- The School Board of Alachua County approved a tentative budget of $610.8 million for fiscal year 2026-27, up $6.7 million from last year.
- The proposed millage rate is 6.327 mills, which is 0.76 mills higher than the 2025 rate due to an increase in required local effort.
- The general fund, primarily made up of the Florida Education Finance Program and a 1-mill referendum, covers salaries, benefits, and other operating expenses.
The School Board of Alachua County (SBAC) unanimously approved the tentative budget and millage rate for the 2026-27 fiscal year during a public hearing on Thursday night.
The total proposed budget for FY 2026-27 is set at $610,840,438. This includes $346,433,225 for the general fund, $51,044,620 for special revenue, $9,138,287 for debt service, $145,904,144 for capital projects and $58,320,161 for internal service.
If the budget stays unchanged, it represents a $6.7 million increase from last year’s final budget of $604,094,340.
At a special meeting on July 22, ACPS Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Michael Reneke said much of the growth in the budget year-on-year is in special revenue, capital funds and the district’s internal service, which he described as the self-insurance fund.
According to a presentation during Thursday’s hearing, the “General Fund serves as the primary operating fund” for ACPS.
“Our general fund is primarily made up of the Florida Education Finance Program (FEFP) and the 1-mill referendum,” Reneke said at the hearing. “It covers things like salaries and benefits, transportation, utilities, supplies, materials, textbooks and contracted services.”
According to the presentation, instruction makes up the biggest portion of the general fund budget at $179,875,058. The next biggest chunk is operating expenses at $40,279,299.
For millage, ACPS has four components that create its overall rate: Required local effort (RLE), voter referendum, discretionary operating funds and discretionary local capital improvement.
The current budget breakdown includes $88,357,110 in RLE, $28,696,691 in voter referendum, $21,465,125 in discretionary and $43,045,036 in discretionary local capital improvement. This equates to a total revenue of $181,563,962.
The RLE is proposed to be at 3.079 mills, voter referendum at 1 mill, discretionary at 0.7480 mills and discretionary local capital improvement at 1.5 mills. This brings the total proposed millage rate to 6.327, which is 0.76 mills higher than the 2025 rate of 6.251.
Reneke explained during the hearing that the increase is in the RLE.
The proposed rate for 2026 is 0.1947 mills higher than the rollback rate of 2.8843.
“Basically, that rate compared to this year’s property values would result in the same income,” Reneke said.
During the hearing, board member Sarah Rockwell reminded the public again that the SBAC does not set its own millage rate.
“Our millage rate is set by the state. If we do not levy the required local effort millage, we do not get our state funding,” she said.
A public hearing for the adoption of the final 2026-27 budget and millage rate is scheduled for 5:01 p.m. on Sept. 15.
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.