- March 6, 2025
After a day-long debate on Tuesday about how to cut $1.7 million from the school district’s budget next year brought no answers, the Flagler County School Board will hold an emergency workshop Thursday to continue its conversation.
The board will decide at Thursday’s meeting to either close a school or to cut media aides from all schools, stop bus service for elementary students who live within two miles of their schools and close Everest Alternative School. The cuts will be needed if a 0.5 millage property tax levy does not pass during a special election June 7, leaving a $1.8 million deficit in the district's budget for next year. If the tax is approved, the cuts will not happen.
The board began to discuss potential cuts at 8:30 a.m. Tuesday. By 3 p.m., it had agreed on some smaller cuts totaling about $754,000, but the board was still $1 million short of its target. For a list of those agreed cuts, see the table below.
Board members became increasingly more frustrated as the debate continued, many of them raising their hands in the air and staring at the ceiling or holding their heads in their hands. As the afternoon progressed, the board decided that the only way to cut enough was to turn to some of the costlier items that had, for most of the meeting, been ignored as too important to cut.
Eventually, the board narrowed its options to either closing a school or enacting the bundle of cuts.
Closing a school would save the district $900,000. Many schools are under capacity, according to Tom Tant, chief financial officer for the district. Consolidating two schools would not result in loss of teachers, though there would be inevitable losses to administrative staff.
The bundle of three cuts would shave about $962,000 from the School Board’s budget.
Closure of Everest Alternative School would likely result in expulsion for many of its 55 students who have proven to be unable to function in traditional school environments or have been charged with a crime, Superintendent Janet Valentine said, but it would save the district about $577,000.
Principals in Flagler’s schools unanimously requested that media aides be spared from cuts, calling them vital to the contemporary learning environment, Valentine said. The board agreed that it hoped to honor the principals' wishes if possible. Still, that cut would save $185,000.
By state statute, the district only has to provide bus transportation for elementary school students who live farther than two miles from their schools. Traditionally, Flagler has provided transportation to students who live distances greater than one mile from their school to enhance student safety. There are 1,090 children living within two miles of their schools, Tant said. Changing service would save the district about $200,000.
As the meeting closed Tuesday, the board was split on which cuts to choose. Board members Trevor Tucker and Andy Dance opted to cut the bundle of programs, while members Sue Dickinson and John Fischer said they would prefer closing a school.
Tucker, who had throughout the budgetary workshops said he wanted to cut what had the least impact on students and had before indicated that he would prefer closing a school, said after the meeting that he ultimately decided on the bundle of cuts because closing a school would disrupt many students and would cost jobs. Also, he said, it will be easier for the district to find an extra $200,000 in its budget to restore one of the cut programs than to find an extra $900,000 to reopen a school.
Dickinson, however, said she could not approve of a 5-year-old student walking two miles to school down roads without a sidewalk. She also said job losses would be minimal, since all teachers and some administrators would change schools with students.
With a divided board, the decision fell on School Board member Colleen Conklin, who said she was unable to make a decision without knowing exactly how many jobs would be lost if a school were closed. She also said she thought that if principals of Flagler schools were asked, they might be able to find ways to further cut their budgets, potentially eliminating the need for such drastic cuts.
Valentine said she will meet with principals Wednesday to see if they had any alternative options in preparation for Thursday’s meeting. However, the School Board must make a decision Thursday because union contracts mandate that any staff whose positions are being eliminated be told by that day.
The conversation Tuesday was riddled with resistance about cutting any of the programs, and the board was adamant that it was acting only out of necessity.
“It’s not our final decision,” Dickinson said. “It’s the public’s final decision. If they don’t want us to have one of our schools open, if they don’t want us to have these other programs, let them make that statement June 7.”
| 2012-2013 potential budget cuts | Potential cuts | Agreed cuts | Option 1 cuts | Option 2 cuts |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Everest | 577,000 | 577,000 | ||
| Media Aides | 185,000 | 185,000 | ||
| 2-mile rule | 200,000 | 200,000 | ||
| Linear Park | 27,500 | 27,500 | ||
| Princess Place | 82,400 | 82,400 | ||
| Strings Ptrogarm | 57,000 | |||
| Paraprofessionals | 112,000 | 112,000 | ||
| HS Graduations | 27,500 | |||
| CIC | 14,600 | 14,600 | ||
| Problem Solvers | 29,000 | 29,000 | ||
| Library Books | 100,000 | 100,000 | ||
| Wheel Classes | 1,845,000 | |||
| GSB Reductions | 93,100 | 93,100 | ||
| Teacher of the year | 10,000 | 10,000 | ||
| Close School | 900,000 | 900,000 | ||
| BTES Chiller | 44,000 | 44,000 | ||
| Lobbyist | 3,000 | 3,000 | ||
| FOL Rebate | 204,500 | 204,500 | ||
| Waste Management | 34,000 | 34,000 | ||
| Total reductions | 4,545,600 | 754,000 | 962,000 | 900,000 |
| Net option reductions (including agreed reductions) | 1,716,000 | 1,654,000 |
