The Leon County School Board approved a $615 million operating budget for the 2026-27 fiscal year Tuesday, adopting a spending plan that reflects declining enrollment, shrinking reserves and difficult cost-cutting decisions.
The budget passed on a 4-1 vote, with District 1 board member Alva Smith casting the lone dissenting vote. The approved budget is approximately $32 million smaller than last year’s.
Superintendent Rocky Hanna said district leaders continue to face many of the same financial pressures that shaped last year’s budget.
“None of us are happy about this budget situation,” Hanna said. “Our staffing plan, we only funded at 98% this year. Our emergency reserves are at the lowest that I’ve seen now in my 11th year as superintendent.”
The district previously announced $7.8 million in budget reductions for the coming school year, citing continued enrollment declines. The cuts affect staffing, administrative operations, arts and athletics programs, and funding for community organizations.
Hanna said district operations have already absorbed significant reductions in an effort to protect classrooms.
“We cut our district cost centers, all district operations, by over 6% this year by consolidating positions and reducing operating expenses,” Hanna said. “We’ll continue to look at ways to cut at the district and not affect the classroom, but at some point, the classroom is going to be affected.”
Smith argued the district has not gone far enough to reduce spending before asking employees to shoulder the burden.
“I’m going to be a no on the budget this year until we find a way to make the deep cuts to support our teachers and support staff,” Smith said.
Board Chair Marcus Nicolas disagreed, saying substantial work has already been done to reduce costs and that school consolidation has been discussed as a possible future option.
The budget also leaves little room for teacher pay increases. Hanna said the district may ultimately seek voter approval of a property tax increase to generate additional local funding for teacher and staff salaries.
The Leon Classroom Teachers Association posted a comment a social media account addressing the teacher pay issue.
The statement said ” We have consistently advocated for consolidating non-school operations before considering the consolidation or closure of schools. At the same time, the District cannot continue to make two conflicting arguments: that declining enrollment requires school consolidation while also claiming that vouchers have had little impact on student enrollment. Both cannot be true to the degree they are being presented…..Our analysis of the District’s financial data from the 2017–18 through the 2024–25 school years shows that instructional spending increased by approximately 9%, while administrative site spending increased by approximately 42%. We have repeatedly asked Leon County Schools to explain the reasons for this disparity, but to date no rationale has been provided. Before discussing the consolidation of schools, this is one area that deserves careful examination as a potential source of savings.”
The board is scheduled to formally adopt the final budget at its Sept. 8 meeting.
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