INDIAN RIVER COUNTY — The four candidates running for two School Board seats debated a range of issues, including decisions the current board has made and decisions a new board will have to make this fall.
Incumbent Karen Disney-Brombach is facing challenger Shawn R. Frost for the District 1 seat. Former School Board member Charles Searcy and Randy Heimler are vying for the District 4 seat currently held by School Board Chair Carol Johnson.
Johnson has decided to not seek re-election.
Dale Simchick, who was appointed to fill the District 2 seat after Jeff Pegler resigned, ultimately went unopposed and was elected to her seat at the close of the qualifying period. She had faced one challenger, who later withdrew from the race.
The base School Board member salary is $32,054. With retirement, worker’s compensation, health and life insurance, compensation can range from more than $37,700 to more than $42,600.
The candidates appeared before the Taxpayers Association of Indian River County Wednesday.
Questions posed included the fate of school-related impact fees, the high cost of legal services, the employee health clinic, and the decision to construct a new administration building.
Candidates appeared split on whether the School District should be in the practice of levying impact fees on new development. Disney-Brombach and Heimler, who are running for different seats, support the fees, explaining that the funds are used to replace portable classroom space with permanent class wings.
“It’s an economy of scale,” Disney-Brombach said of increasing student capacity at elementary schools from the previous 500-student model to the newer 750-student model. She explained that impact fees were being used to expand and install new classroom wings at various elementary schools to accommodate the 750-student plan.
Heimler said that, while he doesn’t support raising impact fees, he does support the funds’ use to build permanent space.
“We don’t want our children in portables,” he said.
Both Frost and Searcy spoke strongly against impact fees.
“Impact fees are a tax,” Searcy said, adding that he doesn’t believe the School District should levy it given the current decline in student enrollment.
Frost said he opposes the fees, citing his father as an example. His father wanted to build a house and was told he’d have to pay $15,000 – yet growth in the county is essentially flat, so there is no need.
As to the School District’s legal fees, each candidate said the price is too high – but for different reasons. Frost and Searcy said the District should reevaluate the legal team and hire local attorneys to do the work.
“The first thing I’d do is fire that attorney bunch from Orlando,” Searcy said, adding that he believes there are plenty of attorneys in town who could do the same job for less.
Heimler and Disney-Brombach pointed to the multiple impasse hearings the District has had with its unions.
“I’m a tremendous fan of working it out” on our own, Heimler said.
Disney-Brombach told the audience that legal comparisons between counties can be tricky because many school districts provide financial info about their in-house legal team and not report their use of outside attorneys for various issues.
Indian River County School District hired one firm, based in Orlando, which handles nearly every aspect of School District-related law, she said.
Candidates were asked about the current School Board’s decision to initiate an employee health clinic, even though it has been approved and is moving forward.
“Government can’t do everything for everybody,” Searcy said, pointing to the federal administration’s initiatives, including Obamacare – the Affordable Health Care Act.
Frost agreed, saying that if it’s a service that can be found in the Yellow Pages, it’s probably something the government shouldn’t be doing. He said the health clinic was the issue that forced his decision to run for School Board, vowing that he would be one person on the Board saying, “Not on my watch.”
Heimler and Disney-Brombach voiced support for the clinic. Heimler said the clinic is expected to save taxpayers money, which he supports, and would be a benefit for the teachers.
Disney-Brombach, who initially voted against the clinic, said it was a difficult decision. Ultimately she came round because the School District would have more control over its healthcare costs. The District, she explained, is a self-insured entity, using Blue Cross Blue Shield as a third-party provider.
And while candidates were asked how they would handle large construction projects, such as the new Administration building, they took the opportunity to debate whether or not the current Board should have approved the project.
“It’s like building a Tiffany box for your iMac,” Frost said. He added that the justification he’s heard for the new building is to protect the District’s $3 million servers.
Instead of constructing a new administration building, he said he would have called for relocating the servers to available commercial property.
Heimler said he could agree with the Board’s decision to build anew after having walked through what used to be Indian River Memorial Hospital. He added that what he couldn’t understand was why the Indian River County Government didn’t include the School District Administration Building in its plans when it built its new complex across the street.
Heimler also said the District would make back the money by saving on the rent it pays to the County for its current building, citing a $45,000/month lease.
However, according to the lease agreement signed between the District and the County in 2012, monthly rent is $3,750 – $45,000 annually – and the County covers the cost of grounds maintenance.
Searcy said the “train is out of the station” on the project. “I’m just an ol’ country boy,” fix the roof and exterminate the rats – the reasons he’s heard why the Board decided to build anew.
Disney-Brombach reaffirmed her support for the new administration building, telling the Taxpayers Association that it would cost the District an estimated $4 million to harden the existing building – replace the roof, fix the heating and air, and replace the carpets and flooring. Instead, for $3 million more – without borrowing – the District could build brand new on land the District owns. Also, the Board was made aware that if the building suffered a breach, either in security or from weather, the District’s liability would “far exceed” the $7 million price tag for the new building.
“I’m not going to apologize for voting for that,” she said. “I think it was the right thing to do.”
All registered Indian River County voters will choose among the four candidates to fill the two seats on the School Board dais. The election will be held Aug. 26.
