School Board Approves Final Budget

With nary a whisper from the public and little debate among themselves, school board members put their stamp on the final 2008-09 budget last week.

Board members approved a budget that will bring in nearly $400,000 less in property taxes than last year as the millage rate will also drop by 0.006 of a mill.

The millage rate for public schools fell to 4.876 from 4.884. A mill represents $1 for every $1,000 in taxable property value.

Due to a slumping real estate market, the value of the mill for purposes of school taxes in Gulf County fell from $2.57 billion to $2.5 billion.

The budget passed last Thursday is largely a product of state lawmakers, who determine most of the numbers prior to the end of their spring regular legislative session.

School millage rates are broken into four components, three of which are set in Tallahassee.

The required local millage, which the district must raise to receive state funds, fell this year to 3.697 from 3.893 last year.

However, local taxpayers continue to foot nearly 90 percent of public school funding, the district deemed to be a "property rich" county under Florida Department of Education guidelines.

Two discretionary funding components are also set by state legislators.

Each district is mandated to levy 0.498 - down from the previous 0.510 of last year - for discretionary funding, while supplemental discretionary funding, 0.081, the same as last year, is based on student enrollment.

Discretionary funding largely pays for operational expenses, particularly salary and benefits for personnel.

In the one area where the district had some sway, school board members raised the Local Capital millage rate from 0.400 to 0.600, a jump equal to about $472,000.

School board chairwoman Linda Wood said the board members had several healthy debates regarding capital needs in the district that had to be weighed against taxpayer relief to come up with the final figure.

Each district is allowed to tax up to 2 mills for capital outlay - which goes for bricks and mortar improvements to school sites - but Gulf District Schools have not levied even half that this decade.

School board members received a lengthy "wish" list of capital needs from all six schools and whittled it considerably over the summer.

For example, Port St. Joe Middle School does not have an individual request under the current budget.

At Port St. Joe Elementary School, the major projects - remodeling the old Pre-K building into a tech center, construction of a new pre-K building and remodeling the kindergarten pod - will come from proceeds of the half-cent sales tax passed in the previous decade.

New lunchroom chairs are in store for both high schools, with Wewahitchka High School also to receive funding for gym bleachers and software upgrades.

Wewahitchka Middle School has money earmarked for new outside double doors, lunchroom tables and software upgrades.

County-wide, the list of capital projects include security cameras, improvements to the track at Port St. Joe High School, technology upgrades at all schools, copiers, rehab of bathrooms and flooring in most schools, maintenance vehicles, buses and property insurance.

Each school also receives $100 per student in Local Capital Outlay dollars for minor projects of each school's choosing.

Health Report

During last week's meeting school board members also received the annual health services report from Regina Washabaugh from the Gulf County Health Department and it was an eye-opener.

Last school year there were 32,432 visits to school health rooms, or about 180 visits per day based on a 180-day school year. That number is actually down from last year, Washabaugh said, but that statement came with a caveat.

"One of the reasons is we are down significantly because of we have less medications," Washabaugh said, noting the prevalence of longer-lasting medications that can be taken at home prior to coming to school.

"We have much less medication, but the things we deal with are much more complex."

One alarming number Washabaugh noted to the board was the rise in gastrointestinal ailments report at health rooms across the district, more than 4,000 last year.

That, Washabaugh noted, could be traced to something ingested by the child and in turn the absence of some hygienic basics.

"That is a number that should be preventable," Washabaugh said, "with good hand washing and hygiene. It's amazing how many children do not know how to physically wash their hands."

The school health program has put a particular emphasis on hand washing in the past year or so to combat the potentially deadly MRSA infection, but Washabaugh said there was obviously still work to do.

"The (MRSA) numbers are way down because we are way ahead of the game in hand washing, but we still need to be wary because MRSA is something that can kill you," Washabaugh said.

"We have shifted from band-aids on boo-boos to hand-washing," Washabaugh said. "If we can ingrain hand-washing in the elementary schools (that is a key)."

By far the most visits to a health nurse was in the elementary school. The Health Department is also pushing this year to have children in elementary school to have dental sealants.

In addition, school health nurses saw 502 allergy cases last year - an up-tick from previous years - and 301 asthma cases.

And where they used to deal with three or four psychiatric cases each year, last year school health nurses had 31 visits for psychiatric reasons.

Pregnancy and sexually-transmitted diseases also continue to be a chronic problem despite concerted education efforts in the middle and high schools, Washabaugh said.

"Our health care, I'd put up against any in Florida," Wood said. "The work has increased exponentially and the same (number of) people are still doing the work."