- The School Board of Alachua County adopted a $623 million budget for FY 2026-27, which is 3.1% higher than last year's budget.
- The final millage rate for 2026-27 is set at 6.327 mills, a 5.38% increase over the rolled-back rate, generating $181.56 million in revenue.
The School Board of Alachua County (SBAC) unanimously adopted the final budget and millage rate for the 2026-27 fiscal year during a public hearing on Tuesday night.
The board adopted a total budget of $623,028,853.95 for FY 2026-27. The $623 million budget is about $18.9 million, or 3.1% higher, than last year’s adopted budget of $604,094,340.
In its Executive Summary for the FY 2026-27 budget, Alachua County Public Schools (ACPS) stated that the increase “is primarily attributable to the growth in Florida Empowerment Scholarship funding.”
Five major funds make up the budget, with the general fund, or operational fund, accounting for the “vast majority of operational expenditures that support” the district’s education system, according to the Executive Summary.
The 2026-27 general fund totals $348,479,940.15, including $316,109,614.95 in appropriations. The largest general fund appropriations are $176,909,930.66 for instruction and $38,926,238.42 for operation of plant.
Of the $176.9 million for instruction, $96,044,319.48 is for salaries, $34,297,776.69 is for employee benefits, and $32,619,497.91 is for purchased services.
Purchased services are also the largest component of plant operations at $16,162,745.61. The next biggest piece is energy services at $9,570,069.
Millage rate
According to the Executive Summary, “Millage rates are approved by the school board and applied to the taxable value of property as established by the local property appraiser.” One mill essentially generates $1 in property taxes for every $1,000 of taxable property value.
According to the summary, the district has three operational millage levies: required local effort (RLE), discretionary millage and additional voted millage.
For 2026-27, millage revenue is projected at $181,563,962. That includes $88,357,110 from RLE, $21,465,125 from discretionary millage, $28,696,691 from additional voted millage and $43,045,036 from capital outlay.
The adopted RLE is 3.079 mills, discretionary at 0.7480 mills, additional voted millage at 1 mill and capital outlay at 1.5 mills. This brings the total millage rate to 6.327, which is 0.76 mills higher than the 2025 rate of 6.251.
Based on the district’s budget presentation, the approved total millage rate for FY 2026-27 is 5.38% higher than the rolled-back rate of 6.1323.
The board unanimously approved resolutions to set the final budget and millage rates for the 2026-27 fiscal year.
Nick Anschultz is a Report for America corps member and writes about education for Mainstreet Daily News. This position is supported by local donations through the Community Catalyst for Local Journalism Fund at the Community Foundation of North Central Florida.
The hungry little School Board of Alachua County piggy needs to be fed once again and to no ones surprise, the piggy needs more and more and MORE!
Watch very closely, folks. Somewhere in or around February of next year, the board will start moaning about how tight the budget is and why things aren’t getting done. They will bleat like sheep and try to distract all of us from the fact that the trough was full, but they wasted all of the piggy food.
One of the piggy supporters out there is asking if this is speculation on my part and the answer is no.
It’s history.