- September 16, 2026
Volusia County Schools laid out budget misconceptions, questions about the ongoing state audit and how funding for school districts operates during a special workshop on Tuesday, Aug. 25, ahead of the budget's first public hearing next month.
In July, the School Board approved a tentative millage rate and a $1.095 billion budget for fiscal year 2026-2027. The workshop, which came at School Board members' request earlier this month, was led by Deidra Whittenberger, the district's chief financial officer, who opened by clarifying budget misunderstandings.
One being that the district's tentative $1.095 billion budget is wholly available for the district to spend.
"It is factual," Whittenberger said. "However, it's misleading because not all money in the budget can be used for any purpose. Some funds are limited by laws, grant requirements, or specific program requirements. The district's total budget includes several different funds, not just money that's used for daily operations."
She also clarified that, despite state funding going up overall, the dollars going toward the district's traditional and virtual schools is $6.6 million less than the prior calculation. Fund balance, she added, are one-time dollars and can't be used for ongoing costs.
Whittenberger additionally spoke about a state audit by the Florida Department of Financial Services. She received an email about the audit in April. Board members were also notified at that time.
"This review is ongoing in a statewide effort, which involves multiple districts," she said. "We were just part of round one."
Whittenberger's presentation included explanations on how enrollment drives funding and how it is impacted by funds for scholarships and charter schools, which the district receives and distributes. According to the information shared with board members, VCS is reporting a year-over-year decrease in traditional and virtual school students of 1,425, or 2.61%. Charter enrollment is also down 40 students, or 1.06%.
Scholarships, however, have increased by 1,270 students, or 12.76%.
So while the district will receive $7.3 million more for 2026-2027 based on Florida Education Finance Program calculations, funding for traditional and virtual schools is down $6.6 million, or 1.33%. Scholarship funding has increased by $13.6 million, or 15.9%.
Tuesday's discussion was held following an Aug. 11 meeting where School Board member Krista Goodrich questioned School Board member Donna Brosemer about the budget; Brosemer voted in July against the proposed millage rate and budget, citing a desire to go to rollback.
My goal is to try to get the board to look past the 'one foot in front of the other' approach and start to look at, 'How we can we be more creative with the dollars we have?'" — School Board member Donna Brosemer
According to the district, adopting the rollback rate would mean cutting $5 million in recurring revenues.
"Between the last meeting and this meeting, have you received any budget proposal changes, any amendments, anybody asking to change anything that they may see as wasteful, fraud, abuse, whatever they want to call it?" School Board Chair Ruben Colon asked Whittenberger at the workshop.
"No sir," she responded.
Brosemer shared with the Observer that she was absent during Tuesday's workshop due to a family emergency. Glancing at the livestream of the meeting, Brosemer noted that it was about 14 minutes long.
"I think that's a perfect example of the amount of attention that this board gives a billion-dollar budget, and that's what I was trying to get to at the last board meeting when I was ambushed with a whole bunch of budget-related detailed questions that were not on the agenda," she said. "That was why this meeting was scheduled, so it's a little ironic that I wasn't able to be there because I was the sole reason that it was being held."
Brosemer said she doesn't expect any changes to be made for the upcoming budget. Tuesday's workshop would have been the time to propose changes and she wasn't able to be there.
"My goal is to try to get the board to look past the 'one foot in front of the other' approach and start to look at, 'How can we be more creative with the dollars we have?'" Brosemer said.
For example, she said, if the board wanted to go to rollback for the 2026-2027 budget, one way to do so is by selling some of its surplus land — like the two properties in DeBary and former Osceola school site. Next year, the district would have to come up with another way to offset the $5.3 million of recurring funds, and that's why she said she wanted the board to take a closer look at the budget and current district process.
Volusia County holds multiple budget workshops to examine opportunities for efficiencies and shift in priorities, Brosemer added. The Polk County School District holds budget workshops almost year-round.
Brosemer would like to see VCS and the School Board implement a similar approach.
"There's never any real examination of how we're spending our money," Brosemer said. "It's just, 'Do the pluses and minuses add up?' and that seems to be the only question that they have. They also seem to think that the only source of accurate information about how the budget process should work comes from staff, and that by itself is problematic because staff needs to provide certain information based on their leadership."
