For the first time, the St. Lucie County Public Schools is asking voters to go not to the polls, but to their mailboxes. Arriving in those mailboxes this week is a ballot referendum that could fund salary increases for teachers as well as improved school safety measures.
It’s a simple yes/no question. If voters opt for yes, they’ll increase their property taxes by $1 for every $1,000 of their home‘s valuation. If yes, the funding generated is expected to amount to $22 million annually for the next four years.
After four years, the increased millage rate would sunset unless the school district puts the question to voters again and voters support it. “I have to be prepared for next year’s budget,” Schools Superintendent Wayne Gent said of looking at all the district’s options for retaining and hiring quality teachers as well as ensuring school safety through the use of School Resource Deputies from the St. Lucie County Sheriff’s Office.
“We can’t wait” until the next election to ask the voters to decide the funding measure, Gent said. “The district has made incredible gains over the last year. We can’t afford to lose ground.”
He explained that the district didn’t pose the question to voters last November, in part because he wasn’t sure if the referendum would be successful.
However, once other districts popped the same question to their respective voters and got favorable returns, Gent and St. Lucie County Public Schools felt more inclined to follow suit.
St. Lucie County Sheriff Ken Mascara has been a vocal supporter of the ballot measure, noting that the referendum – if passed – would fully fund 53 School Resource Deputies for the next four years.
The Sheriff’s Office currently has 23 deputies at the county’s traditional and charter public schools, down from 43 it had before the economic downturn a few years ago.
Fully staffed, the SRD program costs $7 million annually. The school district provides some of the funding as a combination of local and state monies, but it doesn’t cover it all. The Sheriff’s Office and the St. Lucie County Commission cover the difference.
“There have been some sacrifices,” Sheriff Mascara said of reorganizing the deputies and Sheriff’s Office to ensure an SRD is on every campus.
Officers assigned to the Marine Unit, for example, have been reassigned to schools. Court Services officers and even deputies on the STAR Team have also been switched to SRD duty. STAR Team deputies are those assigned to “hot zones” in the community, Sheriff Mascara explained.
All who have been assigned to school posts have undergone the various training they need in order to perform their roles within the schools. They have gone through the School Resource Officer active shooter training. Mascara said his goal is for parents not to worry about whether or not they’ll be able to pick up their child from school in the afternoon. “That’s our worry,” he said.
In the event the referendum fails, both Gent and Mascara will be left figuring out a way forward.
For Mascara, the referendum’s failure would mean he’d have to continue going to the County Commission for additional funds to cover all that has been mandated by the state following the school shooting in Parkland last year. Various departments would continue to have a shortage of officers due to the reassignments.
Gent said he would suspect it would be increasingly difficult to retain and recruit quality teachers if St. Lucie’s salaries weren’t in line with neighboring counties’ salaries.
Martin and Palm Beach counties’ voters already have approved millage hikes to cover increases to teacher salaries, furthering the gap between them and St. Lucie.
Ballots are expected to arrive in mail boxes this week and need to be returned no later than 7 p.m. April 23 to the Supervisor of Elections Office. The ballots are being sent with a pre-paid envelope and can be sent back via the mail. Voters can also return their ballots in person to any of the Supervisor of Elections Office branches around the county.
