SCOTT COUNTY, Ky. (LEX 18) — With a proposal to increase school property tax revenue, the superintendent of Scott County Schools eyes teacher raises and an entire School Resource Officer team.
Superintendent Billy Parker announced Friday he is proposing a 4.7% increase in property taxes assessed to pay for a 5% raises for teachers and to hire eight more school resource officers.
"I grew up as a part of this community. So, anything we do, I have my whole heart in it, and we want what is best for our community to pronounce the future. And with that said, one of the things that we really need to keep an eye on is teacher compensation. Another thing is student safety. And so, we're at a point where the only way to really address those issues is with increased revenues," said Parker.
He hopes the raise will attract more teachers and allow a school resource officer to be in every school.
"Not only Fayette County, but you know, we've got other counties around us, Madison, Woodford, Jessamine, those are all communities that are also competing in this region for the ability to attract and retain quality teachers. That is something that we want to be able to, at the very least, keep up if not surpass and close the gap on teacher compensation and staff employee compensation," said Parker.
Last year there were five officers. The City of Georgetown and Scott County's financial assistance is helping to hire six more officers. However, to support all schools, 19 officers would be needed.
"I think when you speak about SROs and SROs in every school, there's two challenges. One is the monetary challenge, you know, is the funding there to support that because that's not just one-time costs that's reoccurring costs every single year. A second component is, again, we're dealing with staffing shortages everywhere; law enforcement is no different," said Parker.
In his eyes, being down 34 certified teaching positions highlights the importance of the proposed plan. Parker says the district hired 33 emergency certification teachers for the upcoming academic year.
"Speaking of the vacancies that we do currently have, we know that we'll get those spilled, but nothing replaces the quality of a teacher that comes in that has the full training that has the content knowledge necessary to ensure that students are able to grow and develop in those areas just as fast as we'd want them to," said Parker.
The proposed tax levy is 4.7 cents per $100 of assessed real estate value over the current rate, which is 58.1 cents per $100.
The increase would bring that to $62.8 per $100 of assessed real estate value.
If the board approves, the plan will move forward, and a 5% pay raise would take effect for staff during the 2024-2025 school year through a mid-year stipend for all staff.
Parker says the proposed tax hike has nothing to do with the school's development and construction plans.
"Some ill-informed people in the community might think, oh my gosh, you're building these new schools. Look, they didn't have the money for it. Not true at all. Not true at all. In order to build a school, you have to have approval from the Kentucky Department of Education. They always make sure that your funding is in proper measure and that you're in good shape before you even get the approval. So those bills, we've already got that all squared away and paid. This has nothing to do with that, and because of the fact that this is not an additional school, we're simply transferring staff from our current school over to that school. It doesn't require us to use any funding to create additional staff positions, either. So, it has absolutely nothing to do with that. This is all funding that we wouldn't need for reoccurring costs that would come with an increase in teacher and employee compensation as well as like we said, the increase in school resource officers," Parker explained.
This isn't something parents or community members will necessarily get to vote on.
If the board approves the proposal, there's a 45-day period in which the community could create a petition. If the petition garnered enough signatures at that point, it could be up for a recallable vote.
