MONROE COUNTY SCHOOL BOARD PASSES BUDGET

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Monroe County school board members passed a budget during a Sept. 10 meeting at Marathon High School. PIXABAY

The Monroe County School District passed its final budget with emphasis on teacher salaries and limiting the tax rate associated with property values. 

An important consideration was the tax levy for school safety and security. These funds cover the costs for security programs in the school district. An example is the Alert, Lockdown, Inform, Counter and Evacuate (ALICE) training required for all staff and students by state law. The state mandates most of the district’s security programs and gives some money, but the state also provides a way for school boards to fund the programs with a separate taxing power. 

For this year, the state-mandated “safe school officers” provided by the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office and the Key West Police totals $2,753,547. The state provided $1,048,089, so funds are needed from within the county. The Monroe County School District exceeds all of the state criteria while using a small portion of the state-authorized special tax authority.

The county school board only controls a portion of what appears on a property owner’s tax statement labeled as “school.” The Monroe County School District tax rate is $1.05 per thousand dollars of assessed value with some variations for exemptions. 

Another line item labeled as “school” is a tax levied by the state. If you are 65 or older and have the $50,000 exemption on your real estate assessed value, only the original $25,000 exemption applies to these two school taxes. The Monroe County school tax line item is expected to generate $128.54 million in 2024-25 while still maintaining the lowest tax rate for the district-controlled taxation in the state. 

The difference is in two funding referendums that will be on November’s election ballot. These two referendum items do not ask for new taxes. They continue authority that has been in place for 20 years. The November ballot contains an item known as the “half-mill.” This referendum allows the district to use a taxing authority for school district operations.  

“Renewing the half-mill is crucial for our ability to retain high-quality teachers and staff, provide school nurses and school resource officers at every school and maintain the high quality educational opportunities our students deserve,” said Sue Woltanski, school board chairwoman.

The other referendum item in November, known as the “half-cent,” is a sales tax that pays for  buildings, upgrades and maintenance.

 “It is crucial for our citizens to vote ‘yes’ in November for the two funding referendums on the ballot,” said board member Andy Griffiths, who is retiring from his position Oct. 8.

Looking at the total district budget, board member John Dick reported he examined and compared the budgets of all the other 66 school districts in Florida. 

“Even though we have the highest cost of living in the state and one of the highest rates of pay for our employees due to that high cost of living, we have one of the lowest tax rates for school funding,” Dick said. “We proved we are doing what we say: paying teachers salaries.”  

“Monroe County doesn’t use all of the taxing authority allowed by the state.” Dick said. “People in Monroe County need to know that.” 

The school board also spent considerable time discussing the problem of finding an athletic trainer for Key West High School. One challenge is in the specific training and certification requirements for an athletic trainer. The trainer position offers a $62,100 starting salary plus a $3,400 offset for evening and weekend work, but applicants shy away from the hours and the cost of living.

The board also discussed advanced placement and dual enrollment courses across the district. In order to get college credit for AP classes, students must get a passing grade on rigorous standardized tests taken at the end of the school year. The school district pays for these tests and the board examined the results across the district. Board member Mindy Conn asked the staff to research information on how much AP classes cost the district compared to dual enrollment classes with the College of the Florida Keys.  

Woltanski commended Coral Shores High School students for their exceptional performance in math AP tests; they out-performed the Florida average in this area by large margins across the board.

Frank Derfler
Frank and his wife Marlene have been permanent Plantation Key residents since 1998. A retired Air Force officer and pilot, Frank collected degrees from several universities; principally the University of South Carolina. Along with a business career, he authored 22 published books on networks and information systems and lectured at New York University and Mississippi State. Locally, he taught at Coral Shores HS, has twice been a Take Stock Mentor, and has twice been the president of the Upper Keys Rotary. He served on the boards of numerous Key’s organizations including the Experimental Aircraft Association, the Wild Bird Center, the Good Health Clinic, and the History and Discovery Center.