OSCOELA COUNTY, Fla. – The School District of Osceola County is asking voters to consider approving a property tax that district officials say is critical to avoiding deep cuts to staff, school safety and student programs over the next four years.
The district is requesting the Osceola County Commission place a referendum question on the November ballot asking voters to approve or reject an operational millage to help fund both traditional and charter schools.
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Superintendent Dr. Mark Shanoff said the stakes couldn’t be higher.
“We are now at a point where it’s going to be pretty catastrophic over the next four years if we don’t do something,” Shanoff said.
The proposed millage — one mill — equals $1 for every $1,000 of taxable property value. For a home with a taxable value of $200,000, that works out to $200 per year. If approved, the millage would last for four years.
“One mill, we have calculated, would generate $62.5 million. Now because about 25% of our students attend charter schools, we would need to provide the charter schools with their proportional share. So this this millage, not just benefits students in your traditional stock schools, but it also benefits the traditional charter schools as well,” Shanoff explained.
If approved, a independent citizen advisory committee would oversee how the money is spent. Shanoff tells News 6 that the money would go toward competitive pay and benefits to recruit and retain teachers and staff, maintaining safety and security personnel, and preserving academic programs including arts, music and athletics.
Here is the question voters would see on ballot:
“To provide for essential operating expenses, including competitive compensation and benefits to recruit and retain high-quality teachers and staff, maintain safety and security personnel, preserve academic programs, arts, music, athletics and student activities, shall the School District of Osceola County levy an ad valorem tax of one mill for four years, to be shared proportionately between public and charter schools, with oversight by an independent citizen advisory committee?”
District leaders say budget pressures are not new. Over the past two years alone, the district has already been forced to make significant reductions.
“Over the last two years, over $60 million we’ve had to cut out of our budget,” Shanoff said. “Osceola County schools, we only we generate the the second lowest per pupil funding in the entire state. We have the second lowest administrative overhead in the state. So when people say, ‘oh, we’ll just cut the district office,’ we’re already lean at the district office. We really can’t cut any more than we’ve already cut. So at the end of the day, it’s really important that our public knows that we’ve taken the austerity measures that we can possibly take.”
Without new revenue, Shanoff warns those cuts will continue and deepen. About 80% of the district’s total operating budget goes toward salaries and benefits, making personnel the most likely target.
“If it doesn’t pass, we’re going to be looking at further austerity because we will have to cut people,” he said. “There’s no other way to handle this than to cut people, and when we cut people, that means that we cut critical services and critical programs to our schools.”
One area of particular concern is school safety. State law mandates that schools have at least one armed security officer during the school day. Osceola County schools are currently staffed by school resource officers through a cost-sharing partnership between the district and local municipalities — including the Osceola County Sheriff’s Office, St. Cloud Police Department and Kissimmee Police Department.
Shanoff said that arrangement could be jeopardized if local governments face their own budget constraints, especially as voters statewide consider Amendment 3, which would overhaul state property taxes.
“If the municipalities run short of funds, the responsibility of staffing armed security at schools comes back to the school district, and we will have to go with private armed security, different than having actual law enforcement on campus,” Shanoff said.
The millage, he says, would help cover the municipality’s share of those costs and keep sworn law enforcement officers in schools.
Beyond safety, Shanoff points to federal funding reductions as another growing threat to student programming.
“If Title 4 goes away, all of a sudden we run the risk of having to cut back on our arts and our athletics programing. If we end up doing that, all of a sudden we’ve taken away the draw for so many of our students into schools. We know that our parents want our kids involved in the arts. We know that our parents want our kids involved in athletics,” Shanoff said.
“We want to make sure that those opportunities are still available for our students, because many of them use those opportunities as a launching point to where they go next. And for many of them, that means also being able to pay for college, which is really, really important.”
Shanoff also frames the millage as a matter of regional competitiveness when it comes to hiring qualified teachers.
“Otherwise, we stand to lose really great teachers and staff members who can then go somewhere else in Central Florida that may be paying more as a result of having their operational millage already in place and approved,” he said.
As for whether the district is considering closing or consolidating schools, like other districts have recently done, Shanoff says that it is not an option right now, but he did not rule it out entirely.
“I think everything is on the table,” he said. “Especially in lean budget times and especially as costs continue to rise. I think that school districts are forced to do more with less.”
On Monday, the Osceola County Board of Commissioners will vote on whether or not to put the referendum question on the ballot. The board cannot make any changes to the question, only decide if it will go before voters.
If they pass it, voters would then be able to weigh in on the millage question on Nov. 3. For more information on the millage request, visit the school district’s website.