The School District of Lee County is implementing a new school allocation, which will drive more dollars to schools for the next year’s budget.

Budget Director Kelly Letcher said during a Tuesday afternoon school board meeting that they have had some meetings with principals who shared they wanted more flexibility with the dollars provided to them in fiscal year 2025.

Specifically, principals want to make sure funds are properly allocated for full-time student numbers, or FTEs. FTEs can also be weighed to allow for the additional services students with special needs may need.

“We are looking at not just the number of students, but the weighted FTE turned in for the schools and basing their allocation on weighted FTE,” she said, which would allow the funding to follow the students. “FTE is now the driver for their allocation. It’s very important that FTE is reported accurately.”

With this flexibility, principals must continue to meet class size and provide the services students need based on their Individual Education Plans, with the remainder being flexible for the principal to decide.

“That will help them make the best, most rounded decision for students and school,” Letcher said. “We will continue to meet with principals to go over the process, get their feedback to make sure we are not missing anything, and helping them, not hindering them.”

Board member Debbie Jordan asked if the allocation would include funds for an art teacher to purchase such materials as clay, a kiln, paper, as it has been expressed to her that teachers are without right now.

“Kilns, clay, and supplies have line items in the budget,” Superintendent Dr. Christopher Bernier said, adding that certain subjects are consumable. “Science taught the right way, always need more supplies the next year. Something like art, at the end of the year, the paint, paper, clay are gone. You have to consider that in your budgetary appropriations.”

Letcher said those types of asks for supplies are part of the dollar amount the principal will receive.

“I am sure they will have the conversations with the teachers to find out what the needs are and plan accordingly,” Letcher said. “In the past we provided a dollar amount per student for their consumables. We will still be providing on top of their capital dollars in case they need to replace a kiln. We have always provided a material supply allocation to our schools. Right now, that is in their number. They will make the decision of what they want to use for that purpose.”

Letcher said they are still working on the exact figure.

“My staff is running the allocations the old way and the new way to make sure there is no loss coming forward to make sure it is better for the school and making some tweaks to cover all the needs that we have,” she said.

The school allocations, Chief Financial Officer Dr. Ami Desamours said, will be a training and learning process for everyone. They are meeting with principals this week to explain the concept and allocation.

Once the principals receive their allocation, they will be walked through in small groups to understand everything that comes with it, everything they need to cover with the funds.

“We have worked through the process of formulating this whole new system with the executive directors as well,” Desamours said. “They will be the support for each of the principals to work with them. To review budgets and making sure meeting requirements, potential recommendations and ramifications are to decisions.”

What students numbers mean in the budget process

Letcher spent time explaining how the budget is formulated during the afternoon meeting.

Letcher explained that students are counted a couple of times a year and, from that an unweighted FTE, a basic count of kids in the hours the district serves them, is taken. Added weights are given to those students based on the level of service provided to them.

There is a basic weight for students K-3, 4-8 and 9-12. An added weight is given to ESOL, or speakers of multiple languages students; ESE, or Exceptional Student Education students; s and career education.

Letcher said another weighted FTE is given, which is what the district receives in funding. From there they take the weighted FTE and apply the formula times the base student allocation and then times the comparable wage factor, which provides the base student amount of funding for the district.

Categorical items, such as Safe School, mental health, and class size are added in and that produces the gross funding for the district.

She said there was an increase in the base student allocation of $191.25 from $5,139.73 to $5,330.98.

The Comparable Wage Factor decreased by .0051, a $3.2 million impact.

“In ’23 is the year they made the change from the district cost differential to the comparable wage factor. Since they made that change, we have been declining ever since,” Letcher said.

Taxes and other revenue

The tax roll was also discussed, as the conference report was $151 billion, which will change in July as the tax collector is working on the actual number.

“That will increase the amount for discretionary millage. An additional $4.4 million from discretionary millage and capital outlay will see about $8.8 million. That is an increase in our tax roll of 4.24%,” Letcher said.

The total potential for Lee County allocation is $987 million, an increase of $58 million over the current third calculation – $17.5 million for the Family Empowerment scholarship and $40.5 million goes to the district and charter schools.

Other increases include $1.3 million for Safe School Allocation; $758 for Mental Health Allocation, $1.4 million for Educational Enrichment Allocation, $1.5 million for Class Size Reduction and state funded Discretionary Supplement of $5.3 million.

Letcher said there is also 1.07% of base funding to be used for teacher salary increase allocation, which is $6.8 million.

The district will also see an increase in property insurance, an estimate of $2.3 million, about $325,000 more for the Florida Retirement System.

Beginning in April the school allocations will begin, as well as chief review of department budget request and a budget update with the school board. In May the final decisions on department budgets will be made, as well as a budget update with the school board. A preliminary budget update will be given to the board in June.

On July 19, the state Commissioner of Education will set the required local effort millage, the second calculation, followed by advertisement on July 24 and 26 for a budget workshop.

On July 30, the FY25 tentative budget hearing will be set, followed by a final budget hearing on Sept. 5.