- December 4, 2025
The Flagler County School Board approved the district's tentative budget of $328,224,969 and a tentative total millage tax rate of 5.349 for the fiscal year of July 1, 2025 to June 30, 2026.
At the public hearing Tuesday, July 29, to adopt the tentative budget and millage rate resolutions, Chief Financial Officer Patty Wormeck reported an estimated end-of-year general fund balance of $9 million, which is 6.9% of the general fund revenues, above the state-mandated financial condition ratio of 3%. The district is still closing the books, but the fund balance estimate is conservative, Wormeck said, and will not be lower than $9 million.
Wormeck said the district is planning to end the 2025-26 fiscal year with a fund balance of $7.6 million, which is a decrease of $1.4 million.
The estimated Family Empowerment Scholarship (vouchers) impact on Flagler Schools is rising to $17,095,511, accounting for 1,926 students, Wormeck said. The scholarship funds for students opting for private or home schools have steadily increased since 2020-21 when $880,241 were distributed to 136 students.
The district’s Required Local Effort millage rate was reduced by the state to 3.101 from 3.117 a year ago. That rate has gone down every year since 2015 and is at its lowest rate ever. Even though property taxes have gone up, Flagler Schools is not benefiting, Wormeck said.
The capital outlay millage rate remains at 1.5 and the discretionary rate remains at 0.748.
At a special budget presentation meeting on July 22, Wormeck said the district is forecasted to be be down 140 more students this year in addition to the numbers the district lost last year. Fewer students means reduced staff needs which the district is handling through attrition and holding onto some vacancies, Wormeck said.
Wormeck said the district has also reduced the budgets of all departments, most of them by 4%.
After the board unanimously approved the resolutions, board member Janie Ruddy read a prepared statement.
A program marketed as parental choice spends massive amounts of taxpayer money to support choice that was never at risk.
— JANIE RUDDY, Flagler County School Board member
“While our local millage has been now set at the lowest in our county's history, on the surface, that may seem like a win for us taxpayers, but the reality is more complex and concerning,” Ruddy said. “While our schools face inflationary cost increases, higher employer contributions to (the Florida Retirement System) and the challenge of educating students across diverse pathways, we are simultaneously being asked to do more with fewer resources.
“Additionally, the expansion of vouchers now allows families to direct the same level of per student funding to private or home-schooling settings, even though those settings do not provide the same level of accountability or services as public schools,” Ruddy said. “Public School enrollments decline due to the shift. We lose funding and economies of scale while still being required to maintain staffing, facilities and programs for the children who remain. This is not more efficient. It's actually more expensive for the taxpayer over time. A program marketed as parental choice spends massive amounts of taxpayer money to support choice that was never at risk.”
Board Chair Will Furry also commented on the voucher system.
“Yes, we are seeing an increase in vouchers, but basically what that means is that the school choice program is working for parents, and that's something that we have to take into consideration,” he said. “Parents are in control of their educational dollars now. Public schools are no longer the monopoly, and the onus is on us as an organization to present to parents that we are the best choice.
“If we are the best choice, and Flagler Schools is a choice, and we have resources and programs and great things to offer that homeschooling and private schools just can't compete with, I think it's important for our organization to message that to the parents and show them that there are options at our schools. Whether they are full-time, hybrid, part-time, there are different models of the way education is going to look right now … I believe that we are the best choice in Flagler, and I think parents are going to see that as time goes on.”
