On Tues., Sept. 19, the Affton Board of Education unanimously approved the 2023 tax rate of $4.8379, maintaining a voluntary tax rollback of 35-cents first introduced in 2017. This 35-cent rollback reduces the tax burden for the community by approximately $2.18 million for 2023.
Assessed valuations for 2023 increased by 18%, or $93 million, over 2022. Because annual fluctuations in the tax rate are correlated to changes in assessed valuations, the tax rates for 2023 ($4.8379) are decreased compared to the 2022 rates ($5.2097).
“Affton School District and the Board of Education continue to pledge our commitment to fiscal responsibility for our community,” said Dr. Travis Bracht, superintendent. “This includes doing all we can to save money for our taxpayers and helping ease the tax burden on the Affton community while still maintaining the funds necessary to operate the district and support key improvement strategies that will keep our schools and our community strong.”
While the District is committed to maintaining quality learning opportunities for students and competitive staffing levels to assist with class sizes, we will also continue to pursue competitive pay and benefits in an effort to retain and attract exceptional and qualified employees. This includes a pay increase of approximately 5% for our certified employees for the 2023-24 school year, as well as the adoption of a new support staff salary schedule for the 2023-24 school year that included more competitive pay for positions district-wide.
Affton School District has continued to honor its commitment to the community by investing over $4.78 million in capital improvements throughout the district in the current school year. The District is currently near completion of a new long-term building improvement plan that will include the modernization of current buildings through updated libraries and learning spaces.