001good evening Dr berer members of the board this hearing is the second of two public hearings required under Florida Statutes to give the public an opportunity to provide input into the proposed millage Levy and the budget for this fiscal year the superintendent submitted his proposed tenative budget to you on July 24 the tenative hearing was advertised in the News Press on Friday July 28th and the first public hearing was held on July 31 to discuss and adopt the tenative millage rates and the tenative Budget on Wednesday August 30th you received information on the final budget for 2023 24 the second and final budget public hearing being held today was noticed through a direct mailing from the Property Appraiser's office and that mail document is known as the truth in millage notice or the trim notice
002and Ascent as required by law so as outline in the trim requirements the first thing we have to discuss is the millage rollback rate the rollback rate is the millage which which when applied to the current year's tax roll net for adjustments for New Growth would produce the same dollars as received in the previous years the calculated roll back rate is 48844 and the current proposed millage rate is 5.30 this represents an 11.17 % increase over the rollback rate as you can see the new tax roll is at $145 billion we are recommending the required local effort to be at 3.64 there's a prior period adjustment of 018 for a total required local effort of 3182 with discretionary millage at 748 and a capital millage of 1.5 for total millages of 5.43 these total millages
003are a127 decrease over the 22 23 millage rates as you can see the mill rates have been dropping over the years and in the next slide what you'll see is as the tax rad goes up the millage rates decrease this year's tax roll represents an 8 34% increase over the 2022 23 tax roll for the average taxpayer if they have a $100,000 home last year they would have been paying $555 70 on that home their new value would have gone up to 8,340 they would now be paying $588 29 so that' be a $325 9 C increase to a homeowner whose value last year was 100,000 if that homeowner had an homestead exemption and save their save our homes the rate would only have gone to 103,000 so last year they would have been paying
0044 2016, 78 $46.74 and this year they would pay $423 54 so that homeowner would only see a $676 76 increase so the millage rates that break down and the amount generated by them so from our required local effort it would be 3182 which will generate 400 sorry and m1977 that amount is required for the board to Levy in order to participate in the Florida education Finance program the basic discretionary is 748 Ms which would generate 104 milon1 $83,400 and the capital ATL is at 1.5 Ms which would generate $28 m924 120 for a total millage of 5.43 which would raise $756 M 35,36 the final budget that we're proposing is 2 b777 m2,3 $369 with 44% of that being the general fund at 1.2 billion and 38% of that being Capital at $1 billion
005so just so that the public understands the budget is broken down into different pieces and they each have specific purposes the general fund which is the largest piece is the main piece of funding that we have and that is the piece that we use for our everyday operating expenses that pays for district and school expenses the de service is payments that are made that we have set aside to make our debt payments on our buildings the capital is used to build schools buy equipment and provide maintenance to our schools Food Service supports the breakfast and lunch program for all students in a district we have special Revenue federal funds that come in for specific purposes that those are our grant funds and our internal service funds are our accounts for our insurance cost our self-insured
006insurance cost so as I was saying our general fund it's our major source of revenue for the district's daily operations it is budgeted at 1.2 billion or 44% of the budget and it supports over 100,000 students the focus on that is resources to our classrooms reading initiatives at the elementary level and we have continued additional 30 minutes extra at some select elementary and middle schools our budget focuses on the whole child both mental Wellness our English Learners and our St students in needs of additional interventions and recapturing their learning loss from coid we are also focused on employee retention in budget we spoke before about the Florida education Finance program we just wanted to touch on it again that is 932 million in Revenue that comes in through the ffp 42 million of that we
007are anticipating to go towards our family empowerment scholarships that is a $77 million increase from the previous year and 7.5 million increase for the teacher salary allocation we are getting 8 8,9 $133 per FTE the base student allocation is now at $513 n73 which is a $552 33 increase in the base student allocation and it is 42% of our 42% of that is from State funding the other from our local our sources of the operating are 6.92% local 38.0652 1.02 Federal the dollars that come in with those 69% of those go directly to our schools for school expenses and instruction the next biggest piece is 17% which goes into our operation and maintenance for maintaining those schools and 5% into Transportation the contingency or reserves are those dollar amounts that we set aside to protect
008the district's financial position contingency according to the state requirements must represent 3% of your new Revenue before you go into additional Financial monitoring and so in our page in the budget book contingency reserves you will see a specific line for that for the 3% there's also an additional $15.3 million there that is set aside in the event of some future reductions or needs such as if red deductions to the state revenue happen or prorations as we have talked about before adjustments based on needs at schools so we do have some funds set aside for schools that may need additional funds and then also for school voucher increase or that is those family empowerment scholarships we have a reserve set aside for that for food service that is our fund that is completely self-contained and it
009is all of the revenues and expenses that are needed to feed our children breakfast and lunch every day it is its own self- sustaining fund the current budget for that is 73.2 million and we are again for this year a community eligibility District so all schools are eligible for that program in this current fiscal year meaning that includes breakfast and lunch for every student at no additional cost to the parents our special Revenue are is really our federal grants major ones in there being Title One idea and of course a host of others the current budget for our federal grants is 141 million as you'll see in the final budget here that number will continue to increase as grants are received applied for and received we will continue to record those in the budget as
010appropriate Capital funds one of our largest funds in the budget current budget for that is about 1 billion and the major sources of revenue in that Capital fund would be our local property taxes as the millages you are getting set to approve this evening as well as sales tax so those are our two major sources of revenue inside of Capital funds the major Focus inside of our Capital plan for this 5 years and the 5year capital plan is also within the book as well as it stands today Major safety security upgrades our maintenance Renovations of EX existing schools technology as well as the building of new schools and the current 5-year plan that we have tentatively includes funding for the schools that you see listed here so we have numerous new schools that either within
011the five years will be completed or started within that 5year window and those schools are reflecting the growth that our planning department has worked to develop in terms of the seats that we need to accommodate the growth that we have seen and project to continue to see inside of the district Debt Service is budgeted at 99.1 million at this point recall that the money in the debt or the funds in The Debt Service budget really come from a transfer from Capital funds so all of the revenue that you see in debt service is a transfer from Capital so the statutory Debt Service usage this the state or the statute calls for us not spending any more than 75% of our local property tax dollars for the usage of funding Debt Service payments the mortgage principal
012and interest of the district at this point we are at 15.2% of that limit and remember that is specifically looking at the local property tax Source we do pay some debt out of sales tax as well that number isn't included within this 52 15.2% that you see because the statute specifically calls for the local property tax number and the 75% limitation and then of course the recommended Debt Service usage as a board you all for some time have tried to keep us within a 50% limitation as opposed to a 75% limitation and looking at that limit we're at 22.8% of that limit so well within at this point where we want to stay but we have had discussions about the need to continue to work our Capital plan so that we can keep up with
013the growth that we have the needs that the district has without strapping with too much debt for the for the revenue sources to handle so in summary then our School District budget being presented to you today supports all of our schools 121 over 100,000 students this year so that is a big Benchmark for us in terms of reaching that 100,000 mark this year supporting all the initiatives of the state and the district's vision and Mission and the major Focus as we mentioned earlier really centered around student and staff safety student achievement and this District's strategic plan of Envision 2030 so we continue to focus on our mission to ensure that each student reaches his or her highest personal potential so with that in mind we being everyone inside of the district has worked very hard
014to at this point respectfully submit this budget to you in support of our mission the students and employees es of the Lee County school district and the citizens of Lee County so we are asking tonight that you adopt all the proposed millages that we've laid out for the 2324 final budget now you adopt the final budget for the 2324 fiscal year and that you adopt all resolutions related to both millages and budget and we turn it over to you superintendent and board chair for continued conversation in public hearing Mr chair I have nothing to add okay any questions or anything from the before we go into the public hearing the next item on our agenda is the public hearing we will now recess a special school board meeting and open the public hearing to consider
015the adoption of the final proposed millage rates and the final budget for the 23 24 year Dr berer please continue by stating your recommendations thank you Mr chair members of the board members of the community the recommendation is that the Lee County School Board adopt the 2023 2024 final proposed required a local effort millage of 3.82 Ms with the proposed amount to be raised of 443 m1977 $71 the rle millage includes basic rle of 3164 and a prior period adjustment millage of 0.18 the second recommendation is that the Lee County School Board adopt the 2023 2024 final proposed basic discretionary millage of 748 Ms with a with a proposed amount to be raised of 4,183 495 recommendation number three the Lee County School Board adopt the 2023 2024 final proposed Capital outlay millage of 150
016with a proposed amount to be raised of 208 m924 1120 the total millage will equal 5.43 Mills with the total amount to be raised of 756 m353 20116 the total millage rate to be levied is more than the roll back rate it is an increase in the roll back rate of 11.17% recommendation number four I recommend that the Lee County School Board adopt the resolution determining the revenues and millages levied and the resolution adopting the final millage rate for the fiscal year 2023 2024 the final recommendation number five is I recommend the Lee County School Board adopt the final budget and related resolution adopting the final budget for the 2023 2024 school year as follows number one General operating in the amount General operating in the amount of 1 billion 211 m785 the special Revenue
017budget in the amount of $214 m224 59 The Debt Service budget in the amount of 99 m1129 the capital outlay budget in the amount of1 b48 m945 th125 the internal service budget in the amount of 23, 44,6 129 the total final budget would be2 b777 M 111236 thank you at this time the public will be invited to speak on these matters the time allowed for the comment is 3 minutes per speaker is there anyone in the right section that would like to speak anyone in the left section Mr Daniels do please state your name when you come up Robert Daniels I'm back again I have in my hand here a public request document that is the salary schedule for every single employee in the district as of what was it August 2nd this year and
018when I went through the Excel spreadsheet found a couple interesting numbers when I took it down to classroom teachers only it was 266 million in salaries for just classroom teachers no one else for all instructional and support staff it was 426 million administrative salaries came out to 400 million for 418 of them I'm not sure if they were all in here there were certain names I saw missing on the list that were either intentionally left out or for some reason not included when I look at the budget with the revenues that are listed itemized for instruction there's money there that even at the bargaining with requests made specifically of where is this money going answers cannot be provided Ed directly and forthwith and the money when I look at it with the math with that
019266 million in mind is more than double that amount that's just out there in the wind so there's enough money to double the teacher salaries by what I'm looking at that's just not accounted for and when we ask for that money to be accounted for a circle is stanced around that question furthermore it stated plainly in the budget that the district revenues went up by almost 15% but expenses only went up by 3.1% the raises last year for the teachers amounted to just about half a percent of the budget can we make those numbers square for myself and the other thousands of teachers that are batting in you know about 55,000 a year before taxes I did have us funded at 8,300 per student but the 8,900 is a new number at those numbers the
020first seven students into each classroom pays for the teacher complete with Benefits where's the money from the other 23 students going as most of us are looking at 30 students in an Elementary classroom and at least that many in a high school classroom let's see here some other questions we previously endorsed a lovey the Sal's tax the teachers endorse that and I understand that this is not this board this is an inherited problem but when we all rallied behind and helped get that Levy for the sales tax push past the process and there were a few enough votes difference that we can say the teachers made the difference on that one we were promised raises with the difference in the money that never happened we're still waiting for it where is that money before we
021talk about any more money for other things thank youy sales tax are there any other speakers that would like to speak sales tax come forward you'll state your name well good afternoon everybody my name is Robert Kohler I'm a history teacher down at Varsity Lakes Middle okay and I see my time is already started well I'm not nearly as well prepared as Mr Daniels over there so I'm just going to make this quite brief right off the bat as I'm a new teacher I'm first getting into the system there is very little support simply put there should be longer training periods I got maybe a day of observation before being thrown into a classroom which for me personally in my background is fine that being said I am noticing that there is a wful teacher
022shortage not just in the instructors not just in the instructors but also within all the support staff the administrative staff they seem to have almost no time at all to actually answer any of the questions or get much needed resources such as passwords even to log into the district website or the resources that all of you have in fact budgeted for so simply put there's a lot of teachers not just myself but many who are not here tonight probably because they're busy doing other things but many who simply can't access the resources you're already paying for because quite frankly they're not being used now I understand that unloading people quickly and then not giving them raises is a strategy that certain businesses use in order to effectively cycle through a pool of pool of workers
023but that's not going to work too well for the teachers I'm also aware that apparently retention bonuses have also been cut so if you wish to ameliorate the teacher shortage perhaps a good way to go about doing that would be to well a begin reing using the resources that you already have and B adding in the well retention bonuses anything like that or in any of that free floating cash that's sitting around increasing the teacher salaries I know it's a cliche that somebody who shows up to a job asks for more money but the fact of the matter is that yes bonuses were about only about a half a percent and well quite frankly I think most people are feeling the sweat of inflation among other issues that are afflicting everybody at the moment so
024I'm going to yield the rest of my time that's about it I hope I've went ahead and highlighted those issues for you have a good one thank you any other speakers I will now close this public hearing and reconvene the special school board meeting of September 6 2023 the board will now consider each of the superintendent's recommendations Dr berer please restate your recommend recommendation individually allowing the board the opportunity to vote before moving on to the next one Mr chairman members of the board members of the public present as well as watching recommendation number one I recommend that the Lee County School Board adopt the 2023 2024 final proposed required local effort millage of 3182 Ms with a proposed amount to be raised of m1977 the required local effort millage includes the basic required local
025effort of 3164 and a prior period adjustment millage of 0.18 board members you have heard the superintendent's recommendations is there a motion to approve M Jordan I move to motion to approve the superintendent's recommendation for item one is there a second I'll second Miss Morgan moved by Miss Jordan and seconded by Miss Morgan is there any discussion saying none if you'll record your vote motion carries 70 Dr berer would you please read your recommendation for recommendation two recommendation number two I recommend that the Lee County School Board adopt the 2023 2024 final proposed basic discretionary millage of 748 Mills with a proposed amount to be raised of 104 mil1 183,184 board members you've heard the superintendent's recommendation is there a motion to approve I move that we approve the superintendent's recommendation and adopt the 2023
0262024 final proposed basic discretionary millage of 748 Mills is there a second M Jordan second any discussion seeing none please recort your vote motion carries 70 Dr berer would you please read your next recommendation recommendation number three I recommend that the Lee County School Board adopt the 202 23 2024 final proposed Capital outlay millage of 1.500 with a proposed amount to be raised of 208 m924 1120 the total millage will equal 5.43 Ms with a total amount to be raised of 35,000 sorry 756 mil 35,3 20116 the total millage rate to be levied is more than the roll back rate it is an increase in the roll back rate of 11.17% board members you've heard the superintendent's recommendation is there a motion to approve Mr Jordan I move to approve the superintendent's recommendation for item
027three adopting the resolution determining revenues and millage levied is there a second I'll second more mov by Jordan and seconded by Miss Morgan any discussion please record your vote motion carries 70 Dr maner would you read your next recommendation please recommendation number four I recommend that the Lee County School Board adopt the resolution determining the revenues and the millages levied in the resolution adopting the final millage rates for the fiscal year 2023 2024 board members you've heard the super dis recommendation is there motion to approve I move we approve the superintendent's recommendation to adopt the resolution determining revenues and millages levied and the resolution adopting the final millage rates for the fiscal year 2324 moved by Miss Morgan is there a second Miss ganelli yes I second any discussion Jordan if I may have clarification
028I when I made my motion I actually motioned for this item right here that was just said so I just wanted clarification on that no cuz you said three I said three but I worded out the rest so I just want to make sure that's okay that there's no so Mr chairman yes just for clarity after we take this motion let's go back and make sure we word it properly thank you everybody any discussion on this one please record your vote on recommendation number four motion carries 70 we will now revisit motion number three for clarification Dr berer would you mind rereading the number three sir yes recommendation number three I recommend that the Lee County School Board adopt the 2023 2024 final proposed Capital outlay millage of 1.500 with a proposed amount to be
029raised of 208 m, 92412 the total millage will equal 5.43 Ms with the total amount to be raised of 756 M 35,36 the total millage rate to be levied is more than the roll back rate it is an increase in the roll back rate of 11.17% okay M Jordan thank you and I apologize for that I wish to approve the superintendent's recommendation that the Lee County School Board adopts the 2023 2024 final proposed Capital Outlet millage thank you is there a second oh I second okay any discussion you please do your vote again on recommendation number three roll call I think it's a hand vote Mr chairman this one will be a roll call vote please no problem Mr fiser I miss Javan Ali hi Miss Patria yes please Miss Jordan Hi l for FL
030hi Miss Morgan hi and I am an i the motion passes 70 Dr berer would you please read your recommendation for number five our final yes sir recommend recation number five I recommend that the Lee County School Board adopt the final budget and related resolution adopting the final budget for the 2324 school year as follows General operating Fund in the amount of 1 b211 m785 645 the special Revenue budget in the amount of $214 m224 $59 The Debt Service budget in the amount of 99,1 $1,911 the capital outlay budget in the amount of 1 b48 m945 125 the internal service budget in the amount of 23,4 44,6 129 the final total budget2 b777 m board members you've heard the superintendent recommendation is there a motion to approve I move we approved the superintendent's recommendation that
031we adopt the final budget and related resolution adopting the final budget for the 2023 2024 school year is there a second second Jordan any discussion saying n would you please record your vote the motion passes 70 next on the agenda are comments from board members board attorney and superintendent Mr fiser do you have any comments at this time just real briefly thank you for the teachers that came here and spoke I Know Myself and I can say this for my fellow board members we're in the middle of bargaining so we're not really allowed to discuss any details or anything further at the moment but I do know that our Administration including Dr berer isw that we need to do a better job of paying teachers we are solid on that and I want to make
032sure the public knows that thank you Mrs J vanelli I would Echo exactly what U Mr fiser said we are committed to making sure that our staff is going to be happy so that would be financially as well thank you Miss Patria yes so I'll take it a step further I was at I told you all earlier today I was at a meeting earlier today for the Bonita Estero Association of realter and I told them that the next time a teacher comes to the podium and talks about the difficulty of making ends meet because of their pay that I would address the teachers and address the board which I did earlier today we are all committed to having a discussion about how to increase Revenue in order to be able to pay teachers more when
033I say teachers I mean all staff that includes bus drivers Paras Food Service workers everybody across the board what what I'd like to say and please don't take this the wrong way there is no money floating anyway I told be earlier today we are not taking piles of money out behind the building and burning it we are as a leadership team I think more committed than ever to making sure that we're finding every dollar that we can put into staff's Pockets there are limitations you can look at the budget and you can pull numbers out of the budget and twist them and turn them and make them say what you want them to say having the deep understanding of this budget that I have after 7 years of sitting up here I can tell you
034that I believe we are doing the best we can given the resources we have coming in right now I can also look you in the eyes and tell you we as a team are more committed than we have ever been to making sure that teachers are getting everything that we can give to you so we will continue to work in that direction that is my commitment and I have heard that commitment I mean we can't talk about what we talk about during during executive session because we're in bargaining but I can tell you for example every time anyone raises an issue at a public meeting the first thing out of Mrs Langford Fleming's mouth is how does this impact teachers I mean the focus is there we are doing what we can we beg your
035patience and eventually we may be asking for your support as we go to the public those are my comments thank you oh wait a minute one more comment thank you to you guys for the work that you did that you always do and I always feel significant confidence with you guys at the helm and bringing the information forward to us answering any questions that we have the transparency with which you operate I very much appreciate it thank you m Jordan and I am not going to repeat what my colleagues have stated but I totally agree with all of them thank you slide for Fleming as a former teacher of 20 years I dedicated a lot of years to teaching and to the students of Lee County and some of our neighboring counties I understand the
036hours you put in in those 7 extend far beyond 3:30 in the afternoon and I know they extend far beyond May 29th so I Believe Miss patrique has said at best I do believe that this board is working as hard as we can to make sure that you on the 15th and 30th look down and you see that you are valued that what you do matters and that you're impacting lives that's and as a former teacher that can at times be an incredibly thankless job but also so rewarding here so I don't really have anything further to say but and like you stated earlier we can't really talk about the things we talk about in barting but I just want you to know that this board is working very hard at the resources we've been
037given to make sure that you feel that way while you're serving the children of Lee County it's Morgan and I will simply say that I share my colleague sentiments thank you all what is the word they used to use ditto they always use we hear you Mr depre Bruno do you have anything to add no thank you Mr chairman Time Dr manir I just want to weigh in and reiterate the commitment to all of our employees that this board has shown we will continue to work through the bargaining process for all of our employees and for those that don't have particular unions we are assured them as well that we will continue to provide to those individuals who do some of the additional work that all of us do to help allow our children to
038be successful that those people will be as best we can within a budget which has to be balanced by state law provide them as much money as we can I am asking staff based upon some numbers read into the record this evening to rework information that we talked about back in June where we provided the board with an update regarding each one of the categories of our employees how many numbers were in each category salary dollars and then the percentage of the entire budget I just want to make sure those numbers haven't radically changed because of the numbers that we provided in the time in June were different from the ones read into the record today and I'm not questioning the numbers I just want to make sure that I have the right numbers and
039I'm asking members of the staff via email in just a few minutes to make sure that I have an update for all of you same chart same same calculations to make sure you have a cost comparison to what we told you in June and where we are in August of this year thank you this seeing no other business coming before this meeting before I adjourn our next meeting will start in approximately 10 minutes this meeting is adjourned the time is 5:50