Tag: Excess Levy Jefferson County WV

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School Boards

Vote Against the (School Excess) Levy

Vote No to More Taxes; Against the Levy

Just the surplus from the Excess Levy this past fiscal year covered all teaching and service personnel not covered by state funding, plus the teachers’ levy bonus. Where did the other $17 million plus designated for salaries go?

The current School Excess Levy in Jefferson County West Virginia was voted in on November 3, 2020 and runs from July 1, 2021 to June 30, 2026 and raises at least $22,412,937 per year, or $2720 per student EXTRA!

Now the Jefferson County Board of Education wants us to pay $25,427,656 per year for the next School Excess Levy, which, if not defeated on November 5, 2024, will take effect from July 1, 2026 to June 30, 2031.

The accounting for what our tax dollars are spent on is very opaque.  I believe in the necessity of transparency, honesty and accountability on the part of our Board of Education.Since the Board of Education cannot detail clearly where our tax dollars have gone, the next Excess Levy should not be approved. 

According to the limited data which was provided by Superintendent Chuck Bishop, teacher and service personnel salaries account for about 16% of the total excess levy amount collect for the 2023 fiscal year, which was $27,724,340, or $5,296,684 more than the projected $22,412,937.  Only 39 teaching positions, out of 559 total positions, and 0.4 (yes, less than one) nurses, school counselors or attendance workers, plus 70 service personnel out of 394 total are paid out of levy funds.

But the county does not distinguish between the regular school levy funds, which are $330 per $1000 of property taxes collected, and the excess levy funds, which are another $391 for every $1000 of property tax collected.  This means that those 39 teachers, 0.4 nurses and counselors and 70 service personnel are also funded by County school funds that will be available even when the Excess Levy does not pass.  And only $800 of Excess Levy funds per year are paid to a teacher with five years’ experience and a bachelor’s degree, or less than two (2) percent of all Excess Levy funds collected, in total, goes to teachers. 

The extra amount collected of $5,296,684 above the projected amount of $22,412.937 in itself could have paid for all of the personnel not covered by the state formula, the cost of which was about $4.5 million.  Yet the Excess Levy collected $21,650,284 for salaries.  And remember that salaries not covered by the state are also paid from the regular County School Levy (labeled “School Current” on your property tax bill).  So, where did the other $17,412,937 of excess levy salary support go, considering that only some $420,000 went to support teacher salaries and about $4.5 million from all levy funds, both excess and county current, went to pay teachers and other personnel not covered by the state formula?   

No doubt, the bloated Jefferson County Schools central office staff of 44 received a good portion of the excess levy funds.  A new state law requires the Board of Education to make available to anyone who asks a list of all employees’ salaries, which was due on September 30, 2024.  Yet the Board of Education and the Superintendent have not made that list available as of October 25, 2024.  What are they hiding?  Maybe the $9000 average bonuses per central office employee, that increase every year and continue perpetually, that the Board of Education granted to central office staff in 2020?  As you can see, there is a severe lack of transparency in the spending of our tax dollars.

The bloated central office staff has 44 personnel, up six personnel since 2020.  Yet, school enrollment has declined by 715 students, or 8 percent since the 2019 to 2020 school year.  The total school budget then was $118,000,0000, but now for the 2023-2034 fiscal year it was 127,691505, up 8 percent for 8 percent less students.

In fiscal 2025, the Board of Education wants to increase the budget even further, in spite of no increase in enrollment, and lackluster student performance, with 74 percent of high school students not proficient in math, and 38 percent not proficient in reading.

Vote no to more taxes, and AGAINST THE LEVY.

More information about the School Excess Levy in Jefferson County, West Virginia: visionroot.org/levy.

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West Virginia Politics WV Elections 2020

Vote Against the Jefferson County School Excess Levy Mega Property Tax

By Richard Urban

Recently, without any public discussion or notification, and in the midst of the economic hardships of the Corona Virus, the Jefferson County Board of Education voted school officials an annual salary increase of $310,000.  This increase is tied to percentage of total salary, and will continue to reap benefits for school administrative staff for years to come.  This increase was also voted in at the last meeting before new school board member Donna Joy took her seat on July 1st, 2020. 

Now, we the voters of Jefferson County are asked to renew this wasteful and expensive tax, which more than doubles the amount of school tax collected, while increasing overall property tax bills by a whopping 40%.  On a rental property valued at $225,000 that means a monthly increase of property taxes of $103, or $1239 per year.  That means renters will pay over $100 per month extra for rent that their landlord will pass along to them.  Similarly, homeowners will also pay over $50 per month extra.

The Board of Education has apparently come to consider these funds as an entitlement.  Voters have to hire a detective to figure out where the funds went.  It took some three months for the Spirit of Jefferson newspaper to get the information needed to calculate for themselves how much salary increase each of 38 administrative employees got.  The highest amount was $20,755 annual increase, with the average annual increase being $9207. 

Only about two percent of the excess levy goes toward increasing teacher and service personnel salary.  Due to lack of transparency, it is impossible to readily ascertain how much is spent on additional non-teacher positions, like librarians, and how much is paid for the bloated administrative staff, now at 38 positions to administer 1280 school personnel and 8900 students.  In contrast, the much larger Kanawha County school system serves 25,373 students and has 47 administrators!

Another example is the lack of transparency into what the legal expenses of the Jefferson County School System are.  No invoices detail how much is paid for legal services.  In fiscal 2019, $997,678 were paid to EPIC, an inter-county organization that provides support services for schools.  However, the invoices do not say what the expenditures were for.  One of the services provided by EPIC is the services of attorney Laura Sutton, although that is not one of the stated services listed on their website.

Also, don’t forget the $140,000 the Board of Education foolishly spent (that we know of) trying to condemn the Rockwool property after it changed its mind about the Rockwool plant due to public outcry.

On a closing note, teachers in Jefferson County earn an average of $50,327 and are contracted to work 200 days (40 weeks) per year.  As I mentioned above, only some 2 percent of this pay comes from the excess levy mega tax.  Much of the tax goes toward the bloated administration, excessive legal expenses and who knows what else.  And due to a lack of transparency, we won’t know what else.

In 2015, less that 14 percent of registered voters voted in favor of the excess levy mega tax, saddling all county property owners with the huge mega tax.  Be sure to vote on November 3rd, and vote “AGAINST THE LEVY” on the school excess levy mega tax.  Also vote “NO (AGAINST THE BOND ISSUE) on the school bond issue, which will increase taxes even further.  The Jefferson County School Board cannot be trusted for a transparent accounting of your tax dollars and the above examples show how your tax dollars are being spent wastefully.