Seminole County Public Schools to hold budget vote next week

Seminole County Public Schools will hold a budget workshop Tuesday, July 25 to adopt a tentative budget.

The hearing will start at 5 p.m. at the Educational Support Center, located at 400 E. Lake Mary Blvd. in Sanford. The board will also hold a regular board meeting starting at 5:30 p.m. the same night. View the agenda for the board meeting here. 

Schools are funded with a combination of property tax millage and state funding. The current SCPS millage rate is, in total, 5.378, or about $538 for every $100,000 in the taxable value of a home. The largest part of the schools’ budget is what’s called the Required Local Effort.

Required Local Effort is part of the millage rate for Seminole County Public Schools, and is set by state lawmakers, rather than by the school board. Local officials have to adopt the state-mandated millage rate to be eligible for state funding.

Abby Sanchez, chair of the SCPS board, said there are no plans to increase the millage rate for the schools. She said the biggest potential budget impact would be the loss of penny sales tax, if voters don’t renew it in November. 

“We’re staying focused on that,” Sanchez said. 

While home values have been steadily rising, lawmakers have been steadily dropping the Required Local Effort, so school board budgets have not ballooned. SCPS’ rate has dropped from above 5 mills in 2014 to the current rate of 3.122 mills, or 62% of the previous rate. But the effective drop is less than that, as the millage rate doesn’t take into account the rise in property tax values over that time span, which increases the amount of money per year collected for schools as taxable property values rise. 

While board members are adopting a tentative budget, the final hearings won’t take place until two public meetings that are planned in September. School administrators have previously told the board that they are expecting a slight drop in enrollment. 

Sanchez also noted that the school’s administration team has gotten a tentative contract with its teachers done, although it still needs board approval.