- March 6, 2025
The Flagler County School Board spent Tuesday morning hunting for ways to shave $1.7 million from its budget for next school year, which it will need to do if a proposed 0.5 mill property tax does not pass in a special election on June 7.
Tom Tant, chief financial officer for the district, predicts a $1.9 million deficit in next year’s budget without the tax, due to added expenses from statutory regulations and declining student enrollment. The district has already planned for $785,000 in expense reductions, leaving about $1.8 million to be cut.
The proposed tax continues a 0.25 millage. That quarter mill is set to expire June 30 and generates $1.6 million annually for the district. It also adds an additional quarter mill to the tax to be used for increased safety programs and to reinstate 45 minutes per day in middle and high schools, for a total of $3.2 million in revenue for the district.
Tant’s projected numbers changed from those he gave at an April 30 workshop meeting, in which he said the district needed to account for $1.4 million, in light of information in a Florida Education Finance Program conference report the district just received. The numbers he gave Tuesday are fluid, he said, and subject to change slightly as more information about the district’s final budget for the 2013-2014 school year.
Tant said that, taking into consideration the projected budget for the next school year, he understood the need for the School Board to request the 0.5 mill tax from property owners. For the second year in a row, the district will use its general fund reserves — $1.7 million this year.
“To be prudent, with these types of pressures on the organization, you have to look at whatever sources of revenue you can,” Tant said. “We are in a situation that we can’t maintain. We can’t maintain continuing to take money out of our reserves.”
Mike Judd, the senior director of school operations, outlined possible budget reductions the School Board thought of at last week’s workshop meeting, with a target of reducing $1.7 million from the budget. Below are some of the potential cuts the board is discussing. Check back for updates.
Closing schools
Many schools currently have a significant number of open seats in their classrooms, Judd said. Next year, enrollment is expected to decline by 283 students.
“There are a couple of scenarios where you could close one school or two schools,” Judd said, adding that the savings are not as dramatic as one might expect because teachers from closed schools would have to migrate with their students to another school. Some administrative staff also would likely need to move.
Despite that, one closed school would shave $900,000 from the district’s total budget. Judd said the district is in a position where it can close either Old Kings Elementary School or Wadsworth Elementary School— but not both.
If the board decides to close Wadsworth, it could release one of its buildings to the adjacent Buddy Taylor Middle School, creating enough space to also close Indian Trails Middle School, for a total savings of $1.8 million.
If the schools are closed, the district would continue to maintain and air-condition the buildings so they would not fall into disrepair.
“You can’t turn a school completely off and turn it into a mold experiment,” Judd said. “Essentially, you mothball it rather than abandoning it.”
Closing Everest
Everest Alternative School, which currently enrolls 50 students who have proven unable to function in a traditional school environment or have been charged with a crime, does not sustain itself. Estimating the potential savings of closing the school is difficult, Valentine said, because it is difficult to determine how many Everest students would remain in the school district.
“I believe some of these students would end up dropping out,” Superintendent Janet Valentine said. “I believe some of these students would have continuous suspensions or would be expelled — certainly not all of them, but some of them.”
The school has a total budget of $912,000 and employs 15 teachers and two administrators. The $577,275 in savings the district would achieve marks the difference between the school’s funding and its costs.
Eliminating Wheel classes
This budgetary cut would eliminate technology, music, media and art classes, and would require union negotiations because it would eliminate teaching positions. The cut would also shorten the school day by 45 minutes per day, at a savings of $1,844,676.
Paraprofessionals
Most districts in Florida do not hire additional paraprofessionals for students who do not generate funding using a formula, but the Flagler County School District does, said Tracy Umpenhour, director of exceptional student education.
The district employs about 144 paraprofessionals.
“We’ve realized that, overall, we could look at a reduction of 20 individuals,” Valentine said. “That’s a lot to just take out of the schools, so we’re going to have to do some training and planning for that. We thought we could make a three-year plan (for the reduction), starting with taking six out of the schools right now.”
Eliminating six professionals would save the district $112,116.
Adult and community education
The School Board expressed interest in restructuring adult and community education programs to squeeze savings from that program as well.
"For seven years now, everything's been cut," School Board member Sue Dickinson said. "Every department has been cut. We need to make sure that we're not (only) pulling from our K-12 and not touching this department."
The School Board hopes to examine the programs and see where cuts could be made at a future workshop.
"We don't want to cut adult ed," Conklin said. "We're one of the few communities in the county that still has it, and we want to keep that. But it's only smart to examine (the progam)."
There was a time, Dickinson said, when adult and community education programs were once not only self-sustaining, but also gave money back to K-12 programs.
"We're hearing loud and clear that we need to take a look at the structure of these programs," Valentine said.
Travel
Staff did not show a potential savings because it would depend on how the board decided to handle any reductions. Changing the mileage reimbursement rates would require union contract negotiations, Judd said, but the board could decide to reduce transportation costs by a certain percentage and allow individual schools to decide which transportation costs to eliminate.
Last year, the total travel for students and staff in- and out-of-county was $156,100. The projected budget for next year is $122,605.
Two-mile limit for elementary schools
The district currently provides bus transportation for elementary students who live more than one mile from their respective schools. However, by state statute, the amount could be extended to two miles. This would save $200,000.
Princess Place
There are 25 students enrolled in a special program at Princess Place Preserve. If that program were cut, the teacher would return with the students to one of the district’s high schools (one teacher is hired per 24 high school students), so the $103,389 in savings would come from eliminating the cost of transportation, Internet and other repetitive costs.
Linear Park
Linear Park hosts a satellite high school classroom, where a group of 20 students comes once per week to learn about environmental sciences and other topics within the park’s nature preserve. Savings from cutting the program would amount to $27,558.
Supplements
The district paid $571,583 total in supplements for various positions it staffs. The supplements themselves cannot be eliminated because they are required by union contract, but the positions with the supplements could be eliminated, Judd said.
| Item | Savings | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Closing Everest | $890,000 | |
| Eliminating media aides | $184,662 | |
| Instating two-mile limit for elementary students | $200,000 | |
| Eliminating Linear Park program | $27,558 | |
| Eliminating Princess Place program | $103,389 | |
| Eliminating strings program | $67,376 | |
| Reducing paraprofessional staff | $112,116 | |
| Graduations | $45,000 | Figure does not take into account cost of hosting graduation at high schools |
| Not renewing CIC | $14,625 | |
| Problem Solver Competitions | $29,207 | The savings reflect abstaining from paying for international competitions |
| Wheel classes | $1,844,676 | |
| Library books | $74,651 | |
| GSB Reduction | $93,056 | |
| Teacher of the year | $10,000 | If the program were supported by sponsorships and fundraising |
| BTES Chiller | $44,138 | Energy reduction program |
| BTES FPL rebate | $204,479 | Addition of ice tanks |
