With the failure of the second tax levy increase in as many years comes possible consequences for more than just the students. There have been multiple studies, including one by Redfin, a national realty brokerage, shows that the higher performing the district is, the higher the property value will be.

“Those two-thirds of people that don’t have children in our schools, that’s probably our primary selling point with those folks,” Matt Deichmann, chief communications and community relations officer of FHSD, said. “The idea that even if you don’t have kids in our schools, quality schools in the Francis Howell School District help keep your property values high.”

In the past two years, every school district within St. Charles County has increased funding, except for FHSD, which hasn’t seen an increase in 12 years. Missouri school districts receive a majority of revenue from property taxes, and valuation of property in FHSD has dropped $44 million since 2005.

“I think the property values are going to decrease because parents want students to have good schools, and that’s why people live where they live,” business teacher Angela Mason said. “That’s one of the reasons why my husband and I, before I even started teaching, were looking in this school district because I knew how good of a school district it was.”

The day before the vote, the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) released its annual performance report, with FHSD receiving a 99.3 percent, one of the highest in the state. The district’s Missouri Assessment Program (MAP) scores also place it in the top 5 percent of the state. As Mason said, it is quite possible that with increased budget cuts on an already strained system, FHSD might struggle to sustain itself at its current level, resulting in the quality of schools going down and property values decreasing.

“Part of the problem is that the Francis Howell school district is a victim of its own success,” Deichmann said. “We have achieved at a very high level for a very long time, and people have become accustomed to it.”