By Melissa Byrd
Well, we are officially done with the 2024-25 school year and have begun our summer break!
Graduations were wonderful, full of smiling faces and happy tears. I always enjoy graduation season, but this year was even more special as my youngest graduated. It was such a joy to see so many of these graduates that I have known since they were small elementary children cross the stage.
These celebrations are always a renewing time for me. It puts in perspective all the work I do all year and helps solidify why I do what I do. It’s for this moment. For each child to complete a successful K-12 journey, equipped to move on in this world.
As schools wind down now for summer, the work of the school board continues. This is the time of year that we work on our budget for next year, as well as policies that need to be updated for the upcoming school year.
This year’s budget process is looking a bit different, as we have not received the final budget yet from Tallahassee, since they were much later than usual in agreeing on a final budget. When the state is delayed, so are we.
With the delayed budget as well as the uncertainty surrounding the federal education changes, there are a lot of unanswered questions for us to work through this summer. This uncertainty, combined with declining enrollment makes for a lot of uneasy feelings at the district.
To prepare, the school board held a budget workshop where we discussed all the challenges we expect to face in the coming year and how we might mitigate the funding losses. It’s a difficult discussion, but a necessary one.
The school board made it clear that we prioritize people over programs for teaching kids and all departments at the district have already been asked to cut 2% in preparation for funding losses. We also had further discussions about the possibility of looking at targeted rezonings to boost enrollment in some of our severely under-enrolled schools.
Under-enrolled schools are a drain on the district budget since there are not enough students in the school to generate the funding needed to operate the school fully. The district has to supplement these schools. Therefore, it makes good financial sense to move kids from over-enrolled schools to these schools to optimize enrollment and funding.
These are difficult discussions that are likely to continue throughout the summer and school year, not only in our school district, but in school districts across the state.
