It’s a good day to be a charter school. Manatee County likely to hand over almost 10 percent of capital funds in 2017-18

The School District of Manatee County could be required to share roughly $2.68 million from its taxpayer revenue with the 12 charter schools operating in the county next year, under the terms of a recently passed education reform bill, according to data from the Florida House.

HB 7069, a controversial bill signed by Gov. Rick Scott, became law on Saturday. One aspect of the bill that concerned public school advocates was a requirement to share capital outlay funding — money collected from taxpayers and earmarked for building and maintenance expenses — with charter schools.

At 9.26 percent, Manatee ranks 11th among the state’s 67 districts when it comes to the proportion of capital dollars to be shared with charter schools. Sarasota has to give up the third-largest rate of funding in the state, with the state estimating that 13.54 percent of Sarasota’s capital funds must be shared with charters.

Statewide, Florida’s 650 charter schools could receive up to $96.3 million, and the average percentage of capital tax revenue that districts must share statewide is 6.84 percent. Twenty-four districts, including Pasco, Hardee and DeSoto, do not have to share any additional funds. The House’s figures are based on 2016-17 numbers, so they are likely to change.

Manatee superintendent Diana Greene said Friday that the new law would not impact the district’s plans to build three new schools — a new high school and elementary school in Parrish and a new middle school in Lakewood Ranch — but it would force them to re-evaluate smaller projects.

“Carpeting, painting, projects that our capital budget can pay for,” Greene said, explaining what type of projects would need to be evaluated in light of the new law. “Things like technology, security — it really depends on the priority and what is the project and how this new change in legislation will impact those projects.”

Teacher salaries will not be affected by the requirement to share with charters because salaries are paid through annual operating funds, a different pot of money than the capital funds.

Excited, but in the dark

Several charter school leaders in Manatee said that while they were excited at the prospect of additional funding, they did not know how much they would be receiving or how it could be used.

“We are very much in the dark. Everybody likes to jump to conclusion that it’s a law, it’s done, but no, it has to go to the (Department of Education) and they make rules and procedures, and we are still waiting to see what that is truly going to be,” said Terence Devine, assistant principal at Manatee School For the Arts.

Fred Spence, the CEO at Team Success, said he had not heard the specifics of how the money would be distributed, but he anticipated using the additional funding to pay for rent at the school’s facility.

“We have some ideas for our expansion,” Spence said. “We are going to need some additional money, so down the road it will definitely benefit us in that regard.”

Robert Sket, a board member and treasurer for Rowlett Academy for Arts and Communication, said the school was not eligible for the extra capital funding because it is a conversion charter school, operating in a facility still owned by the district. But the new Rowlett Middle Academy, which purchased the former Orange Ridge-Bullock Elementary School building from the district, likely will be eligible for the funds in two years, based on the new law.

“This just will allow us to do more than what we have been able to do so far,” Sket said. “From that perspective, it’s really positive.”

According to a June 22 email from Suzanne Pridgeon with the DOE budget office, charter schools need to submit capital outlay plans to their sponsoring districts by July 7, and Manatee must review and recommend the charter schools’ plans by July 28.

The amount districts are required to share was calculated based on the percentage of students attending charter schools and the total revenue from the millage minus debt service, according to Fred Piccolo, spokesman for Florida House Speaker Richard Corcoran. A mill is equal to one dollar per $1,000 of home value, and in Manatee County, the Capital Improvement millage rate is 1.5 mills.

The School Board of Manatee County and Greene had asked Scott to veto HB7069 in a May 23 letter. Now that the controversial bill has become law, Greene said the district is figuring out how to comply.

“We’re going to implement the laws, but we have to wait for technical assistance,” Greene said. “Once we have that information, that’s what we’ll do.”

This story was originally published July 1, 2017 at 4:10 PM with the headline "It’s a good day to be a charter school. Manatee County likely to hand over almost 10 percent of capital funds in 2017-18."