During the Tuesday Leon County School Board meeting, officials voted to move forward with a $645 million tentative budget for the fiscal year July 1, 2025, to June 30, 2026.
The board also scheduled a public hearing to adopt the final millage rates and adopt the final budget. The hearing is scheduled for Tuesday, September 9, 2025, at 6:00 p.m. at the Aquilina C. Howell Center, 3955 West Pensacola Street, Tallahassee, Florida.
The total millage rate is 5.366, which is advertised as an increase over the rollback rate due to rising property values, even though the millage rate itself is lower. This rate results in $156.5 million in 2025-26 tax revenue, $10.5 million more than last year.
The budget includes 3.118 mills for local effort (required for state funding), 0.748 discretionary mills, and 1.5 mills for capital outlay projects (e.g., construction, maintenance).
The tentative budget is 2.5% less than the previous year, with a total estimate of $645 million across all funds. A significant challenge is a $6 million decrease in special revenue funds due to the end of ESSER (federal relief) funding.
To balance the budget for the current year, the district implemented an “immediate stop-gap measure” by transferring $7.5 million from the capital outlay budget to the general fund (including $3 million for 2024-2025 and $4.5 million for 2025-2026 for items like bus driver salaries and benefits).
This is a one-time solution, described as a “card that can only be played once,” meaning funds for projects like renovations, roof replacements, and playground equipment are being put on hold or slowed down.
Other cost-saving measures include suspending district-wide travel, reducing district call center operating expenses by 10%, and freezing many vacant positions.
Superintendent Hanna stated that Florida school districts are facing a crisis due to a mere 0.7% increase from the legislature, making it difficult to sustain high-quality education and programs.
Tallahassee Reports has previously reported that the school board considering a property tax increase to address these financial challenges.
Leon County School Board Adopts $645M Balanced Budget, Schedules Hearing added by Steve Stewart on
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ALSO: You ALL need to take a Road Trip up to Buford Georgia and talk to their School Board and learn how they do things. They have got the No. 1 school district in AMERICA, ranked No. 1 academically.
LCSB Adopts $645M Balanced Budget? BALANCED? Just two Days ago you were crying saying you are in the Red and need to RAISE Property Taxes. WTH is going on?
I hate to break it to you Rocky, but we don’t have a “high quality education system” to sustain even if we were so inclined.
Over half of your students cannot read at their grade level, therefore, we have a very low-quality education system that you are struggling to “sustain”.
We need a new school board and a new superintendent, because the current placeholders are failing our children
No consolidation of schools? Cuts must be made-so don’t look to taxpayer wallets first. Align spending with student numbers, protect capital reserves for true emergencies and show us that fiscal responsibility matters! Underutilized schools must be closed.