TAMPA, Fla. — Hillsborough County Public Schools Superintendent Van Ayres said he plans to tell attorneys for the district to pursue legal action to get a millage referendum on the Nov. 5 ballot. This comes after the Hillsborough County Board of County Commissioners voted 4-3 to delay putting it on the ballot until 2026.

“Our stance — they have no right to postpone that at all. They are superseding, they’re trying to take away the power of the school board by postponing that vote. They have no right to do so," Ayres said.

The superintendent said he was "absolutely shocked" by the vote at commissioners' Wednesday meeting. The district has said the referendum would bring in $177 million a year if approved by voters, 90% of which would go toward pay for teacher and staff. 

"I don't take this lightly at all, this referendum. I understand what's going on in the economy, but this is about leveling the playing field for Hillsborough County Public Schools," said Ayres.

Ayres said neighboring districts have adopted increases to boost pay, which makes it hard for Hillsborough County to compete to recruit and retain educators. The district is going into the new school year with about 500 open teaching positions.       

"The young people of our district lost today. They cannot wait two years to have a quality teacher in front of them. They cannot wait two years to have their vast needs met," said Rob Kriete, president of the Hillsborough Classroom Teachers Association.

"We have been underpaid as teachers for so long. The time is now. If not now, when? Our students are going into our schools in less than a month, and there are teachers that are not going to be there," said Heather Fox, who teachers at Hillsborough High School and also has three children who attend school in the district.

According to the district, the typical homeowner would pay an extra $281 per year in property taxes if the referendum passed. Some commissioners said they've heard from too many county residents struggling with rising costs and inflation.

"Senior citizens on fixed incomes being priced out of your own homes, low income family members being priced out with rent increases or mortgage increases or property increases," said Commissioner Joshua Wostal during Wednesday's meeting.

"I think most folks would agree that there's never a good time to raise taxes, but we really shouldn't ignore the fact that there are a lot of folks who are really struggling now," said Commissioner Ken Hagan.

Wostal said that state law allows commissioners to decide the timing of when a referendum like this could head to the ballot.

Those who voted against the delay said the district and its employees share in the financial struggles seen by residents. Commissioner Gwen Myers proposed a substitute motion to allow the referendum to be placed on the November ballot. 

"We all know that our teachers are underpaid. We hear it all the time," Myers said during the meeting. 

Myers' motion was ultimately defeated. She told Spectrum News that, like Ayres, she was shocked by the vote. She noted a similar referendum that would've supported teacher pay was defeated by voters in 2022.

"And today, we have teachers that are leaving our county, going to our neighboring counties to work — they're hurting, as well," Myers said.

"I found it so disturbing," Commissioner Pat Kemp, who also voted against the delay, said of the vote. 

Kemp said she thought residents should have the chance to decide at the voting booth whether to approve the millage increase or deny it, as they did two years ago.

"There's just decades and decades of underfunding for both operations and capital, and it would be really important to do everything we can to bring resources to our schools," Kemp said.

"There's an insurance crisis, where rates are skyrocketing. Electric bills are going up again," Hagan said during the commission meeting. "Our next meeting, staff's bringing forward a solid rate increase proposal, and now we want to potentially have a property tax increase. We really need to think about the average property owner, who is struggling to make ends meet, and say, 'Enough is enough.'"

The special school board meeting is scheduled for July 23 at 2 p.m.