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Seeking support — School Board Member Candace Lankford speaks to the DeLand City Commission about the 1-mill referendum.
By Al Everson
posted Sep 20, 2012 - 1:18:17pm
When Volusia County voters go to the polls Nov. 6 to elect a president and other officeholders, they will also decide whether to tax themselves more for public education.
The Volusia County School Board hopes to win public support for a 1-mill extra property tax for local schools, and the campaign to woo voters is now being formed.
“The reason for the 1-mill referendum is the financial crisis we’ve had over the years,” Superintendent Dr. Margaret Smith said.
To make their case, School Board members and Smith are mobilizing their allies — fellow educators, parents, civic organizations, local officials, business groups and others — to seek endorsements of the tax proposition from local governments and other influential groups.
“We’re getting a lot of requests for presentations now,” Smith said.
If the board and its side win at the polls Nov. 6, the tax would be levied each year for four years, beginning with the 2013-14 fiscal year. It would generate an estimated $26 million in new revenue, barring a further substantial decline in the value of Volusia County’s tax roll in the years ahead.
If the tax question fails, there will be more shrinkage of the school district’s spending, said Dr. Robert Moll, the assistant superintendent for financial services.
“We’re looking at a deficit of $26 million for the 2014 fiscal year,” he told The Beacon.
A rejection of the tax would require slicing the district’s workforce, Moll said.
“That’s a big decision for the superintendent and the board. Eighty-four percent of our budget is personnel, and it would affect all personnel,” Moll said. “Seventy percent of personnel expenditures are for teachers. It’s going to affect the entire district.”
Moll noted teaching jobs have already been eliminated.
“This year, we had a $19 million deficit, and we cut 354 positions, and 247 of those were teachers,” he said. “It could be very painful, trying to balance the budget.”
The Volusia School District’s proposed 2012-13 balanced budget totals just under $764 million. Of that amount, the general operating fund is about $456 million. Other portions of the budget include capital outlay, bonded-debt service, and special federal funds.
The new budget is based on a property tax rate of 7.888 mills, or $7.89 per thousand dollars of taxable value. That levy is below the 8.06 mills set by the School Board for the 2011-12 fiscal year, which ended June 30.
Over the past five years, the Volusia School District has sustained about $97 million in funding reductions. Those losses in state appropriations have forced the local school system to cut spending and its payroll.
Vacant jobs have been eliminated, steps have been taken to save on electricity bills, and there has been only one pay raise for employees in four years.
Since the recession began in late 2007, the School Board and its administration have cut out approximately 1,900 personnel slots, mostly by attrition, but also by merging or combining positions.
As they seek grass-roots support for an additional 1-mill tax, will the School Board spend precious tax dollars in the campaign?
“The law allows us to educate the public, as long as we don’t try to tell them how to vote,” Moll said.
As for ways to get the message out, School Board Member Candace Lankford says she and her colleagues have not considered forming a political action committee.
Reader Comments
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If a teacher complains or tells the truth, they are retaliated against while administrators routinely violate Professionanl Standards. THATS CALLED CRONYISM. NO on 4 and demand their resignations. Then the teachers can teach instead of lying awake at night worrying about which bureaucrat, "coach", "specialist" or other idiot who has never stepped foot in a classroom, will try to fire them. CLEAN HOUSE...............FROM THE TOP.
Someone share it with the board of education. In the meantime keep your hands out of my pocket.
Don't let their scare tactics get to you too. Read the comment from "theone" below and you'll see what it is that they really care about.
There is plenty of our hard earned money sitting there to pay for your music and the arts, we just need to hold them accountable in their spending.
The cure is to dismantle the entire government school system & the teachers unions who run it. If it was a business it would have gone under long ago for producing consistently pi$$-poor products and pitiful value for the dollars spent.
One thing is certain, keep giving the VC schools money now, and they'll be back asking for more to accomidate self-interest in the future. They are the biggest employer in VC, and seem content to stay that way, regardless of the state of the economy.
Take it from an employee of the VCSB. The problems are many, but because someone needs to be held responsible.. let's start at the top.
We have a Superintendent that is either knowingly and willingly allowing people in high positions to operate with no accountability, or she is completely blind and lost, and might I even say impaired.
Whatever the case, she needs to go.
I am in a low level support role with a keen eye on what happens around me daily.. and trust me, the problems are at the top. All you have to do is pay attention.
Examples of this have to be made public, and I'm trying to find a way to do just that. The money that is wasted there is OBSCENE!
We should all say NO to taking more of our money, while they spend our money with no regard for the hard work that ALL of us do to pay it.
Do not give them one thin dime
Let em INVOKE the CHILDREN all they want....money does not equal education
VOTE NO!
How about we look VERY closely at the $74 million that you are paying outside vendors? You probably don't want that to happen, do you Margaret Smith?
Spending has increased tremendously over the past 40 - 50 years, yet our education system keeps turning out lower scores and fewer graduates who can actually do anything. I look forward to debating this with the school board allies, "fellow educators, parents, civic organizations, local officials, business groups and others".
The problems never go away but they always need more money. The public school system reminds me of the house in "The Money Pit".
Oh, and for all of you who will say we don't care about "the children", let me remind you that when the class size amendment passed, Gov Bush warned that we would not have the money to do it, expecially if the economy turned downward. Hmmm, seems he was right but liberals attacked him as being uncaring and anti-education. Maybe it is the liberals, who keep taking more money from "the children's" parents, so they can't provide for the basics of life for their children.
As "Molo Balzak" said, "Volusia's private sector has cut back, join the "club-reality".
Hope you educational people are able to understand this word!
Taxes are high enough - in fact, they are too high!
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