School board adopts tentative budget and new millage rates

The Sarasota County School Board voted unanimously to adopt the tentative budget and new property tax rate it had approved for advertising on July 23. 

The budget is a decrease from last year's $1.5 billion, while the total recommended millage of 6.131 mills is a slight decrease from the 6.18 levied last year. 

Taxpayers would see a bill of $613 for every $100,000 of taxable value, a decrease of $4.90 per $100,000 in taxable value.

Nonetheless, the millage will draw higher revenue due to rising property values.  

The operating millage serves the purpose of hiring staff for the school district, paying negotiated salaries and fringe benefits, and covering the cost of goods and services.

The final vote on the budget will be held in September.

The public weighs in

Two community activists took the opportunity to comment on the new budget. 

Rhana Bazzini called the budget “as rational as we are able to,” but also highlighted her concerns around funding directives from the state level, including the passing of House Bill 1 in 2023. 

The bill made school vouchers available to all students eligible for K-12 public schools, through the Florida Tax Credit Scholarship Program and the Family Empowerment Scholarship for Educational Options Program. 

The latter of those items was an education savings account, a type of account controlled by parents for approved educational expenses.

“I understand we do have a lobbyist, and it seems to me that we need to have our voice heard in Tallahassee, so I think it behooves us to make sure that we give direction to our lobbyist to speak for us regarding where funding are coming from," she said. 

Carol Lerner offered similar concerns to Bazzini's.

“I spent about a day reading the budget, and I actually find the budget book very interesting and very revealing,” she said, stating she agreed with Bazzini that the district had a “Tallahassee problem and not a Sarasota problem.”

She quoted from a section of the budget book found on pages 9 and 39, which discussed a decrease in state and federal revenue sources currently taking place. 

She noted that the book attributed the current "relatively flat" status of state funding from the Florida Education Finance Program, to an increase in students using the Family Empowerment Scholarship created by House Bill 1. 

“If that funding had been put into the district’s schools, our budget would be in a lot healthier shape,” she said. 

She also indicated a chart on Page 39 of the budget book that showed that if the current $9,966 per student in funding had kept pace with inflation, the funding would be $14,699 per student, about 32% higher than today's amount.

She said a third area of concern, which was “not so much a Tallahassee problem” was a decrease in the number of students in the public schools. 

“Given that there is ... a growing decline in the birth rate and the increased privatized options and the high cost of living here in Sarasota, I think that's going to be an issue, and I just hope we don't get like Broward County and Duval County where they’re actually closing schools."

The only board member to offer comments at the time was Bridget Ziegler.

“This is the first budget I’ve supported in quite some time for a variety of different reasons, and it's never been about the hard work staff has done and continues to do, but I think it reiterates the confidence I have in our leadership, the direction we’re going, keeping out things that really, where I thought in the past, were kind of putting us off track," she said. "I think the results of our scores really speak for themselves."