The Flagler County School Board on Tuesday adopted final millage rates and a $338,224,969 budget for the 2025-26 fiscal year, the board announced after a public hearing held Sept. 9 at 5:15 p.m.

Board action followed a staff presentation about revenue sources, program funds and capital plans and came after the board read two resolutions: Resolution 25/26-03 to set the final millage and Resolution 25/26-04 to adopt the final budget. No members of the public offered comment at the hearing.

Budget presenter Patty Warmack, identified in the meeting as the staff member giving the finance presentation, summarized the district’s general fund, special revenue funds and capital plans and highlighted state scholarship impacts. Warmack said the district projects a general fund balance of about $7,600,000 for 2025-26 and that the ending fund balance for 2024-25 was projected at $9,000,000, with final audited numbers forthcoming.

The resolutions as read at the hearing record a certified taxable value of $20,044,982,530. The district adopted a required local effort of $59,673,112 at a rate of 3.101 mills, a discretionary operating levy of $28,864,775 at 1.500 mills, and a local capital improvements levy of $14,393,902 at 0.748 mills. The district’s adopted total budget for fiscal 2025-26 is $338,224,969. The reading of the millage resolution also notes the total millage to be levied exceeds the rollback rate computed under Florida law by 2.82 percent.

Warmack discussed the Family Empowerment Scholarship program and its effect on the district’s funded full-time-equivalent (FTE) counts. She reported that the Florida Department of Education provided the district with projections for scholarship recipients and that scholarship dollars to the district are projected at about $17,000,000 for 2025-26. Warmack also said the district no longer carries federal ESSER or ARP grant balances; current federal grants are mainly IDEA and Title I funds.

On capital and debt items, Warmack noted the district’s debt service includes a payments stream tied to certificates of participation (COPS) originating from 2005 projects and that those obligations were refunded in 2014 and again in 2024. A board member asked how much the most recent refinancing saved; Warmack answered, "$700,000." She said impact fees and a half-cent sales tax both fund capital projects, that impact fees may contribute to debt service (a $2,000,000 transfer was cited), and that charter-school funding rules require portions of certain capital revenues to be passed through to charter schools gradually (20 percent, then 40 percent, and 60 percent in the third year, per the presentation).

Warmack emphasized that the district does not set its own required local millage rate: "we are the only taxing municipality that cannot set our own millage that is set, by DOE and given to us. We have no control over that at the local level." That statement was made during the presentation and recorded in the hearing transcript.

Following the presentation the board adopted the two resolutions. The resolution texts read into the record reference statutory requirements for adoption (the meeting transcript cites Florida statutes related to certification of property appraiser values and millage-setting procedures) and certify the adopted amounts.

The meeting record shows the motions to adopt the millage resolution and the final budget passed unanimously. The board president or chair opened the hearing, motions were made and seconded as recorded in the transcript, and roll call or voice votes returned unanimous "aye" responses. No amendments or conditions were recorded during the votes. The board recessed and closed the public hearing before reconvening in public session to take the adoption votes.

The presentation was described in the meeting as the third time the board has reviewed the draft 2025-26 budget and millage in the prior two months, most recently July 29. Superintendent Lashaka Moore was identified in the hearing transcript as superintendent of schools and as ex officio secretary certifying the resolutions.

The board’s action finalizes the district’s spending plan for the next fiscal year, funds ongoing operations (salaries and benefits account for more than 80 percent of general fund expenditures, the presentation states), capital projects on the five-year plan, bus and equipment purchases, and the district’s self-insurance and scholarship endowment funds. Warmack’s presentation noted that final audited numbers for the recently closed fiscal year will be presented to the board in the coming weeks.

No public speakers signed up at the hearing, and no public comments were made during the formal public comment period for this item.

Motions and voting records are reflected in the official minutes and the adopted resolutions recorded by the superintendent’s office.