The School Board of Union County held a workshop on March 10, with one of the topics of discussion focusing on the potential “restructuring” of Lake Butler Middle and Elementary Schools. 

According to minutes from the board’s Feb. 24 workshop, which focused on budget and finance, the Union County School District is currently facing a $1.4 million budget deficit caused by a drop in revenue based on the third Florida Education Finance Program (FEFP) calculation.  

The FEFP is calculated five times throughout the year “to account for the certification of the tax roll and student FTE (full-time equivalent) counts,” according to the Florida School Finance Officers Association (FSFOA).  

The third FTEP calculation – the first calculation of the year – is typically released in January and uses actual FTE student counts from October and projected FTE student counts for February, according to the Florida Department of Education (FDOE).  

The third calculation released in January showed that the district lost 104 full-time students, according to reporting by WCJB TV20 News.   

In response to questions submitted via a public records request, the district said that it currently has 2,056 students enrolled. This includes 836 students at Lake Butler Elementary (pre-K-fourth grade), 688 at Lake Butler Middle (fifth-eighth grade) and 532 at Union County High School (ninth-12^th grade).  

Based on the data from the third FTEP calculation, the district said that starting in February, it will receive close to $284,000 less per month from the state through the end of the fiscal year (June 30). 

The district depends on the state for 85% or more of its funding, according to the WCJB TV20 story. 

When asked what the drop in student enrollment can be attributed to, the district told Mainstreet that the decline “can be attributed to several factors,” including “withdrawals to homeschool, private schools,” other school districts, etc. 

During the 45-minute workshop, Superintendent Mike Ripplinger explained that the decline in student enrollment isn’t happening just in Union County, adding that school districts across Florida are closing and combining schools because of the decline. This includes places like Alachua County, where the school board recently approved rezoning changes that will see school closures and consolidations take effect as early as this fall.  

“We don’t have any schools that we can technically close…because we only have three schools,” Ripplinger said. “However, we do have the ability to restructure what those schools look like and how that’s going to work.” 

That proposed restructuring plan would see the fifth grade move from Lake Butler Middle back to Lake Butler Elementary, making it a pre-K-5, while also merging sixth, seventh and eighth grades with Union County High, making it a sixth-12^th campus. 

“One of the things that we are being forced to do is look at every single avenue of how we can reduce our cost,” Ripplinger said. “And personnel, just like in any organization, personnel is the biggest cost that any organization has. So, as we’re looking at this, we’re looking at our current capacity at all three schools. We’re looking at what our current enrollments are and using our current enrollments to try to forecast into what next year is going to look like.” 

Board Chair Chris Hodgson brought up concerns he had heard from community members regarding the potential merger of sixth-eighth grade with the high school.  

“They said, ‘will sixth-grade students go to the high school for class?’ I said, ‘I doubt that.’ I said, ‘as that student increases to the eighth grade, [he or she could] possibly go to the high school for P.E. or band, or whatever the case may be.’ But I said, ‘a sixth-grade student will have classes with sixth graders at the middle school.’” 

Ripplinger said this is essentially what would happen with the sixth-eighth and high school merger. 

“I would imagine nearly all of your sixth grade, all of your seventh grade, will probably remain in the hallways at the middle school,” he said. “You’re not going to have seniors coming down, sitting with sixth graders in a class. You’re not going to have seventh graders and juniors in the same P.E. class, and things such as that. Nearly all of your high school students will remain at the high school, and a very large majority will remain at the middle school.”  

Board Member Terra Johnson asked what the cost and savings would be in potentially combining the middle and high schools.  

Ripplinger said he wasn’t “comfortable enough to throw a number out there” yet. 

“Everything that we’re doing, I’m trying to be as methodical as I possibly can and as accurate as I possibly can, because we only get one shot,” he said.  

No action was taken by the board during the workshop. Ripplinger said throughout April, the district will be working on its reorganization for next year, which includes determining how many staff positions will be needed.  

“We reduced our staffing plan from last year to this year by 38 positions,” he said. “And we did it with only having one person not returning to the district. We did that through attrition. We did that through collapsing of positions. We did that through retirements and things such as that. Now, as we move forward to next year, we have to look at how many [positions] we are going to need across the board to do the job that we need to do while maximizing our savings and still working within our budget?” 

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.