Neither St. Lucie Public Schools nor the St. Lucie County Sheriff’s Office will have to sweat out the upcoming budget cycle now that voters approved a mail-in ballot referendum that will bring in more funding starting later this year.
School Superintendent Wayne Gent said following the approved millage referendum that the next steps include negotiating with the teachers union a new salary structure as well as creating a citizen oversight committee to ensure the funds generated from the referendum are used as promised.
“We are so thankful to the community,” Gent told St. Lucie Voice. “We’re a district on the rise” and the additional funding will continue to support high caliber teachers who, in turn, support high performing students.
The millage referendum – which would increase a property owner’s taxes by $1 for every $1,000 of the property’s valuation – will generate an estimated $22 million each year of the next four years.
A portion of the funds will be used by the school district to increase teacher salaries. Another portion will be used to fund mental health support positions within the district.
The Sheriff’s Office also will receive monies to fully fund the School Resource Deputy program at each of the county’s traditional, magnet and charter schools.
According to Sheriff Ken Mascara, the SRD program costs $7 million annually, and while the school district helps fund a portion of it through local and state dollars, it’s not fully covered. The Sheriff’s Office and the St. Lucie County government fill the gap.
Knowing that the program will be fully funded for the next four years will allow Sheriff Mascara to hire new deputies specifically assigned to the county’s schools.
Prior to the referendum, the Sheriff’s Office had to pull deputies from other divisions to cover posts at the area’s schools. The reassignments, according to Mascara, have disrupted service.
This was the first time the Supervisor of Elections has implemented a county-wide, mail-in-ballot-only referendum.
“I was extremely pleased with the turnout,” Supervisor of Elections Gertrude Walker told St. Lucie Voice. Turnout for the mail-in ballot was nearly 33 percent – far exceeding the last time a mail-in ballot was issued. That ballot was for a specific area of the county regarding mosquito control. It garnered a meager 8.75 percent return.
“No one was left out,” Walker said of the county-wide mail-in ballot. Leading up to the ballots’ return, Walker said she wasn’t sure how the turnout would be.
Walker spoke with other Supervisors of Elections who had experience with such ballots. They told her their turnouts ranged from 25 percent to 37 percent. St. Lucie County’s 32.71 percent return “sets a very good precedent” that the public will participate in such measures.
Once the referendum reaches the end of its four-year term, it will expire and property tax rates will drop back by 1 point. That is, unless St. Lucie Public Schools and the Sheriff’s Office decide to take the question to the public again.