There are several school districts in the St. Louis region seeking property tax increases on the November ballot. Parkway ($0.46) and Webster Groves ($0.65) both have substantial tax increases before voters, but the Hillsboro school district tax proposal takes the cake. The Hillsboro R-3 School District is asking for an increase of $1.39 per $100 of assessed value, or a 37 percent increase. I have honestly not seen a tax increase proposal this large in my time following local government.
(An AI-assisted review of tax increases in Missouri tells me there have been a few larger ones over the past 20 years, but they were in much smaller districts with much lower total assessed valuations. The Blackwater school district, for example, passed a $1.50 increase in 2021, but the increase was split over two years to offset the impact slightly.)
The average home value in Hillsboro is $324,000. This means an average tax increase of $855 if the measure passes. However you want to put it, that is a lot of money to most people.
The district is telling people it is controlling costs and it needs the tax increase for a variety of reasons. Here is the part that interested me the most:
He [the superintendent] also pointed to lower administrative spending as proof that Hillsboro has worked to control costs.
According to the figures presented, the district spent about $1.5 million on executive administrative salaries in 2018. That amount fell to about $739,000 in 2025. Benefit costs in that category fell from about $426,000 to $194,000 during the same period.
Hillsboro also reported having one administrator for every 186 students. The statewide average is one administrator for every 156 students.
The Show-Me Institute just released a report on the public school personnel boom in Missouri. What did our research find about Hillsboro school district? From 2000 to 2025, student enrollment declined 13 percent. The total number of teachers increased only slightly, three percent, but average teacher salary went down 18 percent. How about the administration? From 2000 to 2025, the total number of administrators increased by 42 percent. The average administrator salary has declined by 11 percent, but with so many more administrators the total spending on administrators has increased by 25 percent. (All numbers are adjusted for inflation.)
The fact is that Hillsboro schools are like most other school districts in Missouri. Student enrollment is declining. Teacher salaries are holding flat or declining. But spending on administrators? That has increased significantly.
Of course, Hillsboro may have legitimate cause to increase administrator spending and staffing at this level. After all, its staffing-to-student ratios were relatively high before. But when a tax increase of this size is on the ballot, it is imperative to have transparency and accountability on spending.
