The sales tax accountability committee meeting was held on October 27th. They reviewed the fund balance and expenditures and discussed funding issues.
The total amount of sales tax received through September was $5,633,924.08. There was over $1.8 million in purchase orders issued and the total purchase orders paid was $922,096.05. The fund balance is $4,711,828.03.
The committee maintains both a purchase order list and an in progress projects list in addition to the sales tax resolution list. They are going through the purchase order list and projects list to match them to the resolution list.
Kendra Sittig, the School District Budget Director, stated that the board has budgeted $7.5 million in sales tax revenue for 2016-2017 and they are on track to receive more than this figure.
“We, out of the gate, wanted to be able to show we were making some progress on things,” said Erik van de Boogaard. He stated that they decided to get some of the less expensive projects done first so they could show they were moving forward. He explained that they are currently in the planning and design phase of several projects that are more expensive than the initial projects completed. The larger projects are HVAC related. $60 million was dedicated to HVAC projects out of the $89 million on the referendum list. Those typically could be in the $3 million range so one project could wipe out the balance of their fund said Van de Boogaard.
Van de Boogaard explained that they are trying to come to grips with how to tackle some of the larger projects without ignoring the smaller ones.
They have been in a holding pattern because they would like to identify and develop performance contracts for HVAC which will take about 6 months he said. A performance contract is an energy savings contract, which involves lease purchase of equipment and energy saving opportunities explained Van de Boogaard. Combining the sales tax projects with energy savings projects under capital outlay will allow them to get larger projects done without depleting the sales tax fund.
He stated that the HHS Science Building is high up on the list for HVAC replacement. He said that the project was designed, but no funding was available at the time so it sat on the shelf for several years. So they pulled it off the shelf and will be preparing it to go out to bid in the Spring so work can commence on it this Summer.
The last energy savings contract done was a 20 year, $20 million contract and did involve equipment replacement. Van de Boogaard stated that they hey would like to stick with a 10-15 year time frame.
James Scavetta spoke about what they can do to remedy the shortfalls of the sales tax funding. He stated that there has been discussion about still being $50-$100 million short on fixing all of the district’s problems after the 10 year sales tax period. He wants a better idea of how short they are on funding and how the state could provide additional funding to the district.
Van de Boogaard stated that organizations and agencies recommend putting 3% of capital asset value into maintenance. The sales tax revenue he said is only about 1% of value.
It should be noted that the school district collects a 1.5 mill capital outlay tax, which will generate $12,420,332 in revenue during the 2016-2017 fiscal year and is spent on capital projects which include expenses such as construction, remodeling, maintenance and technology. There are a number of other revenue streams that support maintenance.
Van de Boogaard also stated that PECO funding (Public Education Capital Outlay) from the state must be split 50/50 between charter schools, which is hindering capital funding from the state. However, PECO funds are one of the only fund sources charter schools receive to pay for capital outlay, while other public schools have multiple revenue streams.
Gregg Laskoski brought up a lawsuit that was filed in 2009 by Citizens for Strong Schools, Inc., Fund Education Now, Inc., and several individual Plaintiffs who allege that the State “is breaching its constitutional duty to provide a uniform, efficient, safe, secure and high quality system of free public schools that allows students to obtain a high quality education, as required by Article IX, Section l(a) of the Florida Constitution.” Plaintiffs sought declaratory and supplemental relief requiring Defendants to “fulfill their constitutional duties under Article IX.”
Judge Reynolds who presided over the case ruled in favor of the Defendants. Judge Reynolds writes,
“The Court finds, based on the evidence presented, that there is not a constitutional level lack of resources available in Florida schools. That doesn’t mean that everything is perfect, it 7 simply means that there is not a constitutional level crisis sufficient to warrant judicial intervention. The primary thrust of the Plaintiffs complaint is that there is a crisis and it involves a significant number of Florida’s children. Plaintiffs’ allege the crisis is caused by the State of Florida’s inadequate funding of education in violation of Art. IX. of the State Constitution. Plaintiffs, time and time again, directed the Court’s attention to the plight of those students who come to school with less than the necessary social skills and basic educational understandings necessary to achieve success. It was the bottom 25% of students that Plaintiffs spent a great deal of their time addressing, irrespective of whether they were attending an “F” rated school and or an “A” rated school. The goal of trying to provide every child with the skills necessary to succeed is laudable and surely, it is the aspiration of all those who teach and understand the importance of education for all Florida’s children. The achievement of such a goal was argued by the parties. The Plaintiffs asserted that more resources were clearly needed to address the problems they identified in their complaint, while the Defendants argued that more efficient use of the resources currently provided was the most cost effective solution. Defendants pointed to schools similarly situated in terms of resources available, minority students, and economically disadvantaged students to show that success, as measured by student performance, was accomplishable without additional resources. In other words, the reason some similarly situated schools do better than other similarly situated schools is not due to resources, but rather due to better teacher efficiency as it relates to student performance on state educational standards.”
The Judge also writes, “With respect to funding, the evidence indicates that over the past twenty years, K- 12 education has been the single largest component of the state general revenue budget. Even during the recent, severe economic downturn, the State ensured that education funding was less impacted than other government services and functions. In the current school year, the State funds education at the highest level in Florida history. Since the 1997- 98 school year, education funding has outpaced inflation. The State has made efforts to equalize its funding and considers education costs for different student programs and cost-of-living differences across the state. It also is significant that the State has provided sufficient funding for schools to meet the class size requirements set forth in Article IX.”
Southern Legal of Gainesville filed an appeal in October. Laskoski agreed with the law firm’s interpretation of “at least 50 problems with the Judge’s findings” and believes there is a strong basis for appeal.
In other business, Robb Starz, a member of the sales tax accountability committee was removed from the committee (on a 6-0 vote) due to missing two meetings without providing notification about the absences. The Superintendent will appoint a new member per the committee’s organizing document.
The next sales tax accountability meeting is set for January 25, 2017 at 10:00AM 8008 Mobley Rd.
Completed half cent sales tax projects:
In progress half cent sales tax projects:
