4 Community News
Ponte Vedra Recorder · November 5, 2015
Clear-cut win
for county schools
Photo by Carrie
Resch
Left: Amy Zobel, mother of
a son in fourth
grade at Valley
Ridge.
Right: Lauren
Kersting,
mother of
first and third
grade boys at
Valley Ridge.
St. Johns County voters choose to
support public school with sales tax hike
Kelly H. McDermott
& Carrie Resch
The Recorder
A struggle that began in June was finally resolved Tuesday as the residents
of St. Johns County voted to increase
the county’s sale tax by half a cent
in order to fund the county’s public
school district.
The sales tax, which will be implemented on Jan. 1, 2016, will immediately help to meet the needs of the school
district — which have been steadily
outstripping the available funding for
years.
Of the voters who turned out on
Tuesday, 21,314 vs. 13,737 favored
the sales tax hike (about 61 percent).
About 21.5 percent of registered voters participated. The tax will take effect
for 10 years, and will bump the county
sales tax to seven percent.
The new tax will generate an estimated $13 million in 2016 for the district, with an estimated additional $150
million over the decade-long life of the
tax.
The issue of school funding shortfalls reached a head in June when the
Florida Legislature decided to cut three
million dollars in funding for the county’s schools.
“There’s been no appetite in Tallahassee to help us,” said Bev Slough,
Chair of the St. Johns County School
Board, in a public hearing in June.
“[That] we were cut out underscores
that we have no appeal to the legislature right now.”
A failed partnership
The county had wrestled with the
idea of increasing its sales tax through
much of 2015, but for the first half of
the year, the sales tax increase was
meant to make up for shortfalls in
long term capital funding. The county’s
schools did not enter the picture until
June.
Any increase in sales tax must go
to ballot, and in the spring, the Board
of County Commissioners held public
hearings to discuss the potential onecent sales tax hike and get input from
county residents. On June 2, Commissioner Bill McClure proposed that
were the sales-tax issue to go to bal-
Photo by David O’Brien
Superintendant Joe Joyner (center) visited the Ponte Vedra Beach Rotary Club on Oct. 15 to speak about funding shortfalls. Joyner and School
Board Member Kelly Barrera (left) voiced their hope that the club members would vote on Tuesday. President Will Montaya is seen at right.
lot, half of the funds raised could go to
the county schools. The school board
voted unanimously to be included.
Just two weeks later, McClure was
the swing vote in a split commission
that voted not to allow the sales tax to
go to ballot.
After presenting its case to the public and the commission, the St. Johns
County School Board was then left to
pursue funding without of the help of
the commission.
Student body growing pains
In June, St. Johns County School Superintendent Joseph Joyner outlined in
stark terms the type of budget shortfalls the county schools face. Money that should be going towards the
construction of the projected 20 new
schools that the county will need over
the next decade, Joyner said, is instead
going to the rental of portable classrooms. The county has at least 7,000
students currently learning in these
classrooms, dubbed “relocatables” and
“villas,” which equals roughly nine full
schools.
“I have two young children in the
school system and already [Valley
Ridge Academy] has 20 portables,” said
Ponte Vedra parent Elaine M. VulcanoParker. The brand-new school in Nocatee began its second year in August,
but has had students in portable classrooms since its first day of class. “We
moved to St. Johns County because of
the great education and we’re worried
that this will start impacting that great
education,” Vulcano-Parker said.
WIN continues on Page 5
Photo by David O’Brien
Joyner resolved in June to better communicate the district’s needs to the community.