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Highlands superintendent unveils draft fiscal recovery plan proposing program changes to restore fund balance
Summary
Superintendent Dr. Longshore presented a draft fiscal recovery plan after falling below the 3% statutory fund-balance target, proposing shifting the alternative academy to virtual instruction, returning core classes for Highlands Career Institute students to home high schools while preserving vocational offerings, and eliminating optional VPK classrooms; the measures aim to recapture roughly $4 million in the near term.
Superintendent Dr. Longshore told the Highlands County School Board in a public workshop that the district has experienced a years-long enrollment decline and a recent jump in health-insurance costs that together have driven the general fund below the state'required 3% fund balance.
Longshore said enrollment in 2017 stood at 12,388; the district's forecast for the coming year is about 11,169 students. She told the board that Family Empowerment Scholarship expansion in March 2023 has accelerated student departures to nonpublic options, creating a fiscal gap the district must address.
To restore the fund balance, Longshore presented a two-part fiscal recovery plan: near-term actions to reach July 1 and longer-term…
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