Van-Far R-I School District will have a rollback in taxes, the district superintendent said Friday in an email.

At the school board meeting July 17, Superintendent Natalie Gibson said the district’s financial assessment arrived, and based on the new assessed value, the district has gone up $25 million and that would cause the district to do a rollback of the taxes.

“The personal property taxes for the members of Audrain County in our district alone went from a little over $2 million to over $10 million in one year, and I think that’s really odd,” she told the board. 

The commercial taxes increased by $15 million, she said, adding the increases would cause the rollback. She said the district would still have a bond issue, set for April, but “some things may be a little different depending on what we’re able to do and whatever road that takes us.” The tax rate hearing is scheduled for 7 p.m. Aug. 21.

In an email Friday, Gibson said she met with the county assessor and is awaiting answers from the county assessor about specifics as to why the district’s personal property taxes increased by a little over $9 million this year alone when they have always been under $3 million. 

“I was told it was due to the way Ameren categorized some of the solar projects, but I am confused because I thought those projects were the reason for (the district’s) $15 million increase in commercial taxes,” she said. “Nonetheless, we are going to have to rollback our taxes, (and) it appears by approximately $0.30 to $0.40. This rollback will also impact the amount the district receives through the Chapter 100 bonds from the other solar project unfortunately.” 

The district has operated from this levy for over a decade, so officials will need to spend wisely in the coming years as in order to return to the levy they lost, Gibson said.

"If we ever want to return to our current levy, or increase the levy, we have to have a vote," Gibson said, referring to taxpayers. "This is obviously unsettling as we face other potential tax cuts in other potential legislation." 

Also at the meeting, Ryan Morris, district director of maintenance, gave a maintenance update and said crews were ahead of schedule in the cleaning of the buildings, and said he was pleased with the progress of that and with the summer help, including some projects that are normally performed by others, such as painters. Morris also updated the board on the softball field, explaining the field had some drainage and sod issues. Later, in an email, Gibson said the field experienced some issues since it was built with drainage in left field. The original designers agreed to correct the issue and improve the flow of the backstop this summer. They did this for the cost of supplies, she said, adding “it was a good deal for us considering the original work was conducted in 2020.”

Gibson said it has been a “very productive” summer as far as facilities, and a facilities meeting was held July 16 with designers from Veregy and discussion was held on some plans of what could be created in the high school building, such as alternative locations for the library. Veregy was approved by the board in June to be the project manager for the bond issue. Gibson said in the email that the bond will be on the April 2026 ballot.

On the action items on the agenda, among other moves, the board approved tire bids to Jireh and the revised 2025-26 junior high/senior high school handbook.