Leon School Superintendent Rocky Hanna says the district has balanced its budget this year – but he says the method isn’t sustainable. The superintendent fears next year’s budget will require cutting some positions.
Hanna says a tentative plan balances the budget this year by moving $7.5 million to pay bus drivers from the fund it uses for repairs and renovations. He calls it ‘robbing Peter to pay Paul.’
“Had that not been available to us, I don’t know how we would have balanced the budget this year," he said. "But this was a card we could only play one time to bail us out.”
Earlier this year, the district announced a significant budget shortfall, and while Hanna says that’s been shored up for now, he’s already worried about next year’s budget—especially if the state doesn’t increase allocations for public schools.
“But at the end of the day, it’s not sustainable again this year, going into 26-27, if we have the same amount of revenue from the Florida legislature and another 5- to 6-million dollar increase in our expenses," he said.
And he’s already worried about potential funding for Florida’s public schools in next year’s state budget—especially as he says costs are increasing.
“But I just want our community to know and our stakeholders to know that traditional public schools deserve better," he said. "And they deserve better from the Florida legislature. And we cannot compete with one hand tied behind our back. We cannot compete with limited resources when you have expenses that are going through the roof.”
Hanna says given what he’s hearing from the capital, Florida’s public schools could continue to struggle for funding. He says that might mean tough decisions in the future about keeping all the school district’s employees.
“We want to make sure we give people enough time, where they can look for other opportunities, either within the district for positions that haven’t been eliminated or jobs in the market outside of our school system," said Hanna. "But at the end of the day, we’re going to do our very best to keep folks employed for as long as we can. But at some point, we’re going to have to make some tough decisions.”
The Leon school board voted unanimously on Monday to approve the tentative budget. The final hearing will be on Sept. 9th at 6 p.m. in the Aquilina Howell building.
