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It's a problem the Hernando County School Board has confronted before.
Rapid growth that requires building more schools to accommodate rising student enrollments. In the 1980s and early 1990s, the School Board met that demand by borrowing money. Property owners are still paying those debts, the most per capita of any county in Florida, with their school taxes.
Later that decade, the board tried something different. It persuaded voters to approve a half-cent increase in the sales tax so it could build a vocational-technical high school. The referendum that authorized the tax specified that the money could be spent only on that school and that the tax would be repealed in five years.
The School Board kept its promise to voters. Nature Coast Technical High School opened earlier this month and the tax will sunset at the end of this year.
But the population is growing faster than anticipated. Nature Coast Tech will not do as much to relieve crowding at Springstead and Central high schools as district officials had hoped, but it should accommodate that tier of students for the foreseeable future.
That's not the case for elementary and middle school-aged children. The board plans to build a K-8 school as soon as possible to meet that need. But, by the time it opens, the district will need another K-8 or, at a minimum, an additional elementary school.
Consequently, the School Board is looking for a longer-term solution to fund school construction, one that precludes bringing proposals to voters one by one.
Board members agree the best way to accomplish their goal is ask voters to approve another half-cent sales tax increase. On Tuesday, they are scheduled to discuss their options at a workshop meeting. Among the points they will consider are the duration of the tax and on which ballot to place the referendum. They also are likely to revisit the topic of issuing bonds now to build the K-8 school and then paying off that debt with proceeds from the sales tax, if voters approve it.
Issuing the bonds, formally called Certificates of Participation, carries a risk the board should weigh carefully. If voters do not approve the subsequent request to increase the sales tax, the board will wind up paying $15-million in interest on a $23-million loan over the next 20 years. Still, they would be able to build only one school before they have to turn to other, even more unpopular options, including moving to double sessions or a year-round calendar.
Some residents will resent the board opting for the bonds before having the opportunity to vote on the sales tax. It creates the impression that the board is either presuming to know the public's will or that the board will use the debt to exert undue pressure on voters to okay it. Critics of the sales tax proposal, no matter how it is presented, likely will use a bond issue to campaign against the ballot initiative.
A half-cent sales tax dedicated for school construction is more farsighted; the benefits are much more evident to voters, and it achieves the ultimate goal of building more schools in a more timely fashion. The board should not blur its financial picture by adding layers of already complicated funding scenarios to an already credible approach.
Hernando County voters have been traditionally receptive to funding educational initiatives. The board's credibility may be at an all-time high because it has tangible proof - Nature Coast Tech - that it can be trusted to spend the money on a worthwhile project, just as it said it would.
The board's focus now should be on how many years it wishes to implement the tax. To ease planning and to protect the revenue from the whims and uncertainties of election-year politics, the board should seek at least a 10-year levy and possibly up to 20 years. If Hernando County continues to grow at the pace it is now, as expected, a 10-year tax should enable the School Board to build at least two K-8 schools and perhaps an elementary school. That's based on estimates that the extra half-cent will bring in about $6-million a year.
Regardless of the duration of the tax, the board should not delay deciding on which ballot to place the question. If they want maximum voter turnout, they must place it on the general election ballot in November. That also gives them more time to market the idea to residents.
The only other alternatives, besides a special election, are to pose the question during the March presidential primary, or the September primary. Neither would constitute a true mandate from voters.
In 2000, voter turnout in March was a paltry 14 percent; turnout for the September primary wasn't much better that year, drawing only 22 percent of registered voters to the polls. The general election in November commanded a 68 percent turnout. The choice is obvious.
The School Board's deliberations on Tuesday represent an intermediate step in a debate that will take time to refine. The sooner board members can agree on how many schools they will need and when they will need them, the sooner they can make their plea to the public. They did it for Nature Coast, but this time around will be an even bigger challenge. It could be the single most important pursuit of their tenures on the board.
To succeed, they must be thorough, forthright and confident from this moment on.