The Lee County School Board approved a tentative budget of $2.7 billion for fiscal year 2024-25 on July 30 during the first of two public hearings.

The board also approved a proposed millage rate of 5.286, local effort millage of 3.038, discretionary millage of .748 and capital outlay millage of 1.500.

One mill is equal to $1 for every $1,000 of taxable assessed property valuation.

The second and final public hearing is set for Sept 5.

The budget supports more than 100,000 students and 120 schools.

Budget Director Kelly Letcher said the roll back rate is 5.1549 mills and the proposed millage rate is 5.286, which is a decrease of 0.144 mills from the 2023-24 millage rate of 5.430. The total amount to be raised is $814,346,553.

“This is an increase over the rollback rate of 2.54% and this new millage rate will generate $58 million more than in the previous year because of the increase in the tax roll,” she said.

The current tax roll is at $160 billion, which is a 10.61% over the previous years of $145 billion.

The required local effort millage is 3.038 — amount to be raised $468,025,885, which includes the prior period adjustment. The discretionary mills is 0.748 — an amount to be raised $115,234,813 — and the capital outlay mills is 1.500 — an amount to be raised $231,085,855.

“As the tax roll goes up, the millage rate drops,” Letcher said. “Again, this year the taxable value is $160 billion.”

A property with a taxable valuation of a $100,000, with a 10.61% increase, the new value would be $10,610 more.

“At last year’s rate and value, they would have paid $543 and this year they are going to pay $584.68, an increase of $48.68. If they had a $200,000 home their home value would have increased to $221,220,” she said, which is an increase of $83.37.

Homeowners who have Save Our Homes limits the annual increase of assessed value to 3% or the Consumer Price Index, whichever is lower. So, for someone who had a homestead on their $200,000 home, the new rate is $956.77 — $6.52 more than last year.

The total tentative budget is $2.7 billion. The general fund makes up $1.2 billion of that and the capital budget is $1 billion.

The five-year capital plan tentatively includes three new elementary schools, one new middle school, two new high schools and one Pre-K though grade 8 school, along with one addition, two rebuilds, two remodels and additions at the technical center.

The internal service fund is comprised of $209 million, special revenue for food service at $69 million, special revenue for grants at $60 million and debt service at $100 million.

The budget has a focus on the whole child — mental wellness, English learners, students in need of additional interventions and supports, and employee retention.

The budget is built off of the second Florida Education Finance Program calculations.

Letcher said the second calculation is $993 million, $67 million over last year, with $60 million of that going to the Family Empowerment Scholarship. Of the $993 million, $6.7 million goes directly to teacher salary increase allocation.

The new dollars increased the FTE to $9,241 per student, a $266 increase over last year. The base student allocation increased $5,330.98, an increase of $191.25.

The school district has set reserves aside to protect schools — $29.5 million. She said they have a total of $87.5 million sitting in reserves for contingency for purchase orders that have to carry over from 2024 into 2025.

During public comment, Robert Daniels said during the time he has been in Lee County, they have acquired 20,000 students and have lost 500 teachers.

“That 20,000 students represent $185 million in FTE each year. For less than a third of that, you could give each of your instructional, non-administrative staff a flat $10,000 raise,” he said. “That means your starting salary for teachers would go beyond Collier, beyond Charlotte, beyond being competitive to incentivizing $60 and a half thousand to start.”

Daniels said they have three assistant principals positions open in the county, elementary school assistant principals, positions that start at $77,500.

“In contrast you have 190 instructional elementary school positions open. That’s enough positions to fully staff three to four elementary schools,” he said. “That’s roughly at 20 kids per unit — 3,800 elementary school students that don’t have a teacher yet and we are a week from the start of the school year.”

Daniels said they have 328 instructional positions across the county not yet filled as of July 30 at 4 a.m. — still being advertised.

“That’s roughly 8% of your student body that doesn’t have a teacher in that classroom,” he said. “The only way to fix it is throwing money at it.”