The Hillsborough County School Board will hold an emergency meeting Tuesday to try to get a referendum on increasing teacher pay back on the November ballot.
The move came after county commissioners postponed the vote for two years by a 4-3 vote Wednesday, using a little-used legal maneuver.
A defiant Van Ayres said he'll ask school board members to authorize legal action against the county. The school superintendent called the action taken by commissioners an illegal attack on public education.
"Our stance is they have no right to postpone that at all," Ayres said during a hastily called news conference. "They are superseding. They're trying to take away the power of the school board by postponing that vote and they have no right to do so."
“It’s puzzling to all of us — puzzling — to all of us in Hillsborough County Public Schools," Ayres said, "as to why four county commissioners are taking the choice out of the hands of the voter."
Commissioners used an obscure law that allows them to vote on the timing of a referendum. Commissioner Joshua Wostal, who made the motion, cited rising inflation as the reason for the move. It came after the board voted to put their own referendum on the November ballot, which would extend the county's Community Investment Tax for another 15 years. That extension of the half-cent sales tax would reduce the proportion allocated for schools from 25% to 5%.
Ayres said Hillsborough's starting pay for teachers lags behind other counties and has contributed to 500 teacher vacancies in the upcoming school year.
"We realize that we have to have more competitive wages for our employees," Ayres said Wednesday. "That's why we are pursuing this, this referendum to ensure that we've got competitive wages for all of our employees. And we're not on a level playing field right now and we have to be there.
"I do feel like this is, this is an attack on public education and I will not stand for it."
