Oasis Charter board approves budget, bonuses
The Oasis Charter School governing board approved the municipal school district’s 2026 budget Tuesday night, which was a 7.81% increase from the 2025 adopted budget.
The budget approved was $37,919,940, compared to last year’s budget of $35,171,500.
Budget Administrator Nicole Reitler said the increase is the result of the before- and after-care program moving from the city of Cape Coral to the charter school, and local capital improvement funding.
“One of the key factors that we want to highlight – each and every school is structurally balanced – revenue equals expenditures,” she said.
Staffing changes include adding 4.18 staff members, which equates to a total of 369.18 staff equivalents.
“There is a lot of movement between the schools,” Reitler said.
The 2026 budget includes adding two bus drivers, one English for Speakers of Other Languages coordinator, one food service worker, one contract junior counselor, one security guard and two teachers.
There were also reclassifications – such as an assistant principal to a teacher at Oasis High School and reclassification from a teacher to exceptional teacher at Oasis Middle School.
The governing board also approved an amendment to the 2025 budget.
Reitler said the budget amendment is the first and only for FY ’25.
The FI ’25 adopted budget was $35,171,500. The budget amendment approved was for $2,635,963, which brought the amended budget to $37,807,463.
The two highest adjustments were $1,458,500 for classification pay parity adjustment and $1,106,776 for the FY ’24 encumbrance carryforwards.
Reitler said there were staffing changes – addition of one bus driver, the reclassification of two teachers to exceptional teachers; reclass of one transportation dispatcher to transportation coordinator and the adjustment of .25 of a full time equivalent from Oasis Middle School that was split with the high school.
The board also approved a longevity bonus for staffers that ranged from $500 to $2,500 depending on the number of years the employee has been with the system.
The amounts include:
• $500 for support staff
• $1,000 for one to nine years for teachers
• $1,500 for 10 to 14 years for teachers
• $2,000 for 15 to 19 years for teachers
• $2,500 for 20 plus years for teachers
Superintendent Jackie Collins said after they conducted the classification and compensation study a discussion was had regarding what they can do with funds left over, which resulted in providing bonuses.
“Because we didn’t make pay increases retroactive from the beginning of the year, we had funds left over,” she said. “The feedback that we got from the classification study was teachers that have been in our system for one or two years who got a 1% increase weren’t as happy for those in the system longer.”
Teachers will receive the bonus in their June 27 check.
Chair Kristifer Jackson said he is very glad to see that support staff also received a bonus.
“Nobody can run the school without support staff. I am very glad to see they are also in this as well,” he said.
Collins said they provided a bonus last year as well.
“This is significantly better than last year,” she said. “This is the last time we are going to be doing something of this nature. Something like this is a wonderful thing, but not necessarily sustainable over time.”
To reach MEGHAN BRADBURY, please email news@breezenewspapers.com