{"id":5640,"date":"2026-06-27T11:33:35","date_gmt":"2026-06-27T11:33:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/orlandorelocationreport.com\/?p=5640"},"modified":"2026-06-27T11:33:35","modified_gmt":"2026-06-27T11:33:35","slug":"central-florida-schools-eye-bare-bones-financial-year-as-costs-rise","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/orlandorelocationreport.com\/?p=5640","title":{"rendered":"Central Florida schools eye \u2018bare bones\u2019 financial year as costs rise"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Central Florida\u2019s school districts face a \u201cbare bones\u201d financial year driven by declining student enrollment and lackluster state funding that have prompted fears of multi-million dollar budget deficits and cuts to teaching staff.<\/p>\n

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School districts in Orange, Seminole, Lake and Osceola counties will each approve budgets in the next month and have been busy trying to make the numbers work. Rising costs, a slim 1% increase in per-student funding that doesn\u2019t keep pace with inflation and a projected loss of about 5,500 traditional students have made that job challenging.<\/p>\n

In Seminole County, the district faced a $30 million deficit heading into the 2026-27 school year, Chief Financial Officer John Pavelchak told the board at its June 16 budget meeting.<\/p>\n

It made steep cuts, eliminating 190 instructional and 52 support positions, saving the district about $18 million next year without having to close schools, Pavelchak said.<\/p>\n

Robin Dehlinger, the chair of the Seminole County School Board, said the district hopes most of the job cuts will be absorbed through retirements and teachers taking jobs outside of the district, minimizing layoffs, but the district won\u2019t know that outcome for certain until the start of the new school year in August.<\/p>\n

Officials in the other districts also said they hoped any job cuts were made up for by resignations and retirements, not by employees losing positions they wanted to keep.<\/p>\n

Dehlinger described the district\u2019s financial situation as \u201cbare bones\u201d and blamed the Florida Legislature for de-funding school districts by not increasing funding to match inflation.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re on the losing end,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

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Melissa Byrd, an Orange County School Board member, agreed, saying the state government \u201cno longer values public education in the same way that it used to.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are not funded anywhere in a way to meet any of our needs,\u201d Byrd said.<\/p>\n

But at a Friday press conference, Gov. Ron DeSantis touted the state\u2019s education funding, highlighting the $85 increase to per-student funding.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve had more money go into school districts than we\u2019ve ever had \u2026 Even as we\u2019ve done universal school choice, we\u2019re still putting money here,\u201d DeSantis said.<\/p>\n

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District leaders, however, say that increase doesn\u2019t keep pace with their higher costs.<\/p>\n

In Orange, the district cut 5% across all department budgets and closed seven under-enrolled schools this spring to help cut expenses for the upcoming year. Rising healthcare costs still threaten a deficit of more than $145 million, which the district wants to manage by sharply hiking employee costs. That has prompted an ongoing fight with its teachers union.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s crushing. The amount of money that that is taking up is crushing to our budget,\u201d said school board member Stephanie Vanos at a June 23 meeting on the budget.<\/p>\n

Orange County Public Schools, which lost 5,600 students this past year and expects to lose about another 3,000 students next year \u2014 meaning $26 million less in per-pupil funding.<\/p>\n

Districts are pointing to several factors for the decline in traditional public school enrollment across the state, including a historic drop in birth rates, a decrease in immigrant families enrolling children amid the Trump administration\u2019s immigration crackdown and the rapid expansion of Florida\u2019s voucher programs, or state-funded scholarships that pay for private school tuition or homeschooling services.<\/p>\n

The expansion took effect during the 2023-24 school year after lawmakers made a program, once limited to lower-income families, open to anyone. <\/p>\n

Since then, Florida\u2019s traditional public schools saw a decline of more than 111,000 students since the voucher program expansion, according to Florida Department of Education enrollment data through April 2026.<\/p>\n

When a student leaves a public school through the voucher program, the state funding attached to that student goes with them \u2014 but not all of the district\u2019s costs do. A school district still has to keep the lights on, pay a principal and run buses even if fewer students are enrolled.<\/p>\n

Combined voucher use in Seminole, Lake, Orange and Osceola has grown by nearly 200% since the 2022-23 school year, according to data from the Florida Office of Economic and Demographic Research. It is up to nearly 62,000 students, from just over 23,000, and predicted to grow another 8,000 in the coming year, the agency says.<\/p>\n