The School Board of Orange County held its regularly-scheduled board meeting at 5:30 p.m. at the Ronald Blocker Educational Leadership Center while also live streaming on the district’s YouTube channel. This meeting was a public hearing on the tentative budget for the 2020-2021 school year.
The proposed budget is comprised of five distinct funds, as outlined in this chart from the presentation:
SUMMARY OF FIVE FUNDS
| Fund |
2019-20 |
2020-21 |
Difference |
| General |
2,231,730,988 |
2,217,760,062 |
(13,970,926) |
| Debt service |
227,833,851 |
230,437,362 |
2,603,511 |
| Capital projects* |
1,984,059,685 |
1,226,031,739 |
(758,027,946) |
| Special revenue** |
170,188,462 |
161,801,967 |
(8,386,495) |
| Internal service |
348,801,859 |
348,008,014 |
(793,845) |
| TOTALS |
4,962,614,845 |
4,184,039,144 |
(778,575,701) |
*Includes carry-over projects for 2019-20 only
**Food Service only, other grant awards to be amended into the budget as approved
Millage
The tentative millage levies for the 2020-21 fiscal year total 6.857, which includes the Required Local Effort of 3.609, Basic Discretionary of 0.748, the Additional Voted Millage of 1.000, and Capital Improvement of 1.500. The proposed total millage rate is decreasing by 0.252 mills or 3.54% because of a decrease in the state-mandated Required Local Effort millage rate. Because of the decrease in RLE rate and limited increase in assessed value, the owner of an average home with a just value of $217,000 would pay $17 less in school taxes per year or approximately $1.42 less per month.
CARES Act Funding
GEER - Governor’s Emergency Education Relief Fund: $5.1 million
• Charter schools: $243K
• Private schools: $280K
• Jump Start summer camp: $419K
• 3rd Grade Reading camp: $1.1M
• Tutoring: $3.0M
• Transportation/Other: $77K
ESSER - Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund: $55.4 million
• Charter schools: $3.6M
• Private schools: $2.8M
• Remaining Cohort 8 devices: $8.1M
• Regression intervention materials: $2.4M
• Instructional technology equipment: $1.4M
• ESE evaluations: $255K
• Contracted custodial services: $1.9M
• Additional LPNs and Health Assistants: $7.3M
• Substitute at each school: $4.4M
• Hand-held thermometers: $153K
• Bottle filling stations: $1.8M
• Furniture movers: $900K
• Athletic support: $1.6M
• Indirect costs: $2.2M
• Reserve for projected shortfall: $16.6M
General Fund
The General Fund is the operating budget of the school district. The primary source of revenue for this fund comes through a formula called the Florida Education Finance Program (FEFP) which is only $436 more than the amount in 2007-08. With the additional special millage proceeds, the district now receives $1,205.35 more than in 2007-08. However, when considering the purchasing power using the Consumer Price Index, the purchasing power today is still $669 less than in 2007-08. FEFP funding actually increased by $113 or 1.49% per student when compared to last year. The increase is really overstated as the Legislature added the Teacher Salary Increase Allocation into the FEFP which alone equates to $179 per student. The additional special millage is now generating over $768 per student, assuming the property assessments are accurate. This is an increase of $57 per student or 8%.
Appropriation priorities for the coming school year are focused on changes having to do with the pandemic response, including providing three instructional models for students, Covid-19 safety measures (including approximately $2 million in PPE), as well as social-emotional learning, preserving academic programs, retaining highly qualified teachers, and protecting the arts, athletics and student activities.
Capital Projects Fund
This fund is used to record the revenues and expenditures for construction and renovation of school and ancillary facilities. The major uses of capital funds for 2020-21 are for additional schools, debt service & operations, comprehensive needs and districtwide capital. Significant amounts are also planned for educational technology, portables and bus replacements. The three major local sources of revenue are sales taxes, property taxes and impact fees. Property taxes are currently forecast by the State to grow steadily over the next five years. However, the Finance Department anticipates the effects of the pandemic to begin driving tax rolls down next year. Impact fees are projected to decline modestly this year as the economy feels the effects of the shutdown. The authorized sales tax program will continue through December 2025, but OCPS is projecting a significant drop in sales tax collections to continue into this current year and on into FY22.
Capital Projects use of Funds
| Expense item |
Percentage of funds |
| Debt service and ops |
30.27 |
| Districtwide capital |
5.90 |
| Comprehensive needs |
16.41 |
| Additional schools |
33.14 |
| Buses and equipment |
2.97 |
| Charter schools |
1.62 |
| Educational tech |
4.97 |
| Portables |
3.48 |
| Security system/environmental projects |
0.32 |
| Site acquisition |
0.92 |
Three new elementary schools are scheduled to open in August 2020: Sunshine Elementary, Summerlake Elementary and Vista Pointe Elementary. Additionally, two high schools and one elementary school are scheduled to open the following year and two campuses of our technical college are scheduled to begin comprehensive renovation this year.
The district is committed to preserving budget dollars to be prepared for any shortfalls due to the pandemic. The full presentation on the
2020-2021 budget is available to be viewed on Board Docs. The final public hearing for the FY20-21 budget is set for the September 8, 2020 board meeting.
Medical Advisory Committee
The school board voted to establish a Medical Advisory Committee to specifically assist with COVID-19 issues that the district faces. This committee will advise the School Board regarding best practices for operating our schools safely. Per the Florida Department of Education Commissioner’s
Emergency Order 2020-E0-06 and unless a waiver is granted, this committee will not advise the board regarding the opening of the district but may advise the board about the opening or closing of individual schools due to a COVID-19 outbreak.
Medical Advisory Committee
| Name |
Specialty |
| Mercedes Rodriguez |
OCPS Medical Consultant |
| George Ralls |
Chief Medical Officer |
Akin Ajayi
|
Pediatric Pulmonologist |
Annete Nielsen
|
Pediatrician |
Omayra Mansfield
|
Chief Medical Officer |
Michael Muszynski
|
Professor Emeritus Clinical Sciences |
Brian A. Harris
|
Behavioral Developmental Pediatrician |
Adriana Cadilla
|
Infectious Disease |
Vincent Hsu
|
Internal Medicine, Infectious Disease |
| Darcy Ravndal |
Nurse Practitioner |
Read the
guidelines for the establishment of the Medical Advisory Committee.
Changes regarding administrative personnel
Superintendent Barbara Jenkins announced the following new administrators:
Adasha Elmore, assistant principal, Pine Hills Elementary
Charisse Hurdle, assistant principal, Riverside Elementary
Tammie Sue Peters, assistant principal, Shingle Creek Elementary
GeRai Johnson Mays, principal, Bay Meadows Elementary
*Reminder* All board meetings are live-streamed on the
School Board’s YouTube page and will be accessible from web browsers on computers or mobile devices. Please help us reach the level of live closed captioning on YouTube by subscribing to our channel.