School chief points out financial crisis

Eakins urges passage of sales tax  –  Only limited opposition to referendum

By STEPHEN FLANAGAN JACKSON

RUSKIN – It was preaching to the choir last week at the Oct. 10 Town Hall meeting in South Shore. Hillsborough County School Superintendent Jeff Eakins brought to Lennard High School his road show promoting passage of the tax increase, which the public schools need to stave off impending financial disaster.

STEPHEN FLANAGAN JACKSON PHOTO
Hillsborough School Superintendent Jeff Eakins, center, with Lennard High students Hayden Hensley, president of SGA, and Savannah Rose, secretary of SGA. Students in front are Iris Morgan, left, and Savannah Rogers.

Eakins implored a receptive crowd of about 75 to 80 people to vote Yes. Eakins encouraged them to sway the public to support the half-penny sales tax referendum on the Nov. 6 ballot. The vast majority of the audience in the comfortably air-conditioned auditorium were teachers, administrators, parents and students from the Ruskin area, all predisposed to vote in the affirmative.

In an unofficial survey by The Observer News of South Shore residents, the school improvement vote appears headed toward a victory. What opposition exists is mainly based on the impression that the school board has mismanaged financial affairs of the county public schools, or on the fact that a person does not want to vote Yes because they do not have children in the school system and/or they live on a fixed income and just do not have the money to spare for the added tax burden.

 Eakins pointed out that the referendum is the last listing on the ballot and is not an amendment. Voters are asked to approve the half-penny sales tax, which would raise $131 million per year for 10 years and would also support capital needs for the schools. Eakins was also quick to explain that the typical family would pay an extra $63 a year. He based this on a county median household income of $51,681.

 Eakins, a former elementary educator now the top school administrator in the county, also stressed that the increase in sales tax will not be charged on groceries or on medicine, plus a portion would be paid by visitors and tourists. The extra revenue would be earmarked only for air conditioner repairs, upgrades, and maintenance, renovations, roofs, maintenance of existing schools, classroom technology and constructing new schools.

 The school district has also adroitly formed a blue-ribbon panel of private citizens, a Citizen Oversight Committee, to review the spending, the progress, and completion of all projects funded by the referendum. Hillsborough County Sheriff Chad Chronister is vice chairman of the committee and the chair is Betty Castor, a former state education commissioner and former USF president. Also on the committee is Earl J. Lennard, a former county school superintendent and namesake of the high school in Ruskin, which serves the South Shore. None of the members of this oversight committee can be affiliated with the school district or can they work on any projects funded by the referendum.

 Chronister’s office would be affected by the revenue from the proposed tax hike, which calls for $23 million in safety improvements as the sheriff’s office has an increased role in the post-Parkland school-security operations.

 Eakins had plenty of praise and accolades for teachers and students in Hillsborough public schools. But he also brought out the crying towel, stating “because of inadequate state funding students face a future in aging, crowded schools” and the community faces a $3 billion challenge.

 The superintendent pointed out that the school district has accumulated $1 billion in deferred maintenance. He said districtwide, 40 schools need immediate air conditioner replacement and 20 need new roofs. Another $1 billion is required to handle growth, said Eakins, adding, in the next 15 years, the county will need a minimum of 31 new schools to accommodate the influx of new students due in large part to booming housing developments. Eakins said this current financial burden also includes paying off the $1 billion mortgages for schools built in the 1990s and early 2000s.

The county public schools have been operating on a deficit of about $126 million annually since Eakins took over as superintendent in July 2015. Eakins said this school year “is operating on a balanced budget,” which is approximately $2.9 million. The superintendent himself is on a contract, which calls for a salary of $225,000 a year and an additional $81,000 toward his retirement.

 Eakins, during the meeting, also said that the lottery that was created in Florida some 30 years ago was initially intended to fund education. But he said only .3 percent of the school district budget comes from lottery money. “The money we get from the state lottery would not run this district for even one day!” said Eakins.

 Eakins said the state also continues to inadequately fund education. “Florida ranks 41st nationwide in K-12 funding,” he said, “which is a decrease from 27th some 20 years ago.”

 In one race for a state senate seat, a candidate is charging that her Republican opponent is to blame for the GOP majority in Tallahassee, failing to fund public schools adequately. The Democratic challenger, Janet Cruz alleges that incumbent Dana Young voted for tax dollars toward for-profit charter schools so they could invest in capital projects while at the same time providing zero dollars to the public schools. Cruz added, “This is a big reason why kids are sitting in hot classrooms.”

Whatever the reasons, the district is in a bind and faces a severe financial crisis.

“We cannot borrow any more money,” maintains Eakins. “All we can do now is put out this referendum, which most other school districts in Florida have successfully done. The last 12 districts in our position, which sought a tax increase to solve a similar financial problem, all passed their referendums,” he said.

“We are not mismanaging your money,” emphasized Eakins. “We have been running at a deficit but have turned that around.

“The investment (provided by supporting the referendum) is needed. Much, much needed,” he said.

Hillsborough County has 230 schools, 24,000 educators and 215,000 students.