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Schools

Storms rails at crowding, School Board

The commissioner says the district let problems fester. Board members say they gave plenty of warning.

By MICHAEL VAN SICKLER and MELANIE AVE
Published October 6, 2005

TAMPA - Hillsborough County Commissioner Ronda Storms scolded School Board officials Wednesday for failing to ease a classroom congestion problem that they now call a crisis.

The former high school English teacher criticized them for taking four years to ask commissioners to impose a sales tax or raise impact fees despite knowing for some time that they needed to overcome what has become a $364-million deficit in the school district's five-year construction plan.

Storms also chided School Board members and superintendent MaryEllen Elia for missing Wednesday's County Commission meeting. They were at a workshop on team building that they said had been scheduled for months.

"If the School Board thought this was important, they should have been here," Storms said.

She and five other commissioners approved forming a task force in two weeks, with commissioners, School Board members, builders, parents and activists, to discuss ways to ease crowding.

Storms said they should consider raising school impact fees, which are now $196 per new single-family home, to $3,800, and passing a half-cent sales tax. She said she wants recommendations from the task force by the end of December.

But Commissioner Kathy Castor said a task force only delays fixing a problem that needs quick action. She voted against it.

"That strikes me as more bureaucracy and more delay," she said.

When reached after the meeting, School Board members said commissioners were the ones stalling.

"Oh, for Pete's sake," said chairwoman Candy Olson, when asked about the task force.

"Where's the leadership on the County Commission? I'm disappointed. I think it's a delaying tactic."

Several School Board members said a task force is unnecessary because the issue has already been studied in depth. Last year, the commission and the school district paid for a study on impact fees imposed on builders, which recommended a 25-fold increase in fees. Commissioners never took up the study. And board members never explicitly asked for higher fees.

"I don't know what another study is going to do," said School Board member Jack Lamb, who is president of the Florida School Boards Association. "To me, it's very obvious when you look at any data."

But commissioners said it wasn't that obvious. Brian Blair said he wouldn't support a tax increase unless he was convinced the School Board had already spent every dime at its disposal.

Mark Sharpe said more facts are needed.

"There are lots of unanswered questions," he said.

Storms put the issue on Wednesday's agenda after county planners recommended denial of four residential projects in areas that lacked classrooms - in an attempt to limit school crowding.

Bruce McClendon, the county's growth and management director, had helped draft a similar policy for delaying residential projects when he worked in Orange County.

Such a tactic, he said, was used to force developers to negotiate with the School Board about ways to help ease congestion, such as selling land, in exchange for project approval.

But school district officials say they aren't equipped to negotiate with developers and have bristled at McClendon's attempt to slow growth.

"Mr. McClendon doesn't understand he is not in Orange County," said the district's chief of staff, Jim Hamilton.

But Storms said at least the county was trying something. She cited minutes from several previous meetings since 2000 where district officials not only failed to ask for help, but even denied a problem existed.

Board members missed Wednesday's meeting because they were attending a workshop with Elia at Eckerd College in St. Petersburg. They said Storms did not place her item on the commission agenda until last week.

"It's their discussion," said board member Susan Valdes. "How often does the County Commission come to School Board meetings?"

Valdes said she hopes solutions to the school growth problem will come out of the task force.

"We need to stop this us vs. them," she said.

Elia and School Board members dispute Storms' critique that they've been missing in action.

They said they helped fund an impact fee study and have built more than 60 schools in the last decade.

Every year they have also presented their five-year building plan to the commissioners, making them aware of the coming shortfall.

Much of the blame, Olson said, rests with the county, which decides impact fees and approves developments.

School leaders in recent days have taken a stronger stand amid allegations from Storms and others that they have failed to provide leadership.

On Tuesday, Olson wrote commission chairman Jim Norman and called the $196 fees "inordinately low." An increase, she said, is "justifiable."

When the two boards meet next month to discuss school crowding and growth problems, "the School Board would like to discuss increasing impact fees as part of a long-term funding strategy," she wrote.

Elia tried to put a positive spin on Wednesday's commission meeting.

"I'm very happy the County Commission has decided they're interested in being part of the solution on this issue."

[Last modified October 6, 2005, 01:13:15]