School Board adopts tentative 2025–26 millage rates and $1.1168 billion tentative budget

At a public hearing, the School Board voted 5-0 to adopt tentative millage rates totaling 6.296 mills and a tentative budget of $1,116,803,560 for the 2025–26 fiscal year. The action followed a presentation from Chief Financial Officer Michelle Thomas and formal motions from board members.

The vote covered four separate millage components the board is required or authorized to set: a required local effort of 3.048 mills, a discretionary operating millage of 0.748 mills, a discretionary local capital improvement millage of 1.5 mills and an additional voted operating mill of 1.0 mill. Superintendent Dr. Prince recommended adoption of each rate before the board moved and approved them unanimously.

Thomas told the board the district budgets at a 96% collection rate and noted the taxable value used for calculations. Using the property appraiser’s data, she said the county’s net taxable value rose to about $48,900,000,000 for 2025–26 and that the district’s proposed total millage of 6.296 exceeds the computed rollback rate of 5.9374. “Since we have a proposed rate of 6.296, which exceeds 5.9374, we have to compare those 2 millage rates and make a public statement that the proposed rate is 6.04% greater than the rollback rate,” she said.

Thomas described revenue impacts and collections history. She said the district expects to collect approximately $257,600,000 in nonvoted millage collections in a consistent-comparison view that excludes the additional voted 1 mill, representing an increase versus the benchmark year cited. Incorporating the voted 1 mill, she said the district would be proposed to collect about $306,200,000 for 2025–26, and that the voter-approved 1 mill — renewed in November 2022 for four additional years “as by law” — is estimated to produce about $48,000,000 of additional revenue for the year.

Thomas also presented the estimated effect on an average homeowner, saying an increase in nonvoted millage of roughly 0.91% combined with an average taxable-value increase produced an approximate annual tax increase of $98.75 for the typical homeowner based on the property appraiser’s figures.

After the millage votes, the board considered the district’s tentative budget. Superintendent Dr. Prince recommended adopting the tentative 2025–26 budget; during the presentation he corrected an earlier misstated number and confirmed the tentative total at $1,116,803,560. The board voted 5-0 to adopt the tentative budget and then voted 5-0 to adopt two related resolutions identified in the record as Resolution 2025–26 TRIM Tentative B and Resolution 2025–26 TRIM Tentative C.

There were no public comments during the hearing; the chair asked if anyone from the public wished to speak and recorded that there were none. The board’s formal actions and the supporting presentation by the chief financial officer constitute the official record for the tentative millage levy and tentative budget adoption. Any final millage and budget figures will be subject to required public-notice timelines and subsequent board action before final adoption.

The superintendent and CFO identified the primary uses of revenue from the voter-approved mill in summary form: recruiting and retaining teachers, improving school security, expanding mental-health services and funding other district operations. Thomas said that, as required by law, revenue from the voted 1 mill is proportionately shared with charter schools.