TAVARES, Fla. – Lake County’s school board wants to ask voters to keep a special tax to enhance school safety.
The board agreed Tuesday to ask the Board of County Commissioners to place a referendum on the November election ballot to ask voters to continue the tax.
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The 75-cent millage tax, an addition to property taxes, has been levied since 2019 following the deadly school shooting in Parkland, to help pay for state-mandated school safety enhancements that needed more money than the state provided.
Lake County’s school district said it’s used the tax revenue to pay for:
- Psychologists, social workers and counselors to help troubled students
- Putting nurses in every school
- Hire and retain school safety guardians
- Open the Lake Success Academy to provide short-term alternative educational placements and programs for at-risk students
- Create the PASS program to remove students with disciplinary referrals from class while also allowing them to continue to attend school
District leaders say without the renewal of the tax, the programs could end.
It’s not known when the Lake County Commission will approve to referendum.