NEWS2

How did the Legislature’s increase in education spending turn into a $17 million cut to local
schools? What’s next for freshman sports? And how will recent School Board decisions affect
your tax bill?

For answers, I turned to School Board member Andy Ziegler. He represents District 5, which
includes schools in the Melbourne, West Melbourne and Palm Bay ar eas.

Q: In an op-ed piece, Rep. Steve Crisafulli, R-Merritt Island, wrote that education spending in
Florida will increase by $1 billion. So, why did the School Board cut $17.5 million from
classroom aides, office clerks, freshman sports, chorus classes and driver’s ed?

ZIEGLER : Steve is passionate about education and cares. I look at all the pieces and parts and
where we are going to be short.

We have to implement classsize (restrictions) class by class. The state did provide $1.5
million, but it’s going to cost us about $5 million.

Another area . . . the state this year estimated 96 percent tax collection as opposed to the
normal 95 percent. And even collecting 95 percent is questionable in today’s market. The
difference to Brevard County is $2 million. Now, do you count on that 1 percent, that most
likely will not come, and build that into a budget? No. You err on the side of caution.

There also was a requirement that we contribute more to retirement. That was $3.3 million that we did not expect.

So, how that $1 billion gets down to Brevard County as increased money is a good question. But in all honesty, the Legislature did better by us than
we expected.

Q: The board voted to extend a special property tax levy of 25 mills — or $25 per $1,000 in assessed value — to prop up schools. Explain your “yes”
vote.

ZIEGLER: It’s more of an allocation of the pie. We’re not increasing school millage. Overall school millage will be reduced.

We don’t have authority anymore, as a board, to raise taxes. We raise taxes for schools in Brevard through a voter referendum.

The legislators included our levying that .25 mills into their budget. So, if we didn’t pass it, we would have had to cut another $8 million on top of the
$17.5 mill ion.

I just don’t want the kids to suffer.

Q: Why eliminate freshman sports? Freshman football is a moneymaker that helps offset costs of other teams.

ZIEGLER : There were some high schools where the principals wanted to eliminate freshman sports because they didn’t get enough students enrolled
to field some teams. So we were almost forcing teams to exist to provide fair and equal opportunities across all high schools.

I don’t support elimination of sports. There are other solutions. We could do pay-to-play, help organize boosters, integrate with municipal and county
leagues. And we can invite them to play on our properties if they don’t use facilities or lighting.

Q: So, keep freshman programs alive, but ask them to become selfsuf fici ent?

ZIEGLER: Absolutely. I support t hat.

Q: What role should public schools play in developing new aerospace industry following the retirement of the space shuttle?

ZIEGLER : There have been a series of aerospace- and engineering- industry conferences, held jointly with our legislators, on what are the needs of
those industries. And the clear message that I got out of them is STEM education — science, technology, engineering and math. We are not
producing enough of those types of students for those industries. We need more students going to college in those fie lds.

People say “go back to basics.” But we can’t go back to basics because our society today is an advanced technological society. And if we don’t
prepare the kids for that, not only will they not have a future, we won’t have a future.

Q: Your campaign website mentions health clinics under “issues.” Explain.

ZIEGLER : To our employees’ dismay, we increased the insurance premiums.

The city of Palm Bay has implemented a clinic. Titusville has a clinic. Harris Corp. has a clinic. All with great success and employee b enef its.

Why I’m pushing it, we would see employees not having to pay doctor copays or prescription copays. And it would be more responsive, quicker, and
hopefully employees would not have to go to the emergency rooms.

Everyone who has been doing clinics has shown us savings on the claims side. To clarify, Brevard County Schools are self-insured.

If we can reduce claims, we can save more money. And save employees money.

Contact Reed at 242-3631 or mreed@floridatoday.com.