Sarasota district outlines sponsor duties, academic supports and funding for charter schools

Sarasota County School District staff used a Jan. 7 work session to brief the school board on the district's role as sponsor of 14 charter schools and on academic and financial supports the district provides.

The presentation covered charter-school counts and enrollment trends, school-grade results, the district's legal duties as sponsor, optional services the district offers beyond what statute requires, and how funding flows from the Florida Education Finance Program (FEFP), local levies and other sources to charter schools.

District staff said Sarasota charters have grown from one in 2000 to 14 in 2024 and that charter enrollment has increased by about 41 percent over time. Dr. Cantalupo said charter and district-managed schools produce many As statewide, but charters proportionally carry more Bs and Cs and a small number of charters show declining letter grades that the district is monitoring. The district also highlighted acceleration — enrollment in advanced courses that affects state ranking — as an area where charters lag in some grades and where the district is offering pathways and scheduling assistance.

Millie Wheeler, the district's charter compliance lead, summarized sponsor responsibilities: application review and approval, compliance monitoring, ESE administrative services (the district serves as the local education agency for charter ESE reporting), renewal review and, when statutorily allowed, closure. Wheeler told the board that statutory changes have narrowed the legal grounds for closure to three primary reasons: failure to participate in the state accountability system, failure to meet generally accepted fiscal-management standards, and material violation of law.

CFO Rachel Pinner gave a funding overview. She described how charter FTE is reported through the district into the FEFP, how local operating referendum and capital millage are being proportionately shared under recent law changes, and how administrative fees are calculated under statute. Pinner said the district withholds administrative fees on charters' FEFP earnings (statutory maximums apply) and estimated Sarasota's total administrative-fee withholding at roughly $1.2 million while reporting roughly $1.6 million in district expenditures supporting charters in 2023–24. She told the board those district cost estimates derive from high‑level time allocations rather than detailed time logs.

District staff described voluntary supports offered to charters: impact reviews and data chats, professional learning access, IT services (mass messaging and Office 365) at no additional charge, project-10 work on graduation and at-risk students, safety-and-security walk-throughs, and assistance with federal-grant management. Staff stressed those offerings are optional — charters may request or decline them — because statute limits the district's ability to impose specific instructional mandates.

Superintendent Conner and charter staff said the district has increased collaborative work with charters this year and plans to continue targeted support to address declines in some schools' letter grades and acceleration rates. Board members asked about ESE services and the district's contracting of retired psychologists for initial evaluations, the administrative-fee calculation and the size of the funding/expense gap, and district plans for piloting or expanding innovation programs to better align offerings across district-managed and charter schools.

The session closed with an opportunity for questions from board members.