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School Board considers raising millage
By ALEXANDRA CALDWELL
| Article published on Wednesday, June 24, 2009 |
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The Pinellas County School Board took initial steps at a June 16 board meeting to raise the millage rate by 0.25 percent to reconcile the $57 million budget shortfall.
The board needed a super majority, or at least a 5-2 vote, to agree to consider the millage increase as the finance team puts together a budget for the July board meeting. This item passed unanimously.
Superintendent Julie Janssen commended the board on the difficult decisions they have had to make over the last few years, such as right-sizing the district and reducing transportation costs. She reminded the board and the audience that since 85 percent of the district’s budget goes toward personnel, the budget crisis is bound to affect that area, but the goals have always been to “maintain quality instruction for students.”
The initial revenue shortage was going to be between $85 million and more than $100 million, Janssen said, but fortunately education received stimulus funds and the district was allowed to shift some additional money from capital to operating funds. Still, the district was left with a $57 million shortfall in funds. Thus far, the district has reduced the budget by $39.5 million, leaving it still $18 million short. The millage increase would bring in about $14 million, and the remaining $4 million would have to be picked up through furloughs and leaves without pay, Janssen said.
Already the district has closed six elementary schools, Janssen said, consolidated four middle schools, eliminated grandfathering in transportation at the elementary school level, reduced the number of required instructional positions, and have eliminated 465.3 positions by taking people from other jobs and placing them into critical vacant positions. From this, there are 11 fewer administrators from the closed elementary schools and consolidated middle schools, she said, one fewer associate superintendent and a regional associate superintendent, one fewer alternative school principal and coordinator, and with Deputy Superintendent Harry Brown taking another job, Janssen said she will operate without that position until at least January.
“While the impact to the individual taxpayers (with the millage increase) should be minimal, the overall impact of the addition to funding is vital for our students and families,” Janssen said. “I continue to stress that what is the bottom line for us is we provide the education that is expected for our children and do that by keeping the people in place that we need to allow that to happen.”
Board member Linda Lerner said she is confident that the board and the district have been responsible and accountable in the cuts made thus far.
“We were elected with an awesome responsibility to provide quality education for every student,” Lerner said. “The Legislature and governor did not do their job. We have the chance to do ours. And I believe the only responsible thing to do is to approve the recommendation of the superintendent.”
Lerner said she understands the actual impact to homeowners should be minimal with the mill increase. The numbers she’d received showed about a $2 per month increase for homes valued at about $100,000 to $150,000. She also stressed that the final vote on this will not occur until September, so the current vote is not binding.
Board member Mary Tyus Brown said the entire board goes into their jobs knowing they will have to make tough decisions, and she, too, believes that the superintendent has cut wherever she can. Brown said that she believes it is necessary to take this further step in order to avoid a severe, negative impact on teachers and support staff.
“I feel the district has been responsible in cutting as much as it can at this moment,” Brown said. “So from my standpoint as a board member, I feel responsible, and I feel that this should happen, and I will vote for it to levy this.”
Board Chairwoman Peggy O’Shea said that while she would vote for this first step, she is aware that the taxpayer impact may not be as low as everyone has been saying. She said the district is in a bind because while if the millage were not increased, staff would have a noticeable slash in pay, on the other hand, many of the district’s lower-paid employees rent their homes. Rentals do not have the 3 percent tax cap or homestead exemption, she said, so therefore the renters will feel this increase in the form of a rent increase.
O’Shea stressed that while she would vote for this step, her final decision on whether or not to raise the millage rate will not come until later.
Board member Carol Cook said she is furious at the Florida Legislature for failing education. This district alone has been hurt year after year, she said, cutting $17 million in 2006-07, $4.5 million in 2007-08, $28.6 million in 2008-09 and now another $54 million for 2009-10. Furthermore, the required local effort mandated by the state has been raised for the last two years, she said, making the local taxpayers make up for the state’s failures.
What angered her the most, she said, is that the Legislature, too, swears an oath to uphold the constitution of the state of Florida, which includes supporting education. She read the following excerpt of the oath during the meeting:
“‘The education of children is a fundamental value of the people of the state of Florida. It is therefore a paramount duty of the state to make adequate provisions within its borders,’” Cook read. “‘Adequate provisions will be made by law for a uniform, efficient, safe, secure and high quality system of public education.’”
Cook said that for the first time, funding has flipped, where the local School Board and taxpayers have to fund 60 percent of its education budget with the state only offering 40 percent.
“And in that 40 percent that they’re (the state) offering, they’re telling people that we have a $1.2 or $1.3 billion increase in education funding this year,” Cook said. “But $999 million of that money came from the stimulus package. The other portion, the other $1.2 or $1.3 (million,) is from the money we can raise with this 1/4 mill. But yet the public thinks that they have dumped all sorts of money into it. Now we can vote right now to approve this, but two years from now we’re going to lose the stimulus money and we could also potentially lose this money, and we are looking at catastrophic possibilities. I’m supposed to take this in good faith that the legislators will turn around and do the right thing if we just buy a year. They have not proven that to me so far, and I can’t just have blind faith when time after time after time that it has been shown and proven to me that I can’t trust that they will do the right thing for our children.”
Cook said this is a “despicable” position to be in and that she hates that she has to look at employees each day and know that her choice is either six to 10 days without pay or two to three days without pay.
“I don’t like being put in this position,” Cook said. “This is not a position we should be in. I will make the decision but I just have to say, this is a responsibility of the legislature. We should not be here, and I resent it.”
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Article published on Wednesday, June 24, 2009
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