7:30 P.M. School Finance

By Barrett Seaman

The Webster Groves Board of Education is convening in the one-story school-district building tucked into the shadow of the high school. Had out-of-town visitors driven to that meeting by way of Elm Street, with its lovingly restored Victorian homes valued at as much as $700,000, they might have assumed that the board's major task this evening was figuring out how best to invest all those tax revenues that must roll in from such a prosperous community. They would be wrong.

In fact, the Webster Groves public schools are facing a $1.2 million deficit in their $30 million annual operating budget, 80% of which goes to salaries and benefits. And the district faces millions of dollars in deferred repairs on the high school building, which dates from 1907. A close inspection of Webster Groves beyond its wealthiest avenues reveals the reasons for the deficit. To the north and south are neighborhoods of modest, well-kept homes that sell for less than $200,000 and bring in lower tax revenues. In short supply anywhere in town are land parcels given over to commercial or industrial taxpayers--testament to Webster's determination to preserve its residential character, and a big reason why property-tax revenue is relatively low and taxes are relatively high. "We missed the boat in the '50s and '60s, when we had a chance to annex some adjoining communities and develop them commercially," says Brian McLain, who runs a Webster real estate agency.

The main issue before the board this evening is how to sell voters on even higher taxes. The superintendent, Bill Gussner, wants to ask residents in April for approval to borrow some $10 million, by issuing new bonds, to repair leaky roofs and antiquated heating systems. But he also wants to collect more than 50[cents] per $100 valuation in new tax levies, most of which would go to raise the pay of the district's 292 teachers.

There is not much difference of opinion in Webster Groves over whether teachers deserve more money. At $42,400, their average pay is slightly lower than the St. Louis County average. But it's notably below that of peer schools in some other suburbs in the county, which are luring some of the best teachers and prospects away from Webster. Just a month ago, a 14-day job action, in which teachers refused to participate in after-school activities to protest their paltry pay scale, ended with a tentative agreement that earmarks $5 million more for teacher salaries over the next three years.

Webster Groves' taxes, which pay three-quarters of the school's budget, are not that out of line with those of neighboring districts like Kirkwood or Clayton. (A 58-year-old, 5-bedroom home that sold recently for $289,000 has an annual property tax of $2,914.) But because of the community's historic resistance to commercial development, and thus the limited options for raising new revenues, the board has little choice but to count on the district's voters to see them through to fiscal equilibrium.

To help with that effort, the board has recruited Rod Wright, president of Attitude Research, a St. Louis polling firm that specializes in school-finance votes. Fortunately for Webster, he has kids in local schools and donates his time. The goal, he advises the board, "is to get people to vote their emotions and aspirations--and not their pocketbooks."

As if to confirm that observation, one of a handful of parents attending the meeting, Peter Bakker, who has four daughters in the system, rises to urge the board not to settle for a tax increase that would only raise teacher's salaries slightly, but instead to "make Webster one of the best."

That is becoming tougher and tougher to do, acknowledge Wright and others close to the school-financing issue. Caught in the nationwide movement to induce equity in school funding (state aid is capped at 1992-93 levels), the district is also hampered because Missouri requires a supermajority 4-out-of-7 vote on all school bond proposals. Then there are the unfunded government mandates, like the Americans with Disabilities Act, which forced Webster Groves to spend more than $1 million in the past three years on compliance.

Still, Wright is optimistic. "The city has a history of backing these things when they're needed," he says. We benefit from having a population capable of paying higher taxes. In a lot of other places, people have a hard time making ends meet."

--By Barrett Seaman