- August 11, 2026
The Volusia County School Board engaged in yet another tense budget discussion at its meeting on Tuesday, Aug. 11. It won't be its last.
The School Board will hold a special meeting in the next few weeks to discuss next fiscal year's budget, prior to the first scheduled public hearing on Sept. 8. Board members had previously approved on July 28 a tentative millage rate (with a 4-1 vote) and a nearly $1.1 billion budget for fiscal year 2026-2027; this skated through in a tempestuous 3-2 vote, during which Superintendent Carmen Balgobin called out board members for injecting "politics" in the budget discussion. Three of the five board members' seats — District 1 rep Jamie Haynes, District 3 rep Jessie Thompson and District 5 rep Ruben Colon — are up for reelection.
All three voted in favor of the budget and a proposed millage of 5.243 mills on July 28, following warnings by Balgobin and district staff that adopting the rollback rate (the millage rate that would generate the same amount of revenue as the previous year) would result in cuts to staff, impacting students. The tentative millage rate is 1.4% higher than the rollback rate.
School Board member Donna Brosemer voted against the millage rate, saying she was uncomfortable with the tax rate increase because the board hadn't been in favor of putting a 1-mill property tax proposal to the voters to help fund teacher salaries. Board member Krista Goodrich, who voted for the millage rate, joined Brosemer in voting no on the budget.
At Tuesday's meeting during closing comments, Goodrich clarified her position.
"Adopting a balanced budget is one of the main responsibilities and requirements of any school board in Florida," she said. "... What that means is that if the board wants to wants changes made to revenues, reserves, or expenditures, then the corresponding changes have to be made elsewhere so that the budget remains balanced. We cannot simply reduce millions of dollars in recurring revenue and not address the corresponding consequences on the expenditure side."
Going to rollback — Brosemer's voiced desire at the July 28 meeting — would translate to about $5 million in cuts to recurring revenues, Goodrich said. That is equal to about 70-75 full-time positions, she explained.
She also criticized the linking of the 1-mill proposal by Volusia United Educators with the budget.
"After looking at both issues, I cannot figure out how those are logically or financially the same decision," Goodrich said. "Reducing the recurring revenue that supports the school system is completely different than asking for a policy decision to be made. Not asking taxpayers for additional revenue does not somehow create $5 million in savings for the current budget."
Goodrich asked Brosemer questions about the budget and what reductions the district should make, but Brosemer declined to give specific answers, saying she had not come to the meeting prepared to discuss the budget.
"It's impossible to answer detailed questions without detailed information, and without access to line item budgets, which is something that I have asked for from the Legislature to make that a requirement instead of just the plain language that we are required to post," Brosemer said. "It makes it impossible to give you detailed answers."
Brosemer said it's their job as board members to decide how funds are spent and said she has suggested many times the district do a "zero-based budget" as an exercise.
"The assumption that we have no efficiencies that we can create or that we can find in any department is on its face a fallacy because there's no such thing in any government agency that there aren't efficiencies that could be found," she said. "It's not the CFO's job to find those efficiencies. It's ours."
When asked by Goodrich, Brosemer said she had not met with the district's chief financial officer to discuss the issue.
The special meeting will include a proposal on what revenue reductions will look like if the district chooses to go to rollback. The district has already cut $6.8 million in revenue in its proposed budget compared to the current fiscal year.
