Sarasota County Schools announces 'A' rating

Sarasota County Schools has announced that it is the recipient of an overall "A" grade by the Florida Department of Education for the 2023 to 2024 school year.

The achievement marks the 21st consecutive year in which the district has maintained the rating. 

Additionally, the district improved 49 points on the overall district accountability system, which grades districts according to 12 components, including the 3rd grade English Language Arts Achievement component added this year. 

The ranking comes as the Florida State Board of Education approved an increased grading threshold for middle, high, and combination schools, and for the overall district grade.

School board approves tentative millage and budget 

The board also adopted the tentative millage rate of 6.131 and budget of 1.35 billion.

The total recommended millage is 6.131 mills, a slight decrease from the 6.18 that was 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.

Chief Financial Officer Bonnie Penner said the district's budget book offers comparisons to dating back to the 1969 to 1970 school year, across which time the district has never levied a lower rate. 

Despite decreasing rates, the district will see higher revenues, she said, about 1.28%. higher than last year, because of increasing property values, requiring publication of a tax notice. 

The only aspect of the millage altered from last year is the required local effort, which is the amount the district must levy as required statewide. 

The district's required local effort was certified by the state at 2.873 mills, with an adjustment to the prior financial period of 0.010 mills, for a total of 2.883 mills.

This is about 1% lower than what the district levied last year, a total required local effort of 2.932 mills. 

The school district's tentative budget totals $1,353,707,737.

Some of the notable allocations, as highlighted by Penner in a June 16 workshop, involves Exceptional Student Education Programs, with $1,514,123 devoted to the results of a special education study and $2,316,312 allocated towards increasing ESE student enrollment. 

Among other changes, the budget set referendum funds as the future funding source for preschools, with an allocation of $1,099,709, and devoted $1,453,517 to literacy, noting the swapping of the district's former Reading Recovery program for the new Literacy for All plan.

Next week, a public hearing will be held to adopt the tentative millage rate and budget, and the board will finalize its decision on Sept.17.