Charter schools fight for share of proposed tax

The battle between the Palm Beach County School Board and charter schools has opened up a new front, this time over distribution of a proposed property tax.

If approved, the tax would provide $800 million to improve school security and boost teacher salaries — but its original wording did not include charter schools.

After some charters threatened to sue, the School Board was forced to delay until July 18 a vote on whether to place the levy on the Nov. 6 ballot. The school district is negotiating with the charters to figure out a compromise, a schools spokesman said.

Under the four-year tax plan, homeowners would pay an additional $1 for every $1,000 of taxable value.

The charters say they have the same needs as traditional public schools and are also rushing to comply with the demands of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas Public Safety Act, approved by the Legislature after the Feb. 14 shootings in Parkland.

They say they need additional security and improved mental health care, which must be in place when school starts in August.

Charter schools are independently operated schools that get taxpayer money. School boards renew them annually, subject to their performance. There are 49 charter schools in Palm Beach County, with enrollment of about 20,000 students, about 10 percent of the public school population.

The School Board has been resistant for years to new charter schools, often rejecting more than a dozen applications a year because they say the charters don’t offer creative alternatives to existing schools, as required by state rules. The board joined six other Florida school districts last year in suing the state over a law requiring school districts to share property tax revenue with charters.

Charter school parents say their schools deserve part of the tax windfall if voters approve it.

“We pay the same taxes as everyone else,” said Jenny Vargas, whose daughter is an eighthgrader at Renaissance Charter School, a K-8 campus in West Palm Beach. “The funds should walk with each child to their school.”

Some charters need money to improve security because they educate students in non-traditional settings, such as churches, said Bernard Kimmel, a former Palm Beach County School Board member. His is now a board member at Somerset Academy, a charter network with more than 60 schools, including four in Palm Beach County.

“Many of the (charter) schools have open campuses,” Kimmel said. “They need fences, locks, armed guards, the same things the other public schools need.”

Ralph Arza, director of government relations for the Florida Charter School Alliance, said Palm Beach County’s charter schools should get 10 percent of the money that comes from the tax.

“It should be based on how many attend,” Arza said.

The money is desperately needed to improve security, said Thom Sutterfield, a board member at two charters, Imagine-Chancellor in Boynton Beach, with about 1,000 students, and Glades Academy in Pahokee, with 265.

Imagine-Chancellor is hiring a retired police officer to patrol the campus, which will cost “a big chunk of money” that hasn’t been fully determined yet, Sutterfield said. The school had hired guards to direct traffic at drop-off in the morning and dismissal in the afternoon, but is switching to a fulltime officer as part of the Stoneman Douglas requirements, he said.

“I’m not necessarily an advocate of higher taxes, but if the School Board is asking for it, I don’t think a charter school is any less worthy of protection,” he said.