Nassau County voters Tuesday approved a millage referendum for the Nassau County School District.
Now that it has been approved, the additional millage will add $1 for every $1,000 of assessed value to county property owners for their yearly taxes. This will begin in 2023 and is expected to bring in an additional $13.7 million each year to the school district.
As stated in previous school board meetings and as stated in MOUs signed by the Nassau County School Board, 70% of the funds will go to teacher and education support personnel salaries. The remaining 30% will go to safety, health, intervention and prevention programs (12%), art programs (9%) and athletics (9%).
In accordance with the new Florida law, NCSD recently raised all salaries to meet the new minimum wage of $15 an hour. Superintendent Kathy Burns previously told the school board this would be difficult to accomplish without the additional millage, but the district would nonetheless meet the requirements.
“Thank you, Nassau County voters,” Burns said in a recent video uploaded to the district’s Facebook page after Tuesday’s election. “On behalf of our teachers, our support staff, our school district, our school board, we want to thank you for sending a clear message to our team that you value our teachers, the work that we’re doing, and we’ll continue to capitalize on our success. We appreciate your support.”
The Nassau County School District is an A-rated district based on criteria set forth by the Florida Department of Education. It ranked second in the state this past year, just behind St. Johns County.
Despite this, the district has not been immune to the nationwide personnel shortage as teachers and support personnel (bus drivers, paraprofessionals, janitors and others who provide critical support to students’ education) leave schools, districts and sometimes even the entire industry to take employment elsewhere. As NCSD currently ranks 44 out of 67 districts for teacher salaries (and Florida itself ranks 48 out of all 50 states in the U.S.), district administrators and the school board are hopeful the raises made possible by the additional millage will help encourage quality teachers to come and stay.
Also in this election, Shannon Hogue was elected to replace incumbent Jamie Deonas on the school board and Curtis Gaus was elected over Albert Wagner to represent District 3. Gaus won the vote by approximately 7,000 votes, while Hogue took the District 1 seat by a slim 1,335 votes. The Nassau County School Board is holding its reorganization meeting Tuesday, Nov. 15, at 6:30 p.m. at the district office on Atlantic Avenue in Fernandina Beach.
hdorman@fbnewsleader.com
