- March 9, 2025
6:06 P.M. UPDATE: Another tax already?
The School Board has three options: It can either do nothing and let the current 0.25 mill expire, it can ask for a vote to extend the 0.25 mill already in place or it can ask for a vote to both continue the current mill and increase it to 0.5.
School Board member Andy Dance said he was hesitant to ask Flagler County residents for another tax so soon after asking for a half-penny sales tax from voters last November. He criticized an earlier comment by Conklin, when she said the board had nothing to lose by asking residents if they wanted to fund these additional programs for safety and security.
"Actually, we do have a lot to lose," Dance said. "In going back out for an additional tax, we have the very real possibility of losing (the vote) and getting nothing. There's a lot of discussion here, and everyone seem really positive that this will happen, but it needs to be approved by the voters."
Dance suggested that the district might be more likely succeed if it voted to simply continue the mill already in place. Asking for a higher tax rate carries the risk of getting nothing.
"Voters are getting school funding fatigue," Dance said. "We just got done with the half-penny (sales tax) and now we're bact at it again."
Instead of increasing taxes every several months, Dance said, the district needs to find a more sustainable option. He said holding the vote alone would cost about $80,000.
"I don't believe we would be having this conversation if it wasn't for what happened at Sandy Hook (Elementary School)" Conklin said. "That's just the reality. We have a responsibility to do something. So, did anybody think we woudl go back and ask (for another tax)? No. Did anyone think that anything like that would happen in a school? No.
Conklin said she has talked to a lot of voters who said they would support paying a higher tax if its revenue was used to increase security in schools.
"I feel that we have a responsibility to voters to ask them if they want to pay for that," Conklin said.
The School Board will hold a special meeting at 5 p.m. March 12 to discuss how to move forward.
5:40 P.M. UPDATE: Is a half-mill enough?
School Board member Trevor Tucker asked whether the district was being too ambituous with its plans for the 0.5 mill increase. The tax would generate $1.6 million in additional funding for the district each year.
But the cost of extending middle and high school instructional days by 45 minutes will cost $2 million each year. The district would still need to find $400,000 to fund the extended school day, and that's not taking into account the costs for School Resource Officers in all schools and for extended mental health care. Hiring SROs for all schools will cost between $250,000 and $400,000 per year.
"This (millage rate) might not even solve the funding problems we already have," Tucker said.
Tucker said the School Board either needs to explain where in the budget it plans to make cuts to make these programs work or ask for a higher millage rate.
"These are a lot of costs we're talking about," Tucker said. "And if we're going through our reserve (funding) each year, that money isn't going to last forever."
School Board members Colleen Conklin and Superintendent Janet Valentine said that as the district moves into its budget sessions, it will make the cuts necessary to implement these programs.
"I don't remember us having a single year of budget discussions when we have not gone through and cut and cut and cut," Conklin said.
Still, Tucker said the School Board might do well to explain to the public where those cuts would come from, and therefore how the programs proposed with the additional tax were realistic, before voting on an increased tax.
"I would like to see (the millage) as more, but let's be realistic about it," School Board member John Fischer said. "What I've heard from the public is that people are willing to pay more taxes to help ... This is money we should be spending, and we'll find the money somewhere, or we'll find a way to make cuts."
5:30 P.M. UPDATE: A district in financial need
If passed, the proposed mill would generate an estimated $3.2 million per year in revenue, although only half of that would be new revenue, since a 0.25 mill is already in place.
Patti Womack, the district's director of finance, said that this money is greatly needed. This year, the district will need $1.8 million to balance its budget for the 2012-2013 school year. The needed funding for the schools just isn't there, she said.
For the first time in her memory, Womack said, enrollment in Flagler's schools has been declining steadily for about five months. Federal stimulus money is also about to end, she said.
Winnie Oden, principal of Everest Alternative School, said the extended school day and greater mental health facilities are necessary to raising the quality of Flagler Schools. More time in the classroom would raise academic standards and would lessen the amount of time students are on the streets or waiting for their parents to come home from work after school, Oden said. Also, the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting demonstarted the need for increased mental health services, a need she specifically sees working in a small school.
"They really present issues to you that are gut-wrenching, and the issues they bring to school really consume their thoughts," Oden said. "These students come to us broken, but not beyond repair."
ORIGINAL STORY:
In response to sequestration and declining student population, Flagler County residents may be asked to vote this spring on a 0.5 millage levy to meet the Flagler County School District’s budget needs.
If approved, the mill would continue a 0.25 mill that expires June 30 and would add an additional 0.25 mill.
The funding would be used to restore 45 minutes to the instructional day for middle and high schools, to continue to fund school resource officers in all schools, to enhance mental health and counseling services for students and to continue academic programs already in place, according to a presentation the Flagler County School Board will hear at a workshop this evening.
If the School Board decides to move forward, it will pass a resolution for the millage levy, which will then come before the Flagler County Board of County Commissioners for approval. Then, the supervisor of elections would place the resolution on a special resolution ballot.
Check back for live updates as the meeting progresses.
