The School Board of Alachua County (SBAC) unanimously approved a fund balance restoration plan on Tuesday night, after the school district’s unrestricted general fund ending balance is now projected at 4.41%. 

The projected fund balance comes after the Florida Department of Education (FLDOE) released its third Florida Education Finance Program (FEFP) Calculations in early March, about two months later than usual, according to Superintendent Kamela Patton. 

School Board policy requires that the superintendent create a recovery plan if the fund balance falls below 5%, as a prevention measure against financial emergencies. If the unassigned fund balance falls below 3% of projected revenues in the general fund, the state requires that the superintendent notify both the school board and state Commissioner of Education, which school board members said could open the door for the state to take over Alachua County Public Schools (ACPS) operations. 

“The idea is to get the fund balance to be above 5% and then continue to grow that,” Patton told the board. “Because we don’t want to sit at 5%. Things happen. So we want to be able to make sure that we move that beyond five. Five is what’s the board’s requirement, but we need to be above that.” 

The 4.41% projection also does not include transfers from the general fund’s unassigned balance for 2025 summer services or any teacher salary increases that may be negotiated, both of which will further reduce the fund balance ratio. 

Patton’s list of immediate corrective actions includes a hiring freeze on departmental and school-based positions through the remainder of the school year, the elimination of previously allocated but unfilled positions, staffing levels reduced to align with ACPS’s operational needs, departmental budgets reduced to critical spending only, overtime restrictions and job responsibilities merged where possible to consolidate positions. 

Patton said the finance department will give the board monthly updates on the fund balance projections and plan progress. 

The long-term financial strategy includes a comprehensive revision of staffing allocations to align with current and projected enrollment, departmental staffing reviews, zero-based budgeting, FTE-based school budgeting, and conservative forecasting in future budgeting. 

Part of the problem that created this year’s budgetary shortfall was that the state’s forecast for how many students in Alachua County would use Florida Empowerment Scholarships (FES) students was off by 635, resulting a prediction that the district would have $6 million more than it did—a miscalculation that was revealed when the state released Calculation 3 last month. 

This miscalculation left the district with a $6 million difference between its projected and actual revenue for the 2024-25 fiscal year, according to a March 14 workshop. 

The FES program has become a problem for the school district recently, since it was expanded in 2023 to eliminate enrollment limits and income caps, allowing any Florida student to receive funding for private or home schooling.  

According to Gabrielle Jaremczuk, assistant superintendent for finance, at the March 14 workshop, over $38 million in local and state tax dollars were diverted to fund FES in Alachua County during the 2024-25 school year. Since the 2021-22 school year, Alachua County has seen a 262% increase in students receiving FES funding. 

Jaremczuk said many FES scholarships fund students who were already in private or home school, so when those students began using state funds, ACPS lost funding without a corresponding reduction in cost. 

 At the same time, the state has also decreased the Required Local Effort (RLE) millage rate, which determines how much a school district taxes locally. Jaremczuk said this year was the 10th consecutive year that the state has reduced the RLE – with a total of 42% decrease in the last decade.  

“If the state had maintained the RLE at previous levels, our district would have received an additional $205.7 million over the past decade,” Jaremczuk said in the workshop. “Instead, we are forced to rely more heavily on state funding, which has not kept pace with the rising costs and student needs.” 

ACPS also levies a voter-approved One Mill for various school programs and a half-cent sales surtax for capital projects.  

Another problem is ACPS’s falling enrollment numbers, with a decrease of 467 students in traditional and charter schools since last year and a trend that predicts more will continue to leave. 

A 2025-26 forecast estimates FES students increasing by almost 1,100, and charter school enrollments increasing by almost 200, with a funding reduction of more than $8 million for ACPS. 

With the decreases in funding and enrollment, ACPS’s budgeted expenditures as of March 3 exceeded estimated revenues by over $33 million, according to Jaremczuk. 

To keep a balanced budget and sustain operations, ACPS has relied on transfers from the unassigned fund balance and the capital fund. 

Many public commenters at Tuesday’s meeting came with remaining frustrations about the still-stalled negotiations between ACPS and the Alachua County Education Association, who have proposed teacher raises of 1% and 3%, respectively. But after the budget discussion, comments took on a different tone  

“I wasn’t trying to say, just pay me more. I asked for a plan,” said Gina Rivera, an elementary school math teacher. 

Commenters asked the school board for more transparency, suggesting a citizen advisory committee, and budget breakdowns that explain clearly the difference between a general fund and a capital outlay fund. One commenter also asked the board to consider consolidating schools and physical resources to save money, instead of focusing on a consolidation of staff positions. 

The board received and responded to many comments, saying plans for school consolidation through rezoning have been stalled temporarily by a local effort to convert Newberry Elementary School into a charter, and noting the need for transparency and communication with the community. 

“I believe that [public commenter Armando Grundy Gomez] said this just now, how our budget reflects our priorities,” Board Member Thomas Vu said. “You look at how we’ve filled budgets these past 10 years and everything, and you can see what the priorities are. And it’s not instruction. It’s not teachers.” 

A motion by Board Member Tina Certain, seconded by Vu, to approve Patton’s recovery plan, passed unanimously.