- April 24, 2024
-
-
Loading
Loading
Another $1.1 million has been cut from the Flagler County School District’s budget, and with that cut comes losses ranging from upper-level foreign language classes to materials and supplies.
Some of the cuts — such as reducing supplies where possible — are normal tweaks that come with the budgeting season, Superintendent Janet Valentine said. But some of them were more painful.
“We’re changing who we are,” said Lynette Shott, principal at Flagler Palm Coast High School, who told the Flagler County School Board during a workshop meeting Tuesday what the cuts entailed.
At FPC, most language courses above the second-year level will be eliminated, Shott said. The school is also working with only one athletic trainer, which is exhausting her staff, she said.
Every school in the district cut additional money from its budget. The amount each school was told to cut was proportional to its size.
At the same workshop meeting, Valentine announced a proposed millage rate of $7.554 per $1,000 of
taxable value, the second-lowest rate since before 1990.
The additional cuts came about one month after the School Board cut $1.8 million from its budget because of a failed referendum on a 0.5 mill tax levy.
So when Valentine mentioned the additional cuts to schools, saying they were mostly to consumable supplies, School Board member Sue Dickinson asked to hear exactly what those cuts meant.
“We can’t take more than $1 million and shove it under the rug,” Dickinson said. “There are major things happening in these cuts.”
Dickinson also said it was important that the public know, referencing the board’s failed June 7 referendum, in which voters by a wide margin voted down a proposed property tax increase to continue student programs, enhance school safety and reinstate classroom time that was cut two years ago.
“We talk about transparency, and when we lost the referendum, we made up the dollars we lost,” Dickinson said. “We took ($1.8 million) out of the budget, and here we are with another million dollars, and the public doesn’t know we’re taking it out of the budget. If we don’t show them that we’re pulling these dollars, then we’re never going to get their support.”
Board members asked that all principals compile lists of the cuts they made, to be reviewed at a future workshop.
At the same workshop, Tom Tant, chief financial officer for the district, told the School Board that many of the district’s costs are increasing this year because of new state laws.
So, while projected general fund revenues are higher this year than last as the last five years of declining property values begins to subside, the district has higher costs this year than last year that must be accounted for.
For example, a new state requirement increases the amount of money the district must pay for students taking classes through dual enrollment at Daytona State College or virtual school programs. The new law states that students are entitled to take as many classes as they wish to take, but that the state will pay for seven, whether in a traditional school or on a college campus. That money will be divided between whichever schools the student attends, and the difference must be paid by the district.
Other increases to the district’s cut are teacher and administrator pay raises mandated by the state (at a cost of $2.1 million to Flagler’s school district) and a legislative bill that shifted more of the cost of the Florida Retirement System to counties. The new law increases employer contributions for retirees’ health insurance subsidies from 1.1% to 1.25%.
The School Board will continue to discuss its budget at future workshops. The board will talk about a proposal to purchase laptops for high school students using half-penny sales tax revenues at a workshop at 6 p.m. July 16. (Revenues from this tax can only be used to purchase technology, to build or maintain school buildings or to acquire land.)
The board will then further discuss its general fund budget at a workshop at 5 p.m. July 23.
