As we enter the 2017-2018 school year Mike Bell, Fair Grove Schools superintendent, is hard at work to improve our school economics and financial situation. Back on April 4th of 2017, Fair Grove voted to pass the elimination of the Prop C rollback in our school, this has enabled the school to spend more money per student and improve our facilities. Bell said, “The rollback will generate approximately $170,000 for the school’s general fund, allowing us to take care of high need building and grounds issues.” With the money the school has got from the elimination of the rollback already started many renovation projects such as sealing and striping the parking lot and replacing elementary floor tiles.

Since we passed the full prop C waiver the school has also been able to invest more money in the staff, by increasing the teachers starting salary by $500. “The faculty, staff, and students of Fair Grove have achieved more with less over the last several years and we intend to make every effort to put more money back in the classroom, where it belongs,” Bell stated. The school’s financial situation has shown great improvement since Bell has taken over as superintendent, in fiscal year 2015 the base teacher salary was $31,750 and in the current fiscal year, 2017, our current teacher base salary is $32,500. Teacher base salary is not the only aspect of our school that’s shown great improvement since 2015, in 2015 our return balances were sitting at 15.08% and today are at 20.54%, our total debt was at $18,385,2571 and is now at $10,671,120, and lastly our tax rate was at $3.6500 and today is at $3.9002

The school’s situation has obviously made a lot of improvement since fiscal year 2015, but there is always more we could be doing to further better our situation. Moving forward the school plans to address current debt and manage the district’s resources in a fiscally responsible way. “As a school district we have made a commitment to investing in our students, providing them with the necessary resources to be successful as they progress through school and into the real world,” Bell stated, “The school community and board of education has worked extremely hard to put us in a much better financial situation now, than we were just a few years ago,”  Bell added.

The board of education has also done everything in their ability to pulled their weight in helping improve our schools position. About 7 years ago the economy crashed and many schools were lacking the income needed. After the economy took a hit and Fair Grove wasn’t receiving the appropriate amount of income our school district was struggling to maintain some facility needs. “By the time I joined last year, Fair Grove was struggling to meet certain needs, like keeping the buses and parking lots maintained,” said Jeff Elliston, a member of the board of education who was elected on in April of 2016.

In Missouri, school districts receive some of their money from property taxes in the community, after some research Bell, amongst others, discovered that Fair Grove was receiving one of the smallest percentages of property tax in the state. Bell made a point that by raising property tax by a small amount would help bring in the funds that the school needs, the board took a vote on Bell’s proposal and in the end it passed. Elliston believes that irresponsible use of tax money should be considered a theft, “In this case, though, the school has used the new money to make important building repairs, lease new buses, and even put a little money back into savings for emergencies,” added Elliston.

Fair Grove is now collecting property taxes similar to every other district in Missouri, this has enabled us to put more money into our classrooms and our facility. Jeff Elliston is one of seven members on the school board. Other members on the board include, Jerry Peterie (Member), Terry Tolbert (Member), Jennifer Harp (Secretary), Joy Reynaud (Treasurer), Anita Oplotnik (Vice President), and Daryle Orr (President). “I am very humbled that my community would choose me to serve them, and I hope to do a good job,” Elliston noted.