More Broward schools referendum dollars would go to mental health

Mental health will get a bit more attention in the upcoming school tax referendum, the School Board decided Tuesday.

The School Board debated for two hours Tuesday how to allocate a proposed tax of $100 per $100,000 assessed property, up from a $50 tax approved in 2018. The money, like in the current referendum, would be used for teacher and staff bonuses, safety and security and mental health.

The allocation would be 75% for teacher and employee bonuses, 17% for safety and security officers and 8% for mental health.

That’s slightly different than what district staff proposed.

Although the total allocation in each category would go up, the percentage allocated to mental health would have gone down slightly, under a proposal from district staff.

The allocation for employee pay would change from 72% to 75%, the share for safety and security officers would have dropped from 20% to 18% and the mental health share would have dropped from 8% to 7%, under the proposal.

But that smaller share for mental health was unacceptable for School Board Chairwoman Laurie Rich Levinson said.

“We all know the need is enormous” for mental health services, Levinson said.

Deputy Superintendent Judith Marte said the district lowered the share for safety and security and mental health partly because they haven’t been able to spend all the money from the last referendum allocated for these areas, due to staff vacancies.

But Levinson and some other board members said an increase in violence and isolation caused by the pandemic has greatly expanded the need for mental health services.

“We may not be able to hire all the people internally we would like, but there are many partnerships available with organizations that can help us that we are not leveraging,” Levinson said.

Under the approved proposal, the allocation for employee salaries would increase from $82 million to $133 million.

The safety and security budget would increase from $22.8 million to $30.2 million and mental health would increase from $9.1 million to $14.2 million.

The district hasn’t provided a specific plan on how much extra pay teachers and other employees would receive nor what specifically the extra safety and mental health money would be used for.

The School Board is asking for the increased tax partly because of a law passed in 2019 that says the money must be shared with charter schools.

District officials also say Broward’s current tax of $50 per $100,000 is the lowest special tax in South Florida. Palm Beach now levies $100 per $100,000, which is what Broward is asking for. Miami-Dade levies $75.

Voters will get to decide on Aug. 23 during the primary election. If the referendum is rejected, the current allocations for employee bonuses, safety and security and mental health would go away.

“The public needs to understand this is not just a wish list. It’s a necessity,” School Board member Patti Good said.

©2022 South Florida Sun-Sentinel. Visit sun-sentinel.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.