SPANISH FORT, Ala. — In a spirited show of solidarity, the City Council approved a resolution supporting the Baldwin County Board of Education’s proposed 1-cent sales and use tax intended to offset deep cuts in state funding to local schools over the past two years.

“If we don’t take this step forward as a community…we will certainly be putting our schools in a dire situation,” District 2 Councilman Mike McMillan said moments before the unanimous vote.

McMillan’s sentiments were echoed by each of the council members, several of whom said Spanish Fort schools were a deciding factor in their decisions to call the city home.

To date, the school system has lost $61 million in state and local funding over the past 24 months, and a temporary penny tax has been proposed to help minimize the number of teachers, staff and programs affected by future cuts.

The ballot for the March 23 referendum states specifically that, if approved, the tax would only be allowed for 36 months, and school system officials have been careful to note 100 percent of the revenue generated would stay in Baldwin County, meaning it would not be subject to the system’s “10 mil match.”

In a program referred to as “equity funding,” the state began in 1996 retaining 10 mils from each school system to be placed in the Education Trust Fund to help offset local tax revenue shortfalls. A mil is one-one-thousandth of a property’s value dedicated entirely to educational spending. The program was designed to level the statewide funding playing field, but because Baldwin County assesses a separate 12-mil ad valorem tax, the system is essentially stripped of all discretionary funding once the two are combined.

Monday’s vote of support came after Spanish Fort Middle School Principal Carol Palumbo, Spanish Fort High School Principal Beverly Spondike and SFHS Athletic Director and football coach Bryant Vincent implored the body to consider the impact continued loss of funding will have on both classroom instruction and extracurricular activities.

Palumbo said without passage of the penny tax the middle school — currently serving 726 students — would lose an assistant principal, guidance counselor and nine non-tenured teachers, forcing larger class sizes and the elimination of all elective courses. Specifically, the cuts would require Palumbo to reconfigure the current seven-block class structure into six blocks, ensuring core curriculum mandated by the state reaches all students while eliminating band, choir, art, computer, home economics and career technology instruction.

SFMS, which has already lost 20 employees since the cuts began, has been hit particularly hard because the new school attracted a wealth of talented instructors from other schools and systems who gave up their tenure to join the feeder pattern in its infancy, she told the council.

“When my school was built, we had hundreds of applicants for every position open. I didn’t even consider (hiring) anyone with less than five years of experience,” Palumbo said.

Spondike said projected cuts at the high school level would be even more noticeable because the teachers are so specialized in their respective areas of expertise, the holes left often cannot be filled by other employees.

Specifically, Spondike said 12 non-tenured teachers will lose their jobs along with 6.8 locally-funded units, and the already bloated classes of 35 to 39 students could swell easily to 50.

On the extracurricular side, Spondike said failure of the referendum to pass could mean the elimination of band, choir and possibly football, meaning SFHS students could no longer pursue college scholarships in any of those areas.

“I want the excellence across the board to continue in Spanish Fort, but I’m really, really worried,” she said.

Vincent said the loss of athletic programs will also spark social and community unrest.

“If this (tax) doesn’t pass, I truly believe we’re going to see property values go down and discipline is going to become a major problem,” Vincent said, noting many students are motivated to perform in the classroom by the opportunity to perform on a court or a field. Removing that motivation, he said, will have far-reaching negative effects that he believes personally will increase crime rates and decrease academic performance.

More importantly, Vincent said the issue has become a community issue that affects the city’s quality of life.

“I can always find another job. It doesn’t mean that’s what I want to do. Spanish Fort is a very special community,” he said.