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Citizens for Better Schools

Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Questions and answers about the Sarasota schools tax.

 

By Kim Cartlidge

 

Has the Sarasota County School District been on a spending spree with our property tax dollars? Based on some of the accusations at a recent packed Tiger Bay meeting, the school board has been on a wild ride, spending more than most districts in the country, building unnecessary schools and doling out fat teacher bonuses with scant community oversight.

 

When speaker Walt Augustinowicz dismissed findings of the school board’s volunteer financial oversight committee because they are, after all, school board appointees, attorney Dan De Leo had had enough. He rose to the microphone and asked if Augustinowicz had spoken to or even knew any members of the committee that reviews the district’s budget and spending. Augustinowicz said he didn’t know who they were.

 

De Leo, a litigation attorney with Shumaker, Loop & Kendrick, LLP, does know about the financial advisory committee because as a member, he has spent hours with them poring over and questioning the district budget, sometimes down to the line item.

 Dan De Leo

“I did not expect that one of the panel members would essentially make the inference that we didn’t do our job, we didn’t ask tough questions and we were somehow lackeys or puppets,” De Leo says. “If you knew any of the members of the committee you would know it’s crazy. The chair of the committee [Robert Windom] is a former Reagan administration appointee who is very conservative. The individual who authored the report [John Cranor] is chair of the Chamber of Commerce. These are conservative businessmen. We’re all people who are suspicious of government and taxes.”

 

The seven-member committee of CPAs, attorneys and CEOs who understand the budget better than most of us could hope to—Bob Windom, John Cranor, Mick Ferrucci, Herb Jones, Mark Rehder, Dan De Leo and Rob Lane—strongly endorse extending the one mill property tax for education for four more years. 

 

“We made the decision in 2001 that the average Florida education was not sufficient for this community. That has not changed. To be average in Florida is to be inferior nationally and internationally,” De Leo says.

 

The tax is expected to raise $38 million for operating expenses for the next school year and $40 to $50 million the following years. It costs property owners $1 per $1,000 in property value annually, or $275 for a homesteaded house worth $300,000. Voters will go to the ballot to decide on March 16.

 

Anyone with a child in the school system is aware of school district cuts—from laid-off or reassigned teachers to reduced spending for maintenance and transportation—that have created uncertainty and stress over the past two years. The budget cuts of $42 million last year and $31 million for 2010 have been due to declining government revenues and decreased property values. But the district also faces a “funding cliff” when federal budget stabilization funds of $14.7 million for this school year and $13 to $14 million for the next school year end in 2011.

 

“For me, that is the really important issue that has not been discussed enough,” says De Leo. “The federal stimulus money has been a band-aid. Without it, the cuts would have been draconian. There’s going to be a huge shortfall.”

 

In a climate where every government, business and family is enduring shortfalls as well, the school tax extension campaign is facing more scrutiny than it did in 2002 and 2006, when more than 60 percent of voters passed it.

 

“It’s a fair question, and we should always be asking, ‘do we need this?’” says De Leo. “To me, it’s pretty simple and straightforward. Have the funds been used wisely and has the school board been a good steward of the money? We believe the money has been spent very wisely. We believe the community benefits a great deal.”

 

Read the Financial Advisory Committee Report, with data on student achievement and the committee’s opinion on COPS here.

The school board’s referendum page has more links to information about the property tax.

Published: Friday, February 12, 2010 at 1:00 a.m.

Growing old is what happens when people don’t die young. It is the result of some luck, some good judgment and some genetics. In the best situations, older people are able to enjoy life without the responsibilities and time constraints of jobs and child-rearing. Their income potential may not be what it was when they were working, but neither are their expenses, with the exception of medical care for those with serious health problems. They have time to devote to activities they enjoy, ones they put aside when demands of jobs and family came first. And though retirement is often seen as an achievement, a reward for years of faithful service to a company or a profession, seniors who view this period in their lives as an entitlement tend to perpetuate the stereotypes that many people eschew. I can remember my grandmother, born late in the 19th century, hated the term “senior citizen.” She was fine with “old” and proudly told everyone who asked her accurate age, but she did not want to be known as a senior. She subsisted on a very small widow’s pension as a result of her husband’s service in World War I, heavily supplemented by my parents, with whom she lived. But for most of her later life, she was a fully contributing member of the family, shared household responsibilities and was engaged in civic affairs. It has been the same for my parents. So that’s why I find it so surprising to hear older people talk about how they have already fulfilled their responsibilities to society. They have done their part, they say, and now it is up to younger people to carry the burden. An example is the recent conversation in Venice about renewing the 1-mill property tax for Sarasota County schools. An article in the Herald-Tribune noted that many residents of Venice, whose average age is 65, believe that they have met their obligation to public education. They no longer have children in school and many of them have grandchildren in other states. Why, they say, should they pay to educate students in Florida? Besides, many seniors remember a time when frugality was more than a nice idea; it was an absolute necessity. They were raised in the Great Depression, experienced the rationing of resources during World War II and believe that government, including public schools, should learn to make do with less when money is tight. This kind of thinking causes younger people to discount the opinions of their elders. Public services like libraries and parks and community centers, which senior citizens often use as much if not more than those in other age groups, require money to operate. Likewise, though older people no longer have children in school, they depend on services provided by working people educated in local schools. Additionally, the amenities that people in Venice and throughout Florida enjoy can only be maintained with a strong economy. Without a quality educational system, economic prosperity is an elusive goal. Some may say that a good teacher can overcome any shortage of resources, but the demands of the technological age require an investment in constantly changing learning environments. Besides, those good teachers need to be paid. It is very true that there is waste in government and that public schools are no exception. Citizens have a responsibility to keep an eye on public officials to see that they are acting in a responsible manner when it comes to administering resources and getting the most for tax money invested. It is also true that some seniors are struggling to get by. Their income has not kept pace with escalating expenses and some are living much longer than they anticipated, causing them to fear they may outlive their savings. Still, getting older should not mean becoming out of touch with the needs of society. Most people say they would like to leave this world a little better than they found it, that they want their children and grandchildren to have a life that is a little better than they had. How can that happen if senior citizens oppose changes that can lead to a more progressive community? A strong society is one in which all ages are honored and involved, valued and respected. Senior citizens are vital to a rich culture because they bring wisdom and experience to any discussion. If you combine that with the energy and enthusiasm of youth and the knowledge of an educated populace, there is little that cannot be accomplished. Kathy Silverberg is the former publisher of the Herald-Tribune’s southern editions. E-mail: kathy.silverberg@comcast.net

As a student who attended the Sarasota Tiger Bay Club panel discussion a few weeks ago, I am surprised at what the community had to say about education.

“Frivolous and wasteful spending” are words that still ring in my ears. A large number of community members spoke against renewal of the 1-mill property tax which supports education for our youth.

Surprised? I sure was. Before this meeting, I had never met adults who spoke against the education of children with such indifference. They wanted teachers fired. They wanted funding cut.

Most of this arguing was just a demonstration of their ignorance, because the School Board has already cut over $70 million from its budget in the past two years alone. This has had a big impact on students — fewer teachers, less supplies, and being denied classes we want to take because there’s no money in the schools to make that happen.

However, if you look at what our local papers have been printing, there seems to be lots of money to be spent, because of the addition of the new Suncoast Polytechnical High School and rebuilding of Riverview High School.

Fortunately there is an explanation for this. The Sarasota County school budget is actually two pies of funding: the capital budget and the operational budget. The capital budget deals with funding items such as new textbooks, “smart boards” and construction for campus improvements. The operational budget deals with costs such as teacher salaries, electric bills and maintenance.

The money from each of these pies cannot be interchanged or moved from one into the other, and rightfully so. Is it possible to justify cutting a teacher’s job for a new set of books? Not really. It is very possible that, with declining property values, funds once available to fund a certain number of teachers will no longer be there, but moneys accumulated over time in a separate budget can provide the funding necessary to build a new campus.

I know this because, quite honestly, students ask the same questions as adults do! The general public, however, is blatantly unaware of this, and seems to have this impression that there is so much money out there to pass around in the government. Even a panelist at Tiger Bay, speaking in opposition of the tax, was unaware of the budget structure for the schools.

Want the truth? Ask the students. Ask them what they think the financial system looks like in their school. Ask them how many of their teachers they’ve seen disappear. Ask them how many requests for a class set of textbooks have been rejected.

The answers you get will be very enlightening. Anyone who thinks there is plenty of money for these children is about as aware of the situation around them as the person who is texting while driving.

If the March 16 referendum on the 1-mill proposal does not pass, the resulting stab at education will be a projected $38 million loss, on top of the losses already projected from declining property taxes. This is nearly the same dose of poison that cost more than 100 employees their jobs last year.

Is there a single sane person in this community who would, if given the option through a vote, act to allow such horror to happen again?

Are we in Sarasota County so invested in ignorance, allied to our luxuries, that we would dare to hold a fantasy of lower taxes at the expense of children?

I would hope not. It’s very clear, though, from the Tiger Bay meeting and from what’s showing up in my parents’ mailboxes, that there are plenty of people in this county who are furious with their poor investments and are willing to vote no at the expense of youth to try to “say no to big government.”

May I remind you that the school system is much like a bureaucracy, and that the dead leaf at the top of every tree falls down and hits all the other leaves before it disappears? This is not about the government. This is about every child’s education.

Dustin Morris is a senior at Booker High School. He is a member of the Superintendent’s Council and of the Booker School Advisory Council. He is a graduate of Community Youth Development STAR Leadership Training.

http://www.sarasotacountyschools.net/uploadedFiles/Departments/Communication_and_Community_Relations/!Main_Content_Navigation/Financial%20Advisory%20Committee%20Report%20Nov%202009.pdf