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The School Board of Lee County learned last week that the district will be starting the budget process in a spot where they will look to be spending more than they will receive due to a bump in the projected budget and a dip expected in money from the state.

Budget Director Kelly Letcher provided an update regarding the Florida State Legislature’s proposed first calculation of the budget, which still has to go before the governor.

The enrollment projection, which the state asked the district to increase, is based on 96,432 students, an increase of 2,632 students from current numbers, and, perhaps, a little high.

“I’m not sure we are going to get there. We are holding some money in the back, so if we don’t get there we are not having to go back out to the schools to make reductions mid year,” Letcher said.

She said 1,200 students, maybe a little more, is more in line of what they expect.

In addition, there is a $9 million increase over the current year’s budget, which is better than she expected. With that said, Letcher said of that $9 million, $7.4 million is already negotiated with the teacher and support unions, TALC and SPALC, to increase health insurance.

The Florida retirement rate also increased and is now 10.82 percent, a $4.2 million increase to the district’s budget.

One of the big reductions in the budget was the class size reduction.

“From my understanding what they are saying is that apparently they have been doing the calculation wrong for years and years and are correcting it this year. That is a $10 million reduction in what their proposal of the current year is. We took a big hit. That did make a difference,” Letcher said.

Another decrease is the district’s FTE dollars, which is $8,011.98, a decrease of 1.75 percent from last year. Letcher said with the class size reduction, the dollars dropped down.

There also will be no lottery dollars coming to the district to build into the budget. She said the lottery came to the district in two pieces — school recognition and the school improvement plan.

Letcher said they know there is an increase of $11.6 million in the budget.

“The state is giving us $9 million. Some of that will be held back because we are not sure we will be getting all the students generating that. We are starting next year in a spot where we know we will be spending more than we are getting,” she said. “We will have ESSER 2 funds to help us through with some of this. We will start meeting with academic services to have the best impacts on student learning gains, (which will be the) focus with those dollars.”

Board member Chris Patricca applauded the budget department for the work they have done this year, especially during the uncertain times of the pandemic.

“Thank you guys for your amazing ability to manage our finances during a year of the pandemic and to do it while dealing with every changing regulations,” she said. “You are magicians this year and I really appreciate what you have done.”

The preliminary budget meeting is scheduled for June, a tentative budget meeting in July and the final budget hearing is scheduled for September.