2. Unanimous Vote by the Board of Education
The FHSD Board of Education voted unanimously to place a 48-cent operating levy on the April 3rd ballot. The tax levy is named “Proposition Learn,” since revenue will be used to support student learning. A simple majority is required to approve the increase in the operating levy.
It’s worth noting that the vote was unanimous, and the entire Board supports Proposition Learn.

3. Increase Student Access to Technology
Prop Learn will allow the District to purchase new devices for our schools, which would reduce the average age of devices in the building and increase the ratio of devices per student.
FHSD would increase the amount of money spent on technology in our schools and across the District.
Average IT spending in all other St. Charles County school districts is $340 per student, while in FHSD we spend about $150 per student. Our overall technology budget is less now than it was four years ago.

4. New Programming and Innovative Courses
• Prop Learn will allow the District to increase STEM programming as part of the school day at every level.
• We will be able to offer more technical, online, and high school to career pathways courses.
• We will also be able to provide updated curricular and classroom materials.
These new offerings would help our students be more college and career ready when they graduate. St. Charles County businesses indicate a need for better trained workers to fill vacancies in their businesses.
The District’s curriculum cycle has been frozen for the past two years as a result of budget reductions. Prop Learn will allow the District to update curricular and classroom materials.

5. Hire More Teachers and Support Staff
• Prop Learn will allow FHSD to hire additional staff members to address the academic needs of our students.
• We will have a college and career counselor at every high school, to better prepare our students for life after FHSD.
• More staff members will also allow us to better help students with social-emotional issues.
More students than ever before are being diagnosed with mental health disorders, and schools are seeing an increase in disruptive behaviors at the early childhood and elementary levels.
Secondary staff are seeing more students in crisis and in need of direct supports. Many families are struggling to find the resources necessary to support their children’s needs.

6. Funding for Extra-curricular Activities
• Prop Learn will allow the District to eliminate the activity fees at all levels.
• The high schools will be able to provide a full schedule of freshman sports and return transportation for all away activities.
• Middle and elementary schools will be able to add back some extra-curricular activities that have previously been cut.
The District has been forced to cut extracurricular activities to balance the budget. Prop Learn would allow FHSD to restore many of these previous cuts. We know these activities are important, because research shows this type of attachment to school increases student achievement and decreases the changes a student will dropout.

7. Increase Staff Compensation
• The teachers and support staff across the District have had their salaries frozen for the past two years.
• The improving economy makes it harder and harder to find quality support staff who are willing to work for our current pay rates.
• We will start to lose more talented, experienced professionals if we are not able to adequately compensate them for their work.
With frozen salaries and the increasing costs associated with health insurance, many employees are actually taking home less pay now then they were two or three years ago.
Teachers in FHSD have more experience and more education than the certified employees in other benchmark school districts. Teacher quality has consistently been identified as the most important school-based factor in student achievement.

8. • Improve and maintain District Facilities
Additional Areas
The District has 28 separate facilities, including 3 early childhood centers, 10 elementary schools, 5 middle schools, three high schools, an administration building and 6 other sites. Those 28 sites include over 2.7 million square feet of building space under roof. The average FHSD building is 30 years old. Half of our heating and air conditioning systems will reach the end of their life expectancy in the next five years. Replacing these systems alone is estimated to cost upwards of $25 million. Similarly, with dozens of buses and often hundreds of cars per day, our parking lots are in need of significant maintenance. Replacing parking lots district-wide could cost as much as $10 million.
• Improve and maintain District Facilities
• Purchase classroom furniture, fixtures and equipment
• Reserve a portion of funds for future needs

9. What Will Prop Learn Cost?
• If the 48-cent levy increase is approved, the adjusted operating levy of the District is estimated to be $4.66 per $100 of assessed valuation.
• A District resident with a home valued at $200,000 would pay approximately $15 more per month in property taxes.
A simple majority is required in April to approve the increase in the operating levy.

10. When Was the Last Levy Increase in FHSD?
The last time voters in FHSD approved a tax levy increase was 2004.
• The cost of goods and services associated with operating the school district continue to increase, including utilities, transportation, insurance, and special education.
Voters in every other school district in St. Charles County have approved a levy or bond issue in the past four years, but it has been more than fourteen years since voters approved an operating levy increase in the Francis Howell School District. In 2004, George W. Bush was re-elected, and Facebook was launched. The iPhone, YouTube, and Twitter did not yet exist. In 2004, our graduating seniors, the Class of 2018, had not yet started kindergarten.

11. Prop Learn and Strategic Planning
The strategic planning process identified several different areas where the District needs to focus its efforts, and many of these are reflected in Proposition Learn. These include an emphasis on technology, an innovative learning environment, social-emotional support for students, and attracting high quality employees.
With the help of our community, FHSD has spent the past six months carefully examining our District’s strengths and weaknesses as part of developing a new five-year Strategic Plan. More than 2,000 stakeholders provided input in both community engagement meetings and in online surveys. These are the priority areas that have been identified by our community.

12. Our Community Wants a Great District…
Our stakeholders have clearly stated their desire that FHSD continues to be an innovative, high achieving school district. Proposition Learn would provide the necessary resources for the District to offer the quality education our parents want and our students deserve.