Issue link: https://newsleader.uberflip.com/i/285258
During a January Sarasota Tiger Bay Club debate, White also told the audience, "There are actually more citizens here in March [eli- gible to go to the polls]. They don't all choose to vote." The first School Board referendum on the 1-mill tax was in the summer of 2000. It failed. The next time the issue was put on the ballot was in March 2002. SPENDING THE MONEY During the current school year, referendum funds are paying for 497 positions, district Deputy Chief Financial Officer Al Weidner told the News Leader last September. According to the Executive Summary pro- vided with the School Board's 2014 fiscal year budget, $20,571,471 appropriated from the special tax revenue after the first referendum, in 2002, paid the salaries of 235 teachers, 23 teacher aides, nine guidance counselors and nine school secretaries, for a total of 276 positions. It also covered a 3-percent, cost- of-living increase for employees. Because of decreased educational funding from the Legislature since the 2008-09 school year, the summary continues, referendum dollars are paying for art and music teach- ers, security aides, guidance counselors and media personnel. For example, in the current school year, $4,709,706 is covering the sala- ries of the district's visual and performing arts coordinator, performing arts technicians at Booker and North Port high schools, foreign language teachers for the school system's gifted students, the Young Marines program at Venice Middle School and dance teachers at specific elementary schools. Another $1,998,846 is being used to enable the district to continue providing assistant prin- cipal positions for all its Title I schools with fewer than 800 students, as well as interns to help non-Title I schools with fewer than 800 students. Funding for elementary science teachers also comes out of the special tax revenue: $1,609,517. Goodwin told the News Leader, "We will make every effort to continue to communicate and let our community know what's going on in our schools." Her new mission, now that the referendum has been renewed for another four years, "is to have everybody in the com- munity engaged" with the district, she added. "We're going to keep on moving on." % Share stories by clicking the icon in the menubar and choosing to share via e-mail, post to Facebook or Twitter, or many other sharing options. QUICK TIP Sarasota News Leader March 28, 2014 Page 61