School Board calls for Penny watchers

It prepares to accept applications for a committee to monitor the district's use of Penny for Pasco funds.

By REBECCA CATALANELLO
Published July 6, 2004

Know something about finances?

Interested in school construction?

Want to keep an eye on your tax dollars at work?

The Pasco County School Board might want you.

School officials soon will be seeking six to 12 volunteers willing to help them make good on a public promise. In line with their successful Penny for Pasco sales tax campaign, education leaders are establishing a School Oversight Committee to ensure the $196.8-million coming in for school construction over the next 10 years is spent as officials said.

"I think this committee can be our ears and eyes to the public," said Ray Gadd, administrative assistant for the school district.

The School Board recently approved a plan that calls for six to 10 people to serve on the committee for staggered, two-year terms.

Pasco voters agreed in March to increase sales taxes 1-cent on every dollar for the next decade. The move is expected to bring in $437-million total, with the county and school district each getting 45 percent and the local municipalities splitting the rest.

Gadd said he expects to author an application and start soliciting volunteers for the Oversight Committee by September, in time to have a group assembled when the additional tax revenues begin streaming in on Jan. 1.

The group is open to interested residents who have expertise in education, business, finance, maintenance and construction as well as members of key community and parent groups, the charter reads. Gadd said there are no rules excluding those who campaigned against the sales tax increase.

The assembly will be approved by a vote of the School Board.

"There needs to be one," local GOP leader Gary Willner said of the oversight committee, although he opposed the Penny tax.

Willner said he hasn't really considered applying, but he does hope to see some tax skeptics aboard.

"I think if you end up with a committee of people who were 100 percent for it, it's going to be viewed as a rubber stamp committee."

The Pasco County Commission, meanwhile, does not plan to create a similar committee for public accountability.

Commission Chairman Peter Altman said that's because the county issued a very specific checklist of projects to be paid for with the new revenues.

The School Board's list included the revenues as part of a 10-year construction plan that included building 20 new schools as well as addressed immediate concerns.

"We said we're going to buy police cars, we're only going to buy police cars," Altman said.

He suggested that the county hold workshops quarterly or twice a year to discuss progress on Penny projects and hear from the public on the topic.

On the school side, Gadd said that the administration has a stake in seeing that the district stick to the original construction plan, but sometimes population shifts and other developments interfere with even the best laid plans.

Gadd said it's those sorts of changes that he hopes the committee will be able to keep an eye on. Although the Oversight Committee will not be able to overrule any School Board votes, their voices, eyes and ears will be valuable resources to the district when planning conflicts occur.

Amye Cox, a mom, community activist and co-chairwoman of the pro-Penny organization Pasco Parents for Quality Schools and Community, said the creation of an Oversight Committee was essential to getting the buy-in of many tax skeptics.

Cox remembered one conversation at a Zephyrhills parade when she brought up the tax issue with a woman and mentioned the public oversight.

"She said, "Who's going to be on that committee?' " Cox relayed. "And I said, "People like me . . .' She said, "Well, if it's going to be people like you, then we'll vote yes.' "

- Rebecca Catalanello covers education in Pasco County. She can be reached in west Pasco at 869-6241 or toll-free at 1-800-333-7505, ext. 6241. Her e-mail address is rcatalanello@sptimes.com

[Last modified July 5, 2004, 21:59:05]