Mister Green presented the district’s tentative all‑funds budget to the board and walked members through final FEFP (Florida Educational Finance Program) components, millage calculations, and timing for public hearings.

Why it matters: the tentative budget determines what staff will plan to spend for 2025–26 and it triggers legally required public notices and hearings. Board adoption of tentative millage and the tentative budget starts a statutorily prescribed calendar that leads to final adoption in September.

Mister Green told the board the district’s total tentative budget across all funds is about $418.7 million, with the general operating fund estimated at roughly $238 million (about 57% of all funds). He said taxable assessed value rose, which increases property-tax revenue even though the board is proposing the same millage rates as last year: a combined 5.753 mills (required local effort, capital outlay, discretionary 0.748 and the 0.5 voter-approved millage).

State funding detail: the FEFP base student allocation (BSA) rose only modestly ($41.62 per student). Mister Green explained that the state moved some previously added weights (accelerated-program weights such as AP/IB/dual-enrollment add-ons) out of the BSA and into a categorical; the Family Empowerment Scholarships (vouchers) were counted in the FEFP totals as state dollars even though most of those dollars do not flow to the district. He said that although gross state and local FEFP rose by about $3.7 million year over year, after extracting $20.4 million in Family Empowerment scholarship claims and other categorical shifts, the district’s net FEFP effectively fell.

Mister Green described a prior-period funding millage adjustment (PPFMA) that restored unrealized required-local-effort revenue from a prior year and explained the district’s tentative millage notices and truth-in-millage (TRIM) advertisement schedule; the board will adopt tentative millage and the tentative budget at a public hearing scheduled for 5:01 p.m. the following day and hold the final budget hearing on Sept. 9.

Federal grants: staff said U.S. Department of Education holds that briefly affected 10 percent of district entitlements were released in late July and the district had sufficient rollover funds to smooth near-term operations; title I funds were reduced by roughly 6 percent between preliminary and final allocations and staff adjusted Title I budgets accordingly.

Board questions focused on the net effect of shifted categories and on how Family Empowerment scholarship growth is reducing dollars available for district programs. Some board members urged deeper financial scrutiny; others praised ongoing cost-cutting and a stable fund balance ($31 million). Mister Green said staff will bring a final budget book and updated materials ahead of the final hearing and continue to brief board members and the public through an Aug. 25 workshop and the September hearings.