School District works to hone its new budget
Although the Lee County School District received a significant increase to its budget, there is still a shortfall, which officials said they are working through to create a balanced budget for the upcoming school year.
“It is important for the public to understand this is a preliminary budget,” Superintendent Dr. Christopher Bernier said this week. “The district is in a good financial position.”
Some of the planned operational efficiencies include eliminating about 15,000 collective miles per day at the elementary level for busing which, at 4 miles a gallon at diesel fuel prices, is a cost savings that will feed into the district’s general, or operating, fund.
“We are going to be able to balance the budget and do things all of you as a board prioritized moving forward,” Bernier said.
The preliminary budget is set at $2,353,112,738. Within the budget the General Fund is $1,156,204,071; $94,744,982 for debt services; $768,406,058 for capital; $67,694,027 for special revenue – grants; $70,363,267 for special revenue – food service and $195,700,333 for internal services.
Director of Budget Kelly Letcher said they have a $72,893,529 increase over the Fiscal Year 2023 budget. The $30 million increase is due to new students, while $10 million of the increase is for state-funded discretionary for Family Empowerment Scholarship.
“That leaves about $33 million for new initiatives and inflationary costs,” Letcher said.
Chief Financial Officer Dr. Ami Desamous said the challenges include increasing retirement rates from 11.91 percent to 13.57 percent, or $8.3 million, increase in health benefits for employees of $10.9 million, increased dependent care health benefits of $8.3 million and increased property insurance of $12 million.
“Just those things together (put us) at $39 million. That is the work that we have ongoing right now. We have to determine how we come into balance with the resources that we have and all the things we know we need to do,” Desamours said. “We know every year we will balance our budget and we will do that with our priorities in mind.”
Letcher said the preliminary numbers will change between the tentative and final budget and when student counts are done.
Desamours said there is much ground to cover between now, July and when the final budget hearing is set for Sept. 6.
“When we talk about this budget information today we are talking about six different funds,” she said, which include the general fund, debt service fund, capital funds, special revenue fund, internal service fund and the food service fund.
The general fund is the major source of funding for operations across the entire district, while the debt service and capital fund work in conjunction to cover. The debt service and capital fund maintain existing facilities and build new schools, as well as pay mortgages on buildings they built.
The special revenue fund is for federal grants that have very specific purposes across the school district. The internal service fund has monies transferred from the general fund to cover medical and property insurance, while the food service fund covers breakfast and lunch for all students.
The majority of the presentation provided during the school district’s Tuesday workshop revolved around the general fund, as it is the district’s biggest pot of money.
The focus of the general fund is resources to the classroom; focus on the whole child – mental wellness, English learners, students in need of additional interventions and supports, recapture learning losses and focus on employee retention.
Letcher said the fiscal year 2024 preliminary budget includes a total Lee County Allocation of $928,042,953. She said there is an increase in the unweighted full-time equivalent of 4,389.86 students, which is an increase of 1,092.74 added by the state to cover the increased Family Empowerment Scholarships.
“They came back over 1,000 more students strictly for the Family Empowerment Scholarship,” Letcher said.
In addition, she said the previous District Cost Differential has been changed to the Comparable Wage Factor, which is a change in the calculation to strictly looking at wages in the county. With this there is a decrease of .0052, a $3.1 million impact.
Letcher said last year they were held harmless, which has now gone away.
There has been an increase in the Base Student Allocation (BSA) of $552.33, taking the amount from $4,587.40 to $5,139.73. While that is a great increase, there has been a bit of movement within the FEFP, by allocating reading instruction ($56.31), instructional materials ($84.63), teacher salary allocation ($273.33) and teacher classroom supply allocation ($18.58).
“The criteria, or requirements, that went along with that has not changed. Our increase is $119.48 to the BSA from last year to this year,” Letcher said.
Desamours said FEFP is the major funding source within the operational funds. It is the major driver the district has, and how they fund the schools.
Letcher said with the teacher classroom supply allocation, the district is still required to provide $300 to each teacher, so they can purchase supplies for their classrooms. That payment has been moved up to Aug. 1.
“Teachers brand new will probably be missed,” Letcher said.
The teacher salary increase allocation has been moved to the BSA, which is required to provide 1.4 percent of base FEFP for students to teachers for increase. The guidelines for this increase have changed.
“There are still a lot of questions around that. Who is now in the eligible pool is still a question based on changes in statute,” Letcher said.
The reading allocation, which also was moved to BSA, still requires a reading plan put into place by the district.
As far as the Safe School Allocation, the district saw an increase of $1.4 million, which Letcher said really helps them, as they were taking more than a million dollars in funding in order to accomplish increasing the number of schools and SROs in the schools.
There was also an increase in mental health allocation of $856,000.
There is a new Educational Enrichment Allocation, which was previously the Supplemental Academic Instruction and Turnaround Schools Funds.
“Lee County saw a large increase in this. One of the biggest increases in the state of $14.8 million,” Letcher said as it took a 2 percent increase to get them to that.
There was also a reduction in the class size reduction funds of $1.9 million.
“They did remove the penalty for not meeting class size, which is a really good thing for the number of teachers we are having to fill. It will help us in that area. They are not requiring us to provide waivers. We still must submit a plan to bring ourselves back into compliance with class size because it is still a law,” Letcher said.
Bernier said the school district is committed to meeting class size. He said penalties have been lifted, the fines of the school districts, which they have not had to pay because they are a school choice environment.
Bernier said it is critical to find the teachers they need to meet class sizes.
The budget also includes an added state funded Discretionary Supplement of $9.9 million for the FES program, which is provided for the Family Empowerment Scholarship students.
“While it is showing an increase, we are seeing no benefit from that,” Letcher said.
She said what is really going to help the district is the removed cap for ESOL, ESE and career education funding. Letcher said they had so many students that they could go up to, but if they went over that number they were not funded for those students.
For the current year, she said they were 1,586 students over the cap. They were funded for 770 students.
“That cap lifted is really going to help us educate those students. We need to be paid for the students,” Letcher said.
In addition, she said the career education gives a higher weight than the average ninth to twelfth grade student.
“They increased that above the 1.072, which is really good for us,” Letcher said.
The presentation also included information regarding the capital funds, which has a current estimate of $768.4 million. It is anticipated that the capital millage tax will generate $198,714,140; the sales tax will generate $126,543,711; impact fees of $35,200,000.
“These are the estimates and what we expect to receive in revenue sources,” Desamours said.
Letcher also spoke about the tax roll, which the fiscal year 2024 conference report showed $137,995,929,691. The discretionary millage amount is $99,092,117 and capital outlay millage of $198,714,139.
The preliminary numbers from the property appraiser is $142,767,028,000 for the tax roll, which will generate $102.5 in discretionary millage and $105.5 in capital outlay millage.
Letcher said it will put another $3.4 million in the general fund and $6.9 million the capital fund.
She said she is hoping taxpayers will continue to pay their taxes and bring the number back up. So far, she said the district has received about $9.5 million in abatements.
“Nine point five million dollars has been returned to the taxpayers. The revenue is still falling behind the collection rate of what we expected it to be,” Letcher said.
The deadline for the Commissioner of Education to set the RLE millage is July 19. The tentative budget hearing is set for July 31, followed by the final budget hearing on Sept. 6.
To reach MEGHAN BRADBURY, please email news@breezenewspapers.com