First Public Hearing — 2026-27 Tentative Budget & Proposed Millage — the agenda, translated

Monday, August 3, 2026

Lee County Public Education Center, 2855 Colonial Blvd., Fort Myers

Read the full 2026-27 Tentative Budget book (PDF, 79 pages)

One warning before any number below is quoted anywhere. A TENTATIVE budget is not comparable to an AMENDED one. The district's own tables put this year's tentative figures next to last year's amended figures, and amended budgets have had twelve months of federal grants, mid-year adjustments and enrollment truing-up added into them. Federal money is the clearest example: Title I, Part A appears here at $5.8M against $38.2M amended, because the book states plainly that federal grants get budgeted “as grants are approved.” School staffing gets trued up again at the Day 14 count on August 28. So treat the year-over-year drops in this document as the widest possible version of the gap, not a settled headcount. The number to hold anyone to is the FINAL budget on September 8.

$3.12B — Total tentative budget, all funds 6.9% below the current year’s amended budget — and 6.9% above the budget the board actually adopted last September
5,193.53 — Teacher positions budgeted Down 533.40 from the current amended budget; the district employed 5,884.08 in 2024-25
$27.7M — Planned draw on the general fund Operating spending exceeds incoming money; the balance falls from $147.0M to $119.4M
$110.6M — Routed to state voucher scholarships Up $15.3M (16.1%) in one year, covering 11,661.75 students

The operating budget spends $27.7 million more than it takes in

BUDGET · −$27,683,761

General fund revenue for 2026-27 is budgeted at $1,021,665,386. Add the $52,196,466 being transferred in from capital funds and the district has $1,073,861,852 coming in. It plans to spend $1,101,545,613. The difference, $27,683,761, comes out of the general fund balance, which drops from $147,041,931 at the start of the year to $119,358,170 at the end. The book's own two tables agree to the dollar.

Without the transfer from capital funds, the operating gap would be $79,880,227. That transfer is legal under Florida Statute 1011.71 and the district describes it as a deliberate strategy, but it is money raised by the capital millage for buildings and buses being spent on operations. It has grown from $45.4M this year to $52.2M next year, and the five-year capital plan shows it continuing at roughly $46M to $53M a year. Question worth asking: what is the plan for the year the capital fund can no longer cover the operating gap?

Teacher positions budgeted at 5,193.53, down 533 from the current budget

PEOPLE · −533.40 teacher positions

The staffing table budgets 5,193.53 teacher positions for 2026-27, against 5,726.93 in the current amended budget and 5,884.08 actually employed in 2024-25. Total personnel across all funds falls from 11,880.30 to 10,905.57, a drop of 974.73 positions. The student-support roles are cut proportionally harder than teaching: education paraprofessionals fall 253.81 positions (down 16.85%), security specialists 25.76 (down 15.51%), social workers 5.40 (down 9.78%), psychologists 3.60 (down 8.74%), and school counselors 8.92 (down 5.65%). The budgeted line for media specialists falls from 4.00 positions to 2.76 (down 31.00%).

These are the adults a struggling child actually reaches, and what survives the cut is thin measured against professional standards. The 148.98 budgeted counselors work out to roughly one per 680 students; the American School Counselor Association recommends one per 250, and the 2024-25 national average is 372. The 37.60 psychologists are roughly one per 2,700, against a National Association of School Psychologists standard of one per 500. The 49.80 social workers are roughly one per 2,000, against a School Social Work Association of America recommendation of one per 250. (Those ratios use the district's 101,803 projected enrollment, which includes charter-school students who are staffed separately, so the true figure inside district-run schools is somewhat better than shown.) Now read it against the caveat above, because part of the overall drop is federal grant positions not yet booked at the tentative stage. But part is real and the district has said so publicly: 457 budgetary non-renewals in May, 275 of them teachers, and a Fiscal Discipline page stating that “some schools have been allocated more positions in a given area than their current enrollment warrants.” Questions worth asking: of the 533-position gap, how many are federally funded slots awaiting grant approval and how many are jobs the district does not intend to fill, and which specific schools lose a counselor, a social worker or a psychologist?

The budget assumes 3,361 more funded students after a year when enrollment fell

ASSUMPTION · +3,361.61 FTE assumed

The revenue in this budget rests on funded enrollment rising from 108,717.12 FTE to 112,078.73 FTE, a 3.1% increase. Actual headcount went the other way last year: 102,519 students in 2024-25 down to 100,869 in 2025-26. The district forecasts a partial rebound to 101,803 for next year. The gap between those two growth figures is vouchers — the FTE count includes 11,661.75 Family Empowerment Scholarship students whose money passes through the district to private schools. The book adds its own warning: “If the students do not enroll these figures will reduce throughout the year.” A separate $2,895,012 line is set aside as a “Reserve for FTE Short Fall/Proration.”

Enrollment projections are the single largest assumption in any district budget, and this one is optimistic against last year's direction. The Day 14 count on August 28 is the first real test, and the state recalculates the formula several times a year. Question worth asking: what happens to the September budget if the Day 14 count comes in flat instead of up 3%?

The contingency reserve is set at 3.0% — the floor, not the goal

RESERVES · $30,600,000

Board financial policy, printed on page 7 of this book, says the district “strives to maintain reserves of no less than 3% of total general fund revenues, with an ongoing goal to maintain reserves of no less than 5%.” The Reserve for Contingency is budgeted at $30,600,000. Three percent of general fund revenue is $30,649,962. Five percent is $51,083,269. Adding the $9,281,386 unappropriated balance brings the unrestricted cushion to about 3.9%.

The rest of the $119.4M ending balance is committed to other things — $63M carried forward, $10M encumbered, $3.6M restricted by state categorical rules. Meeting a floor is not the same as meeting a goal, and the policy names both. Question worth asking: in what year does the district expect to be back at its own 5% target, and what is the plan if the enrollment assumption above does not hold?

$110.6 million of Lee County’s own funding routed to vouchers, up 16% in one year

STATE POLICY · $110,593,085

To be clear about what this number is: it is Lee County's, not a statewide figure. Total FEFP funding generated in Lee County for 2026-27 is $1,073,920,997. Of that, $110,593,085 is deducted for Florida Empowerment Scholarships and follows 11,661.75 students elsewhere, leaving $963,327,912 with the district. The deduction was $95,259,051 the year before, so it grew 16.1% in a single budget cycle and now takes 10.3 cents of every FEFP dollar generated here. For scale, the statewide program runs about $3.8 billion. Over the same period the state's per-student funding figure falls from $8,643 to $8,595, a 0.56% decrease and the first decline since 2021-22.

The direction matters more than the single year. House Bill 1, signed March 27, 2023, removed both the income-eligibility limits and the enrollment cap on the program, so the growth is structural rather than a one-year spike, and nothing in current law sets a ceiling on where it stops. This is a state policy decision that applies the same way in all 67 counties, and it is not within this board's control. It belongs on this page because it is the largest single line moving against the district's budget, which is worth remembering whenever anyone credits or blames the board for the size of the gap. Question worth asking: what does the district's own multi-year projection assume this line reaches by 2030?

The Superintendent's legal budget nearly triples as the Board's own attorney is cut 65%

GOVERNANCE · $832,806 shifted

The Chief Staff Attorney, who sits under the Superintendent, goes from $492,214 to $1,325,020, a 169.2% increase, with the same 7.00 positions. The Board Attorney, who under the district's own organizational chart reports directly to the School Board, goes from $1,509,231 to $526,771, a 65.1% decrease, and from 3.00 positions to 2.00. Combined legal spending is roughly flat, moving from about $2.00M to about $1.85M. Over the same period the Board of Education function budget falls 32.79% and budgeted auditor positions go from 4.00 to 3.00. The Board Auditor also reports directly to the Board.

The dollars are close to a wash; the reporting lines are not. Independent counsel to the board is the mechanism that lets seven elected members get legal advice that does not come through the administration they oversee. This budget moves money from that side of the chart to the other. The amended-versus-tentative caveat applies here too, since mid-year outside counsel spending can inflate an amended figure. Question worth asking: is the board's independent legal and audit capacity smaller next year than it is now, and was that a board decision or an administrative one?

Debt service jumps 42% and passes the district’s own borrowing guideline

DEBT · $100,768,569

Debt service rises from $71,050,046 to $100,768,569, a 41.8% increase, with interest alone more than doubling from $15.3M to $32.4M. Principal outstanding at the start of the year is about $501.1 million. State law caps annual debt service at 75% of capital outlay millage revenue and the district is at 35.7% of that legal ceiling. But page 52 of this book states that “School District practice, however, strongly recommends that debt service be no more than 50% of capital outlay millage revenue,” and the capital plan puts the district at 53.5% next year and 53.3% the year after. The five-year plan also contemplates $333.5 million in new Certificates of Participation.

The district is well inside the legal limit and openly discloses being outside its own stricter practice, which is the transparent way to do it. Certificates of Participation are also structured so a default on one is a default on all, and the book notes that because so many buildings sit under the master lease, “default is not a realistic option.” Question worth asking: was the 50% practice formally revisited by the board, or is it being exceeded without a vote?

No new school buses this year, no state PECO money, and 6 fewer maintenance staff

BUILDINGS · $0 for buses

The capital appropriations table budgets $0 for school buses in 2026-27, against $23,254,175 in the current amended budget; the five-year plan puts the next bus purchases at $8.5M in 2027-28 and 2028-29. State PECO capital revenue goes to zero, from $2.9M this year and $18.8M in 2023-24, and the book attributes the thin state capital picture to that loss. The Maintenance department budget falls 14.28% with 6.00 fewer positions. Against that, capital does fund $160.9M in school improvement maintenance projects, $5.6M in countywide HVAC and eight new schools over five years — all of them in the East Zone, with $0 programmed for the South and West Zones.

Buses and building upkeep are the classic places a squeezed budget borrows time from, because a skipped year rarely shows up until later. The East Zone concentration follows where Lee County is actually growing, which is a defensible planning choice worth understanding rather than assuming. Question worth asking: what is the current average age of the bus fleet, and what deferred maintenance backlog sits behind the $160.9M being spent?

The Good — what this budget protects or improves

The tax rate goes down — Total millage falls from 5.319 to 5.271. Required Local Effort, which the state sets, drops from 3.071 to 3.023 mills.
Teacher raises are being protected — The district says the budget is structured to sustain the recent salary increases, and the state base student allocation rises $85.00 to $5,457.60.
Mental health and ESE funding rise — The Mental Health Allocation grows to $6,451,372 and the ESE Guaranteed Allocation to $41,830,382, up $2.4M.
Real money for building upkeep — $160.9M for school improvement maintenance projects and $5.6M for countywide HVAC in a year when state capital money went to zero.
The document is genuinely transparent — This book discloses its own uncomfortable numbers, including the debt-service practice it is exceeding and the risk that projected students may not enroll.

The Bad — money moves worth a second look

$27.7M drawn from reserves — Operating spending exceeds incoming money even after $52.2M is moved in from capital funds.
Contingency parked at the 3% floor — $30.6M against a board policy that names 5% as the goal.
Per-student funding falls — $8,643 down to $8,595, the first decline since 2021-22, before inflation.
$0 for school buses — Down from $23.25M in the current amended budget; the next purchase is programmed for 2027-28.
Support roles absorb the deepest cuts — Paraprofessionals −253.81, security specialists −25.76, media specialists down to 2.76 positions district-wide.

The Ugly — how these decisions are being framed

A headline decrease that is really an increase — Yes, both are true, and the difference is the comparison year. “Down 6.92%” measures this $3.12B tentative budget against the current year’s AMENDED budget of $3.35B, which spent twelve months growing as grants were awarded and $362.8M in borrowing landed. Measured against the budget the board actually ADOPTED last September, $2,919,795,073, this one is 6.94% HIGHER. Tentative-to-adopted is the apples-to-apples comparison; tentative-to-amended is the one that produces a decrease.
Growth assumed after a year of decline — Revenue rests on 3,361 more funded FTE the year after headcount fell by 1,650.
Board oversight capacity shrinks — Independent board counsel down 65% and one budgeted auditor position gone, while the administration’s legal budget rises 169%.
Capital money keeps plugging an operating hole — The transfer grows to $52.2M and the five-year plan assumes it continues indefinitely.

How this budget moves

July 24 — Tentative budget book delivered to the board
July 29 — Budget and proposed millage advertised in the News-Press (required by law)
August 3 — FIRST public hearing — board adopts the tentative budget and proposed millage
August 11 — Schools open
August 28 — Day 14 enrollment count; school budgets and staffing adjusted
September 8 — SECOND public hearing — board adopts the FINAL budget and sets millage

Plain-language glossary

Tentative vs. final budget: Florida districts adopt a tentative budget in late July or early August, then a final budget in September after the state certifies millage and schools take their Day 14 enrollment count. The tentative budget is a real legal document the board votes on, but it is built on projections. The final budget is the one to measure against.
Amended budget: The current year's budget after twelve months of revisions — grants awarded, enrollment trued up, funds moved. Comparing a tentative budget against an amended one overstates every decrease, because the tentative version has not had any of that added yet.
TRIM: Truth in Millage, the state process that sets the calendar for property-tax notices and budget hearings. It is why the tentative budget must be advertised in a newspaper (July 29 in the News-Press) and heard in public within a set window.
FEFP: The Florida Education Finance Program, the state formula that funds districts per student. It sets the total, decides the state and local shares, and then requires districts to levy the millage that raises the local share.
FTE vs. headcount: Full-Time Equivalent is the funding unit, not a count of children. One student attending full time is 1.0 FTE. FTE totals in this budget also include voucher students who never attend a district school, which is why funded FTE can rise while actual enrollment falls.
Family Empowerment Scholarship (FES): Florida's voucher program. The money is generated through the district's FEFP formula and then deducted and sent to private schools, so it appears in the district's funding total and is subtracted before the district ever receives it.
Required Local Effort: The property-tax millage the state requires a district to levy to receive its state share. It is set in Tallahassee, not by the school board. This year it falls from 3.071 to 3.023 mills.
Fund balance / reserve: Money carried from one year to the next. Some is genuinely available for emergencies (contingency, unappropriated) and some is already spoken for (encumbrances, state-restricted categoricals). Only the first kind is a cushion.
Certificates of Participation (COPs): Long-term lease-purchase financing districts use to build schools without a bond referendum. Technically not long-term debt because repayment depends on annual appropriation, which is why the interest rate is higher. Lee's COPs sit under one master lease, so a default on one is a default on all.
Capital-to-operating transfer: Florida Statute 1011.71 lets districts move capital dollars into the operating budget for certain costs like maintenance, insurance premiums and software. It is legal and common. It is also money raised for buildings being spent on running the schools.
Day 14 count: The enrollment count taken on the fourteenth day of school, August 28 this year. School budgets and staffing get adjusted against it, which is why tentative-stage school figures are provisional.

Sources

All board meeting coverage