Martin County inching toward pitch to raise property taxes for bankrolling school operations

MARTIN COUNTY — Pleas from parents and teachers for a new elementary school in Jensen Beach apparently failed to sway School Board members toward seeking a tax increase strictly to pay for repairing and building schools.

Instead, the majority of board members, one week before the scheduled vote, still favor asking the public to raise property taxes to bankroll safety and security measures, and teacher raises.

But if all goes according to plan, the board could go after both.

“Eventually, I think we’re probably looking at both (taxes)," board member Christia Li Roberts said Tuesday at a workshop meeting. "I believe we need to be able to show the accountability on whichever one we do first in order to be able to get the second one."

A group of more than a dozen teachers and parents representing Jensen Beach Elementary attended Tuesday's meeting, one week after Principal Joan Gibbons sounded off to board members about the school's condition.

Replacing the 48-year-old campus, along with Palm City Elementary, has long been on the district's to-do list. The projects are estimated to cost $30 million each and contribute to the backlog of construction projects nearing $100 million.

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Parents and teachers on Tuesday lobbied for a sales tax increase, telling board members they would get the word out to convince voters. They also criticized the the board's plan to spend $10 million building a new school headquarters.

Jensen Beach Elementary is in dire shape, they said.

Jill Boudreau, who teaches kindergarten at the school, said the district has painted over mold on campus, and educators use buckets to catch rain dripping through the ceiling.

The school is something to be embarrassed about, Boudreau said.

"They're just putting Band-Aids on our school," Boudreau said. "You can't Band-Aid a classroom bathroom that has a tree root growing out from the floor.

"We are in desperate need of a new building."

Board members, for their part, agreed. But they expressed concerns that a sales tax increase could fall short with voters, especially if the ballot is tuned toward repairing two specific campuses in Palm City and Jensen Beach.

A property tax increase would likely go over better, board members said. Then, once the board shows voters the district is responsible with the extra tax money, perhaps voters would support raising the sales tax, board members said.

"I believe a sales tax will fail when it is presented for two specific communities," McSoley said. "It won't matter how much information we get out there."

Board members on Tuesday also agreed to consider putting off construction of a new headquarters.

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Four out of five board members have already said they support asking voters to approve raising taxes to put more money into schools. All that's left is for the board to choose whether to seek a sales tax increase for construction and building projects, or a property tax increase to pay for school operations.

Raising property taxes by a half-mill would generate $11.2 million annually over the next four years to pay for adding deputies on campuses, and some sort of pay increase for educators.

Asking voters to raise the countywide sale tax by a half-cent, as recommended by Superintendent Laurie Gaylord, would raise $16 million a year for at least 10 years to build and renovate schools.

A decision is expected to be made April 17.