School Board of Alachua County sets property tax rates and budget, Certain questions financial statements and formulation of the budget

BY JENNIFER CABRERA

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – At their September 11 Special Meeting, the School Board of Alachua County approved their tentative millage rate and budget, although several board members were concerned about the decisions that went into the budget and Member Tina Certain withheld her approval of financial reports that she said were not complete.

Property tax millage

The board set the property tax millage at 6.2610 mills (including the voter-approved One Mill), 4.2% higher than the rolled-back rate and 2.7% less than last year’s rate. For a homesteaded property with a 2023 assessed value of $200,000 that increased by the maximum 3% in 2024, the tax would be about $5 more than last year’s tax. Local property taxes make up 40% of the school district’s General Fund budget, and about $10 million is being transferred over from capital funds to balance the budget.

Fewer students than expected

Chief of Finance Gabrielle Jaremczuk said the district’s current student count is about 662 fewer than projected, leading to a potential loss of $3.6 million in state funding. She also listed 20.95 staff positions that were previously funded with ESSER funds but will now be in the General Fund, for a total of $1.4 million in new expenses. Money for a 1.6% increase for staff is currently in the Unassigned category of the Fund Balacne; once those funds and some other unassigned funds are moved out, the Fund Balance is expected to be 7.49% of the General Fund. The total budget for 2024-25 is $612.8 million. 

Member Sarah Rockwell made a motion to approve the resolution setting the property tax rates, and Certain seconded the motion.

During board discussion of the motion, Rockwell said, “Unlike the City and County Commission, we do not set our own millage rates. Those are set by the state, and… your property tax value is capped at a 3% increase [this year].”

Tina Certain: “Our organization and our Superintendent has not done, I think, due diligence in working with the board to come up with a budget for how we’re going to spend our estimated revenues.”

Certain agreed, “I often say it’s not a budget that we get, it’s an allowance because the Required Local Effort and the other millage rates are very scripted in statute as to what we can get. But… our FTE (number of students) is declining, and we have some other challenges that are in here.” Certain said she had questions about the “formulation of the budget. We haven’t had meetings, and we didn’t receive these documents [in advance]… There’s a lot of stuff that I didn’t get to look at until four o’clock today… Our organization and our Superintendent has not done, I think, due diligence in working with the board to come up with a budget for how we’re going to spend our estimated revenues.”

Chair Diyonne McGraw said each board member had met with Jaremczuk and had the opportunity to ask questions, and “there will be, in the near future, some type of financial and operational procedures and looking at budget things as we look forward.” She pointed out that Jaremczuk has only worked for the school district for three and a half months.

Certain said, “Meeting to ask questions about what has already been presented on a tentative budget is different from meeting to have input into the formulation of the budget.” She said there were “a number of questions” that Jaremczuk had not been able to answer and information she had not been able to provide when they had met the previous week.

Jaremczuk said Certain’s questions could be answered “at a later date, [but] at this time, we are just presenting the overall budget, and that is what we’ve been focusing on since last week.”

Certain: “We cannot continue, as I’ve said the previous three fiscal years, to use our 1.5 capital mill as the plug to balance our budget”

Certain said the budget includes expenditures “that exceed the estimated revenue, and that is a concern to me. We cannot continue, as I’ve said the previous three fiscal years, to use our 1.5 capital mill as the plug to balance our budget; that is just not a sustainable way.” She said the capital funds are limited and the district has a long list of capital needs.

Certain also said that in 2022, the district had charged 100% of the allowable labor to the One Mill funds and used $4.5 million in ESSER funds to shore up the General Fund. She said the board needed to decide on their priorities “so that we can fund those priorities and make some cuts… in our budget. We cannot continue to go on this way.” She said she would “reluctantly” vote for the millage rates, but she was concerned about the budget.

The motion to approve the property tax millage passed unanimously.

Final budget

Member Leanetta McNealy made a motion to adopt the final budget for the 2024-25 fiscal year, and Rockwell seconded the motion. The motion passed 4-1, with Certain in dissent.

General Purpose Financial Statements

The final agenda item was the approval of the 2023-24 General Purpose Financial Statements. McNealy made a motion to approve the statements and their submission to the Department of Education, and Rockwell seconded the motion. 

Certain said the due date for sending the report to the state was September 11 (the date of the meeting), “but it is not complete… So I am a bit concerned about voting to submit something that – I don’t have a complete document.” She said she had received the latest copy of the report at 4:00 p.m. that day and hadn’t had a chance to review it.

Jaremczuk said the financial information was complete, but her team was still working on the notes section, “and that will be done before it’s submitted to the DOE… The notes section is just the detailed information based off of the financials received – that was provided.”

New Chief of Finance started 3.5 months ago

Certain asked the other board members whether they’d had a chance to review the document. McGraw said the report was not complete “given the time constraints, because of all of the complexities and things that they have been dealing with… – not trying to make excuses, but when you’re looking at your budget,… you want to make sure you’re as accurate as possible. And it’s going to continue to take Ms. Jaremczuk and her team some time to get us where we really need to be… We can’t always get things so far in advance, given the circumstances that you all have been dealing with.”

Rockwell said Jaremczuk had explained “all of the issues that you’re facing, having come in just three and a half months ago, to get this completed. And I understand those constraints this year… and so I am not in any way going to criticize your work… But as a board member, we are statutorily liable for this budget and for these things that we approve, that we submit… I just want to say that I know that in the future, this is not going to be an issue.” She said Jaremczuk had put systems and processes in place “so that next year, it’ll just be a matter of running reports.” She said she would normally be “very upset” at not having a complete report, “but in this case, I think there’s good justification for it.”

Member Kay Abbitt thanked Jaremczuk and her team and agreed that the board needs “some sort of budget workshop. I’m concerned because, with declining FTEs – our revenue is going down, we’ve got to figure out ways to cut costs… I think that there are a lot of ways this district could be more efficient and save more money.” She gave an example of summer school, which she said cost $2.3 million: “How do we know that summer school is effective? Do we have data that we go back and look at?… Because $2.3 million could do a lot for teacher raises, and it might be more effective to spend that money that way.”

Certain asked Superintendent Shane Andrew if the district had considered asking for an extension “to make sure we’re submitting everything that has to be submitted with this report – because I don’t think this is complete. It’s more than just the notes that’s not here.” Certain suggested citing extenuating circumstances because of the change in staff.

Jaremczuk said the rest of the information would be uploaded that day, “and it will be completed, and it will be submitted.” She said she recommended that the board approve the report.

Certain went through a list of forms that had to be submitted, and Jaremczuk said the information in the statements provided to the board “feeds into all of them.” She said all of the basic financial information was in the document she provided.

The financial statements were approved 4-1, with Certain in dissent “because is it not complete”; McGraw added, “In her opinion.”