The School Board of Lee County approved a $2.9 billion budget Thursday night, up from its tentative budget of $2.7 billion.

The main increases were due to fund balance estimates. The general fund had an increase of $45 million, debt service had a decrease of more than $2 million, capital projects had an increase of more than $61 million, special revenue had an increase of more than $27 million, internal service – health and life insurance – had an increase of $16 million and food service had a decrease of $2 million.

The approved Fiscal Year 2025 budget includes the general operating budget of $1,270,351,680; special revenue budget of $156,169,902; debt service budget of $98,085,924; capital outlay budget of $1,161,347,598; internal service budget of $225,438,292 for a total budget of $2,911,393,396.

There was discussion from both the public and the elected board regarding meals provided to students. The two individuals that spoke during public comment said the food is awful, and not as nutritional as it should be for students.

Budget Director Dr. Ami Desamours said food services is a self-supporting fund, as the revenue needs to cover the expenses. The district is monitoring food services to make sure it does sustain itself, as the fund balance continues to decrease, she said.

“The number of meals, students – participants – has increased,” Desamours said.

Unfortunately, the perfect storm has happened.

She said the reimbursement rate the district is receiving is not as high for the number of meals as it once was, food costs have gone up, as have wages and benefits, and transportation of food.

The district no longer has vendors that can drop ship to location, except for one vendor who drop ships at high schools.

The board also approved the required local effort, millage of 3.038 which will generate $468,025,885; basic discretionary of .748 mills at $115,234,813 total; capital outlay of 1.500 mills at $231,085,855 total.

The approved total millage of 5.286 will generate $814,346,553.

Budget Director Kelly Letcher said that figure is a decrease of .144 mills from the 2023-24 millage rate of 5.430 and an increase of 2.54% over the rollback rate, the rate at which revenue from these property taxes would remain flat.

“The new millage rate would generate $58 million more than the previous year because of the increase in the tax roll,” she said.

Letcher said the millage rate has reduced year after year because of the taxable value increases. She said when the county’s total property valuation increases, the state reduces their millage rate.

“The current tax base is $160 billion, which is a 10.61% increase over last year of $145 billion,” Letcher said.

What this means for property owners is a difference of $41.68 for a home with a taxable valuation of $100,000. This year the homeowner would pay $584.68, compared to last year’s $543.

For those who have Save our Homes, which does not allow an increase of more than 3%, the difference on a home with a $100,000 taxable valuation is $5.06 – $412.31 compared to last year’s $407.25.

The budget is built off of the second Florida Education Finance Program calculations.

The second calculation is $993 million, with $63 million of that going to the Family Empowerment Scholarship, Letcher said. Of the $993 million, $6.8 million goes directly to teacher salary increase allocation.

The new dollars increased the FTE (full time equivalent) to $9,241 per student, a $266 increase over last year. The base student allocation increased $5,330.98, an increase of $191.25.

Florida Education Finance Program, a large part of the funding that we get in the district for operations. $993 million in total revenue, $63 million set aside for family empowerment scholarship