will denying the district funds really improve student performance? No, the best reason to oppose the bond issue is economic: Now is not the time to ask taxpayers for more money. And of course, taxpayers pay more than school taxes. Taxes have a cumulative effect. Increased taxes also would be especially burdensome to businesses, which are struggling to just survive the past government lockdowns and current COVID-19 restrictions.

The Shawnee Mission School District’s logic may be solid: The estimated increased tax of $8 for every $100,000 of a home’s assessed value is modest compared with the overall benefit to the district, certainly. And officials note the mill levy will still be lower than neighboring districts’. But the timing could hardly be worse. When so many businesses are shuttering and shuddering and so many workers are out of work or just getting by, you can throw logic out the window in favor of practicality.

“The last thing parents and businesses need now is another property tax increase,” says Dave Trabert, chief executive officer of the Kansas Policy Institute, a think tank focused on limited government.

Agreed.

Whatever their verdict, voters have until noon Jan. 26 to return their ballots to the Johnson County Election Office. Ballots were mailed out last week.

A survey of the electorate last summer indicated 78% would support the proposed bond issue, signalling continued strong support from the community. But who knew the coronavirus pandemic would be as sustained and serious as it has been?

Coming as it does in the midst of so much suffering and uncertainty, a $264 million bond issue will severely test the Shawnee Mission School District’s bond with its patrons.