“The citizens of St. Louis have said that education is important and they are willing to pay for it,” Saint Louis Public Schools Superintendent Kelvin Adams said on Tuesday, April 5, after the campaign for Proposition 1 declared victory.
Prop 1 was a measure to increase the tax levy in the district by 75 cents to fund early childhood education, salary increases, alternate education and security. It won by a crushing margin, 69 percent (31,557 votes) to 31 percent (14,036 votes).
Adams spoke at an election watch party held at the district’s administrative offices in downtown St. Louis. All three members of the district’s appointed Special Administrative Board (SAB) attended and spoke.
“The City of St. Louis said to us again that they trust us to handle their money and, more importantly, they trust us to handle their children,” said SAB member Richard Gaines, who led the effort to pass Prop 1, “and for that, we are grateful.”
Rick Sullivan, SAB president, said that Gaines had thanked everyone, so he wanted everyone to thank Gaines. A crowd of about 50 district and campaign staffers cheered Gaines.
Melanie Adams, SAB vice president, said she worked the campaign phones a few times and was struck by “the camaraderie and people working together.”
St. Louis Treasurer Tishaura O. Jones, honorary campaign co-chair, said it was an “historic campaign.” This was the first time the district asked voters to increase the tax levy in 20 years, and it passed on a municipal ballot with five initiatives, all calling for a tax increase or bond issue.
Then, Jones joked, “I’m going to celebrate with the teachers tonight. Hey, we’re getting a raise!”
It’s the job of Mary Armstrong, president of Local 420 of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), to make sure district teachers and staff actually see those raises.
“Dr. Adams has done a yeoman’s job and we’ve been working in concert with him, not against him,” Armstrong told The American in an interview. “But I’m looking forward to getting back to the bargaining table.”
Armstrong cited a litany of educators leading other districts who left Saint Louis Public Schools for better pay elsewhere, including Tiffany Anderson, superintendent of Jennings Public Schools, who is leaving for the superintendent job in Topeka, Kansas.
“We’ve become a training ground,” Armstrong said. “They leave here for more money. I can’t blame someone leaving to make $15,000 or even $25,000 more somewhere else. But we need to do something to maintain quality staff.”
Byron Clemens, an organizer for AFT Local 420 (which has about 2,200 members), said funding for early education was just as important to teachers and staff as salary increases. Early childhood programs are currently funded though the desegregation settlement, but those monies will run out in 2017.
Armstrong agreed that funding for early childhood education was critical.
“We have a vested interest in children,” Armstrong said. “What benefits children benefits teachers.”
Earnings tax and all measures pass
Somewhat amazingly, all five measures on the April 5 ballot passed by large margins.
Proposition E, which renewed the city’s 1 percent earnings tax for another five years, passed 72 percent to 28 percent, despite a campaign to defeat it funded massively by Rex Sinquefield. The city gets about one-third of its revenues, equal to the budget for the police and fire departments, from the earnings tax.
“There has been a good week of news for City residents. First, NGA; now a resounding victory for Yes on E,” Mayor Francis Slay said in a statement. “City voters rejected a very dangerous gamble with our public safety and credit rating. The people who helped win tonight – as grassroots as you can get – are now poised to do even more great things.”
Proposition F, a bond issue to fund fire trucks and other public safety infrastructure, passed 83 to 17 percent.
Even the Metropolitan Sewer District passed two measures. Proposition Y, which passed 72 percent to 28 percent, is a $900 million bond issue to fund wastewater improvement mandated by the district’s consent decree with the EPA and the Missouri Coalition for the Environment. Proposition S, which passed 61 percent to 39 percent, regularizes storm water taxes in the region.
