Clever Residents: Points to Consider Before Voting

(From: Clever School District)

 

Guest Post by Retha Holland

The Clever R-V School District has requested voters approve, on Tuesday April 2, 2024, a bond for $16 million for acquisitions, improvements, construction, and renovation at their various school buildings.

Voters should consider these points when deciding to approve or disapprove the proposed bond:

1) Will the proposed bond help increase student academic scores? Clever  has among the lowest student scores in the county, despite having an ideal teacher to student ratio of 1:15.

2) Is the additional tax burden justified and reasonable? The Clever School District levy is currently at $4.6394 per $100 of assessed valuation of real and personal property, with $3.1636 of that going toward district operations, and the rest--$1.2758--going toward debt service (additional account that services the bonds). Currently, this alone represents over ¼ paid to Clever Schools in property taxes.

3) Does the Clever School District currently have bond debt? According to the estimated tax collection the district could be within $100,000 of all debt paid on their bonds. Currently the collection of tax for the levy associated with the bond account is nearly $1.4 million in revenue. However, knowing they were close to paying off the bond debt, the District refinanced the 2017 bond at lower interest rate, but in doing this kicked the can down the road to 2026 before they could call it for payoff--which means they extended the loan with interest. Let that sink in.

4) Has the population of students in Clever increased or decreased? There has been a reduction in student population in recent years; for example, in 2021-2022 there were 1,351 students, while according to January 2024 school board minutes we currently have 1,309 students. Surrounding schools are also slowing or stagnant in student population growth, even though the population as a whole has increased.

5) How much local tax revenue has the school district received and is it increasing or decreasing? Total local revenue in 2022 was $4,563,636. The estimated current tax year revenue is $5,015,274, an increase of $451,638. Additionally, tax reassessments of property (not counting new construction) is up over 6%, which means more money for the District. Note, the local tax effort increased from 2020-2021 through 2022-2023 by $782,192. Combined, this is over a million dollars in extra property tax revenue in four years. Remember, this is just local tax revenue!

About 2,750 homes serve the school district with property taxes. The median income in town is $53,000, while total median household income serving the Clever School District is $63,295. The median for Christian County is $66,500. Yet we have the highest property tax levy associated with the school district in Christian County. (Income obtained from Clever Schools RSP presentation stats for 2022.)

6) What are the payments and interest going to be on the $16 million bond? Take a look at the repayment plan (Bond Debt Service) that is on page 17 of the Raymond James Public Finance company's "Financial Overview of the District." Over the term of the loan, the interest payments on the $16 million bond would total nearly $8.8 million and would not end until 2043.

Taxpayers can get a copy of the plan by emailing the Clever School District and requesting a copy of the "Financial Overview of the District" by Raymond James.

Page 17 of the District overview

7) Is there an itemized or estimated cost for the projects proposed? To date, there has been little concrete project plans and projected costs shared with citizens. The language on the ballot allows the District to use the bond money for just about anything. They are borrowing millions of dollars without a clear cost plan for any of the school facilities.

8) Does the language on the ballot matter? It does! It says, "If this proposition is approved, the debt service levy of the District is estimated to remain unchanged at $1.2768 per one hundred dollars assessed valuation of real and personal property." The language should read "to remain unchanged," which protects the taxpayer from any levy increases during the contract. For instance, if tax revenues would decrease for whatever reason, the District might not be able to make their payments on the bond, and would have to increase the tax levy, thereby burdening taxpayers in perpetuity. The use of the word "estimated" gives the District the wiggle room to increase the levy. "Estimated" means taxpayers could be subject to levy increases if needed to pay the debt. That $1.2758 could turn into $1.40--all based on a forecast of 4% increase in property values, averaged.

Additionally, the ballot language would allow the District to push off some of their internal debt (called lease-purchase debt) onto the taxpayer. It is made unclear how much that will be; as of last fall the total internal debt was $5,985,000.

9) What about renters who don't pay property taxes? If renters ever wonder why their rent is raised every year, and thought they had a greedy landlord, they should realize that when property taxes go up, the landlord is paying more for the rented home, and thus must raise rents in order to keep pace with taxes. Additionally, a percentage of the personal property tax that everyone pays on their vehicles also goes to the schools. Everyone suffers from ever-increasing property taxes!

10) What about SB 190, the tax freeze for seniors? That bill caps assessments on property for those eligible for Social Security, but it does not protect elderly homeowners from a levy increase. It only caps the value of the property.

11) Why should I vote? Nothing ever changes. While our national votes don't seem to matter much, your vote in local elections has major impact. Few people vote in off-year elections, so those who do vote have an outsized impact on what happens in your community. It can and has come down to a single vote that can elect a new mayor or alderman or approve/disapprove a bond issue. Your vote in a local election has a direct impact on you and your community.

12) What about the Hancock Amendment? Clever Schools has been taking advantage of the loophole in the Hancock Amendment that caps property tax increases to 5% for the District's Operations Account. The District has been  transferring a portion of the levy funds from the Operations Account to the Bond Account (which pays down the bond debt). This is a type of legal but unethical "shell game" to keep any and all of the increase over the 5% excess revenue on existing property, instead of returning it to the taxpayer. (Last year was over a 6% increase.)

13) But it's for the children! We all want our schools to be able to have what they need to function well. When we lead with emotional sentiment it can cloud judgment of what is appropriate or reasonable. This tax affects everyone, low income, fixed income, even the children who will be paying off this bond debt for 20 years! Stop and think about that. These loans last about 20 years, and when we approve them, the payments and interest will affect the next generation of students.

14) Is there a better way? Yes. I have found nothing stating that we cannot save money through a tax levy in the District's Capital Projects Fund, where not only can the debt be for a shorter stated period, but with a reduced levy rate the school gets all the property tax revenue that is collected instead of 33% (over $8.7 million) in interest going to the bank and putting our next generation in debt. It would remain our approved debt with a clearly defined contract. It is a win for everyone. We can navigate the needs of the school in a more productive, clear and efficient way.

For example, a 50-cent "saving levy" in the Capital Projects Fund would be approximately $500,000 per year currently in tax revenue. If approved, for say, five years, it would be $2.5 million for stated projects. Currently, according to the Raymond James contract of the proposed $16 million bond, the interest alone over the next five years is higher than the proposed example.

We should live up to our name and be more Clever in how we do things. 

Additional Resources:

Clever Schools Bond Issue

Clever Missouri Hold on to Your Wallets

City of Clever Elections Page

Christian County Election Calendar

Controlled Programming

 

By Gretchen Garrity

Tuesday night (March 19, 2024) there was a Nixa School Board Candidate Forum. It was hosted by the Nixa Parent Teacher Organization (PTO) and the Nixa Teachers Association (NTA). Held in the Media Center, the forum was well attended.

The sponsors had selected questions and given them to the candidates ahead of the forum. Therefore, the candidates' answers were about as vanilla as they could get. They were canned. They were rehearsed. I'm not blaming the candidates. Who wouldn't want to be spared inconvenient questions, or questions that one had no answer for? Who would want to be confronted by an upset parent or voter?

The forum was what is called controlled programming. You, the voter, have no voice (unless you managed to get a submitted question chosen and even then you couldn't talk). If you arrived at the meeting early enough to meet and shake hands with the candidates, you might have been able to ask them a question. Or, if you lingered afterwards you might have gotten a question in. 

But the formal process of a citizen squaring off in public with a declared candidate, a citizen positioned as an equal able to query and expect answers from the person who is asking for their vote, was missing.

In general, these forums are how the System checks off boxes. Public meeting? Check. Candidate forum? Check. Voter information? Check. Public duty? Check. 

It's all for show.

How much is really learned about the candidates? Having sat through a couple of these types of events, the candidates pretty much said the same things as at the other times. The forum last night was recorded. Whether it was live-streamed or will be released online I don't know. If it was live-streamed or released, I would've saved the time and energy of being a mere spectator needed to fill the audience.

I had questions. They weren't the questions in the prearranged forum. They were tough questions I wanted to ask two of the candidates. 

A question for current school board president/candidate Josh Roberts: "You mentioned that the school district is currently consulting with a psychologist to decide whether to provide an on-campus psychologist to teachers. Can you tell me what has changed in the last decade or so that would warrant teachers needing a psychologist on campus?"

A question for school board candidate Megan Deal: "Can you give your opinion of trauma-based education?" And a followup, "Would you agree that parents should be provided an opt-out form if they decide they don't want their children participating in any type of data collection via surveys, questionnaires or evaluations that refers to their child's feelings or beliefs or attitudes, especially those relating to sexual behavior, orientation, or gender identity?"

Civic participation in the election process is so important that events like the PTO/NTA forum ultimately prove unhelpful. What has happened to debates, and open forums, where voters can get a real idea of the candidates' suitability for public office? To preempt questions from the citizens and give candidates the questions ahead of time is a disservice to the community when there is no other avenues for public discourse.

We are being controlled by a managerial class of government workers and their associates who may not even be aware that the processes they implement are not in the spirit or letter of a free exchange of ideas. Citizens deserve to be able to interview the candidates in order to determine which one best deserves their vote.

I would ask the Nixa PTO and NTA to change their format during the next election and allow a period of time for the citizens to actually participate in the forum. Allow questions that might bring up uncomfortable subjects such as Social Emotional Learning and Diversity Equity and Inclusion, and how those agenda--implemented from both the federal and state level in our local schools--are causing behavioral issues in students.

Instead of calling for more social workers and psychologists and more government programs, perhaps a truly open forum would allow citizens to engage on a level that would actually bring both enlightenment and change to our school boards and ultimately benefit the students and staff.

I'm inserting this video of an interview of Abigail Shrier, author of Bad Therapy: Why the Kids Aren't Growing Up, to give you an idea of how important ideas are not being shared with our candidates, or others in the audience. It's fascinating, and our community needs to know that there is a very different narrative to the one we are exposed to by the System, which is always and only a call for more programs and more staff:

One last point. We the People of Christian County is the only group I know of (please tell me if you know of others), that had local school board candidates come to speak...and take unvetted questions from the citizens. I would say a couple of the candidates were probably sweating by the time they got out of there, but they came and took questions. Thanks to Josh Roberts and Megan Deal of Nixa, and to Jason Shaffer in Ozark and Edmund Unger in Sparta. And a big thanks to We the People of Christian County.

Get Over the Paradigm

 

The Problem with Friends

 

From: Ozarktigers.org

 

By Gretchen Garrity

The oft-repeated line that the Missouri Legislature has a Republican super majority is a terrible hindrance to the truth of the matter. When some Republican legislators vote, on average, about 50% of the time with the Democrats, that is not a super majority of Republicans. 

That is called the Uniparty. And the Uniparty's interests do not align with the vast majority of citizens in Missouri who vote (often vainly) for Republicans who hopefully represent their interests.

This is also a problem on the local level with school boards and other elected offices. Uniparty influence easily reaches down to locally-elected positions. How else are their vast interests going to be implemented in local schools, health boards, city councils and libraries?

Citizens need to awaken to the understanding that the candidate or official you have known for years, who attends your church, whose business you frequent, or whose children go to school with your children, may not be the best person for the local school board or city council.

It is vital that you become educated on how they view the world, how they will or have vote(d), and what organizations and individuals they are affiliated with. For instance, the Chamber of Commerce is not what it used to be. It has been co-opted by globalist interests that seek to implement worker programs in the schools. They are more interested in worker bees than an educated populace.

Many local schools are deeply intertwined with the local chambers of commerce. School board members, past and present, and even superintendents are members of the local chamber of commerce. They represent the public/private partnerships that purport to have a mutually beneficial relationship that helps students as well as the chamber. 

Think.

The chamber is a business-oriented entity. It desires what most benefits businesses in the area. Do the benefits of a culinary program outweigh the negative aspects of turning a school into a business that churns out workers and not educated citizens who can reason and determine their own future?

There are plenty of culinary schools around. Why start a program in a high school? Ask yourself the hard questions. Who benefits most from a bunch of kids that know how to work in hospitality, typically a relatively low-income career? Why aren't schools turning out kids who can read well, write well, and do mathematics? The scores are awful in many local districts, yet programs that ultimately benefit business are an expanding focus. Why?

On a similar note, David Rice has written an excellent article about Dustin Kirkman, a candidate for the Ozark School District School Board. Rice asks some important questions and he exposes some important information. His article deserves to be shared around.

From his article: "Dustin Kirkman has made questionable statements about schools, has supported two men who had felony charges against them (and in Christian County, they received a slap on their wrists), and belongs to an organization that does good and services, but leans left and doesn’t believe in absolute truth. Even the ancient Greeks understood truth better than Rotarians seem to understand it."

Incidentally, there will be a radio spot at 91.1 FM KSMU tomorrow at noon (March 19, 2024) with Ozark School Board candidates sponsored by the Informed Voter Coalition (Show Me Christian County).

"Bondemic" Bond(age)

 Retha Holland was was a guest with Kyle Wyatt of All Out Law on KSGF 104.1 this morning. The subject was the "bondemic" that our school districts are attempting to impose on taxpayers. Take a listen. Clever, Springfield, Nixa, and Ozark are all mentioned.

Holland explains how schools propose more bonds just as previous bonds are due to be paid off, basically keeping taxpayers on a rolling schedule of never-ending debt. Always couched as "for the children," these bonds are often 20-year obligations, which means that performing arts center for today's students will be paid for by those same students as they join the workforce in years to come.

Take a look at your ballot on April 2. Chances are you will see a proposed school bond. After listening to Wyatt and Holland you will understand that all is not always as it seems with school bond debt.

The Art Club Movie

 

 

This is a must watch documentary about a family whose lives were turned upside down when their daughter's school began transitioning her without their knowledge. It all began with the Art Club.

"Kevin Lundberg, along with the Lee family, have spent the last year producing this first-hand account of their family’s experience with public school indoctrination and the transgender social contagion.

This film takes an intimate look at this important issue, incorporates expert testimony, and offers advice for any parent, grandparent, aunt, uncle or friend to protect the children in their lives and stand up for truth."

Link to the film on YouTube. It is also available on Rumble.

There is also a companion website: Stop Gender Ideology.

Saturday Screening of Eric Metaxas Film

 

The Politics of Compliance

 James Lindsay knocks it out of the park in this 15-minute talk on how Maoism is being forced upon us through the "politics of compliance."

If you have been told that you have to adhere to a narrative of non-partisanship, that you have to be positive in all interactions with the opposition, that you can't say certain things even if they're true, then you are a victim of the politics of compliance. Watch to the end for Lindsay's antidote:

The Politics of Compliance, or how Maoism works in practice, as given at the fifth International Crisis Summit in Washington, D.C., at the end of February. It should feel uncomfortably familiar and gratefully clarifying.pic.twitter.com/PobU0qqczR

— James Lindsay, number one Gay Studies author (@ConceptualJames) March 12, 2024

It's All Connected

From: EveryLibrary

By Gretchen Garrity

 The intrepid Dan Kleinman, founder of the World Library Association and author of the blog Safe Libraries, has exposed yet another aspect of how the American Library Association (ALA) and its sister organizations like EveryLibrary reach into local communities to undermine their values and indoctrinate children.

Their latest effort is called "Fight for the First!" which is designed to get activists, students, and citizens behind an effort to "protect" the First Amendment. To the ALA, the First Amendment means that children have the right to read smut. They have the right to find it all over the shelves of the children's section. They have a right to have it hanging it out in the teen section like little mental bombs to confuse children and deprive parents of their rights to curate what their children see, and when they see it.

According to Kleinman:

"You know, if ALA is bribing local acolytes with money to affect local political issues, shouldn't the public be able to obtain Freedom of Information Act requests from ALA, FTRF, EveryLibrary even if they aren't government bodies?  It's Sunshine Week, so I'm asking.  Anyone know?  All this money is being spent to sway public law.  Isn't the public entitled to see this?

Nowadays the method of bribery (but not the bribes themselves) is out in the open, and its detailed.  Money.  Consulting.  Online fundraising tools.  Media attention.  Training and resources "that you need to win."  And by "win," ALA means the community loses.  All free.  

 

It's all a fake facade, all astroturf.  'Nearly 100 communities have launched campaigns against book bans.'  Click on the links in the ALA/EveryLibrary tweets to see if your own community has been corrupted with ALA bribery.  Mine has."

 

Go here to read it all and see what kind of support is given to local activists to usurp our community institutions: ALA Details Bribes to Convince Governments to Sell Out Children

 

IT'S HERE, TOO 

And what do you know, Christian County has its own start up group, The Nixa First Amendment Defense Group, aka U-turn in Education:

 

From: Fight for the First

U-turn in Education has been very active in opposing the relocating of materials unsuitable for children out of both the public library and local school libraries. In fact, the name of the individual who has signed on to "Fight for the First!" is a local parent affiliated with U-Turn in Education. She was quoted in 2022 in a News-leader article: "Jeanne Coburn, a parent and part of the U-Turn group, said she supports parents being actively involved in schools and the education of the their children. But, she resents parents pushing to restrict or remove books from an entire library.

"It's a parent's right to decide what their children are exposed to," Coburn said. "But it's not some (other) parent's right to decide what my child is going to be exposed to."

https://x.com/EveryLibrary/status/1767536291946639380?s=Apparently, Coburn doesn't understand that placing explicit, vulgar, and other such books in a school or public library IS giving others the right to expose your child to them. None of these books are banned. They are widely available elsewhere. Parents have a reasonable expectation that a taxpayer institution will follow community standards and leave such books to parental guidance on their own time and their own dime.

BACK TO THE ALA AND EVERYLIBRARY

The ALA has thrown everything into the "Free Speech" bucket. Granted, it gets traction with unaware citizens. However, there are enough activated community members in many areas who understand the lies inherent in the ALA agenda.

It has nothing to do with free speech. It has everything to do with the Marxist fist you see in the tweets linked in Kleinman's article. If the ALA and its allies in libraries cannot get their agendas into the hands of children, they won't get the revolution they are seeking.

Demoralizing children and youth is a feature, not a bug. If it wasn't a huge deal to the Marxists, they wouldn't be pushing so hard to make sure Critical Theory and Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion brainwashing is in the schools and public libraries.

The dots all connect. This is a top-down operation that citizens in Christian County are experiencing. Why did RTWO receive a mountain of gibberish data when requesting public information about communication between the ALA and its subsidiaries and the Christian County Library last year?

 

@right2winozarks Its funny because its true. Wake up people. #christianitytiktok #christiancountymo #librarytiktok #freedomofinformationact #sunshinelaw #freedomofinformationrequest #transparency #willscharf #localpoliticsmatter #grassroots #ToGodbetheglory #library #twitter #thematrix #redpilltiktok #redpilledamerica #patriots ♬ Wake Up (From "The Matrix" - Soundtrack Wonder Band

Moses the "Superintendent"

 

Detail of a 19th-century wood engraving by Frederick Richard Pickersgill

David Rice does a great job of exposing the worldview of Nixa School Board candidate Megan Deal, who recently spoke at a local meeting. It is vitally important to understand where candidates are coming from.

They can say many right things, they can be Christians, they can be articulate and pleasant. But if their basic understanding of the world is not in line with your values as a voter, you have a decision to make.

In order to really get at their true opinions, you have to spend time digging. Rice does that. He's showing the reader what the press will not--the truth.

From his article:

"[Megan Deal] spoke alongside other school board candidates and she talked about the emotional and mental health needs of the students who are being overlooked by the system. In other words, she claimed she was looking for the marginalized children in schools. 

She seems to be focused on her narrowly focused project of finding the students during relaxed times at school (like lunch or transitioning from classroom to classroom). She thinks the board should be there speaking to the students during those periods and learning from the overlooked (marginalized) students.

She also spoke about being like Aaron to Moses, trying to lean on her Christian background for her candidacy. She referenced Exodus 17:12-13, when Aaron and Hur lifted Moses’ arms so that God’s power could still work through him. She described the school board trustees as the Aaron to the Superintendent’s Moses."

Read the whole thing here: Can we Trust Megan Deal to be a Nixa School Board Trustee?

Skewing the Stats

 

"There are three kinds of lies: Lies, damned lies, and statistics." -- Benjamin Disraeli

By Gretchen Garrity

We the People of Christian County held a candidate forum in Nixa on March 4, 2024, where an oft-repeated statistic was shared with citizens by Nixa School Board President and candidate Josh Roberts. He said, "We’re fiftieth in the nation, fiftieth in teacher pay. It’s embarrassing, but the local community--we pay more than most other communities--so we are doing our part. It needs to come from the state and federal level to increase teacher pay and not from your pocket.” Roberts was wise to read the prevailing winds, since local taxpayers are increasingly fed up with property tax increases for schools.

Currently, total funding for public schools in Missouri looks like this from the Missouri Budget Project:

Click on image for clarity

 As you can see, local property taxes make up a very large percentage of funding for government schools compared to national percentages. Even though, according to the Missouri Constitution, "Art. IX, Sec. 1(a). Free public schools...the general assembly shall establish and maintain free public schools for the gratuitous instruction of all persons in this state within ages not in excess of twenty-one years as prescribed by law."

DEAD LAST?

But we are going to concentrate on the startling statistic that Roberts shared. How can Missouri be so terribly low in salaries for teacher pay? Dead last? As everyone knows, statistics can be manipulated to show just about anything. Before we go on, ask yourself where did this stat originate?

If you go looking for it you will find it widely reported in the press: "Missouri ranks last in nation for average teacher starting salary." The "News" has helped to spread this narrative, which the linked article sources as the NEA, the National Education Association, the largest labor union in the United States. Here is the Missouri NEA's Salary Benchmarks and Rankings. Not light reading at almost 200 pages, and who can trust them?

This very short video (one minute) shares how government schools are funded:

 

According to the Show Me Institute in an article titled "Breaking: The Actual Starting Teacher Salary According to DESE," by James V. Shuls, “The NEA report calculates the average starting salary of Missouri’s more than 500 districts. It counts small, low-paying school districts the same as it counts large, higher-paying school districts.

If the Middle Grove School District, which according to the Missouri State Teachers Association is the only district to start teachers at the state minimum of $25,000 and has just 35 students, were to hire one teacher, and the Parkway School District, with more than 17,000 students, were to hire 20 teachers at the starting salary of $44,250, the NEA report would count each district once and say the average starting salary was just $34,625. In reality, the average of those 21 new teachers would be $43,333. This is a difference of more than $8,700.”

“The NEA reports Missouri’s starting salary as $33,234. But what is Missouri’s actual average starting teacher salary?

According to data I have obtained from DESE, the average regular term salary for a first-year teacher in Missouri was $38,367.33 in 2022. This figure was provided directly by DESE after my request. The increase of more than $5,000 would move Missouri up to 37th on the NEA report.”

Do read the whole thing (not long).

There are numerous sites with statistics that rank Missouri anywhere from the bottom to somewhere in the middle of the pack of fifty states:

Education Data Initiative

USA Facts

Congressional Research Service

Missouri School Rankings

Study (teacher salaries by state)

Zip Recruiter (Teacher salaries in Missouri. This is fascinating since this site has no educational agenda)

Zip Recruiter (Teacher salaries by state. Here Missouri ranks 21)

Lastly, as you look at the statistics from the different organizations, you will see that often the differences in salary are only a few hundred dollars from state to state.

As long as we allow the narrative to be about dollars alone as the major comparative, taxpayers will keep taking the hit through manipulation by both the news and school districts. 

What about academic scores? What about cost of living? What about each community's differing needs and wants?

In an article titled "Follow the Money" by Susan Pendergrass, the question is asked, "Do you ever wonder where more than $250,000 spent on a classroom of 20 students goes? So did we—so we built a website to help answer this question."

The website is excellent and helps citizens to understand more about the labyrinth of school spending in Missouri.