Final Budget Adoption — plus a four-meeting day and a 55-item consent agenda — the agenda, translated

Tuesday, September 8, 2026

Lee County Public Education Center, 2855 Colonial Blvd., Fort Myers

Read the full agenda packet and the FY27 Final Budget book (BoardDocs)

Read the headline school figure carefully, because three official documents give three different answers. The tentative budget in August compared next year against this year’s AMENDED budget and showed schools down 16.01%. The final book compares against this year’s ACTUAL spending and shows schools up 0.97%. Neither is wrong; they measure against different things. The reason it matters is arithmetic: Lee’s adopted budget grows an average of 18.6% during the year as grants arrive and money carries forward, so any comparison of next year’s plan against this year’s result starts out negative. Compared budget to budget — what the board adopted last September against what it is being asked to adopt now — the total is $135.6 million larger and carries 843.08 fewer positions. That is the only like-for-like comparison, and no budget document publishes it.

$3.06B — Total final budget, all funds $135,571,363 more than the budget the board adopted last September — a 4.64% increase
−843.08 — Positions, against last September’s adopted budget 11,967.36 down to 11,124.28; schools carry 850.63 of the reduction while holding 78.7% of the positions
5,323.71 — Teacher positions budgeted Down 504.19 in one year. Budgeted teaching positions fell 90 across the previous four years combined
$37.97M — Federal Title grants approved the same night The money the budget book says will be added “as grants are approved” — six applications on the consent agenda

The budget grows 4.64% and the positions inside it fall 7.04%

BUDGET · +$135,571,363 / −843.08 positions

Lining up each budget book’s own adopted-budget column: the board adopted $2,919,795,073 for 2025-26 last September and is asked to adopt $3,055,366,436 for 2026-27. Total budgeted positions go from 11,967.36 to 11,124.28. School positions fall from 9,419.60 to 8,568.97, a loss of 850.63; district department positions fall from 2,541.76 to 2,537.31, a loss of 4.45. Schools carry 99.5% of the reduction while holding 78.7% of the positions. Budgeted teacher positions go from 5,827.90 to 5,323.71.

The size of the change is what stands out. The same measure a year earlier moved 35.33 positions; this year it moves 843.08. Budgeted teaching positions fell by 90 across the four years from 2021-22 to 2025-26 — this single budget removes 504.19. Dollars are a poor unit for this comparison because they are provisional by design: measured against what the year became, the adopted budget has grown 21.4%, 19.9%, 9.7% and 23.3% in the last four years. Position counts move less than 1% over the same stretch. Questions worth asking: what is the district’s own budget-to-budget position figure, and how many of the 850.63 school positions are jobs it does not intend to fill?

The enrollment count that sets school staffing was taken August 28

TIMING · Eleven days before the vote

The 1:00 PM workshop includes a 30-minute Budget Overview titled “Aligning School Resources with Enrollment,” presented by the Chief Financial Officer and the Director of Budget and Grants. It explains how school allocations are reconciled to actual enrollment: projections set in January, allocations released in April, the Day 14 count taken August 28, allocations reconciled in September, then reconciled again to the state’s October FTE survey in December. Every figure in the presentation belongs to a worked example called “Excellence Elementary School,” a hypothetical campus of 894 students whose Day 14 count comes in at 855.

The count has already happened. The presentation explains the process in careful detail and publishes no district-wide result from it, although the board votes on the budget four hours later. The district’s own framing is that resources follow students, which is how the state funds districts and is a reasonable position. Question worth asking at the podium: the Day 14 count was taken on August 28 — what did it show, and what did the reconciled school allocations come to?

$37.97 million in federal grants is approved the same night as the budget

CONSENT · $37,965,328.67

Six consent items approve the district’s 2026-27 federal Title grant applications: Title I Part A at $26,105,012.87, Title II Part A at $4,403,927.41, Title III Part A at $4,068,721.00, Title IV Part A at $2,695,947.08, Title I Part C (Migrant) at $350,769.00 and Title I Part D at $340,951.31.

This explains several alarming-looking numbers in the budget book, and it is worth stating plainly rather than leaving them to be misread. The federal special revenue fund appears down 57.30%, Exceptional Student Education appears down 55.48% and Early Childhood Learning Services appears down 85.07% — because the book budgets federal money only as grants are approved, and the approvals are on this agenda. Those are not cuts. The ESE position count is unchanged at 398.88. Anyone quoting those percentages as reductions is quoting a timing gap.

The teacher raise money is limited to teachers with ten or more years

PEOPLE · $6,279,205 to district teachers

A signed memorandum of understanding with the Teachers Association of Lee County distributes the state’s Classroom Teacher and Other Instructional Personnel Salary Increase for 2026-27. Lee’s allocation is $7,092,970; after the charter school share, $6,279,205 reaches district teachers including benefits. Under the state proviso quoted in the MOU, the additional dollars must go to full-time classroom teachers and certified prekindergarten teachers with at least ten years of full-time teaching experience by June 30, 2026, and the increase may not exceed $3,000 per teacher.

The condition is set by the Legislature, not by the district, and it is a deliberate choice to direct this year’s money at retaining experienced teachers rather than raising the whole scale. Teachers with fewer than ten years receive nothing additional from this allocation. Worth knowing before anyone reads a district-level figure as an across-the-board raise.

The budget assumes 3,361 more students and reserves for about 800 of them

ASSUMPTION · $7,027,597 held back

The budget is built on funded enrollment rising by 3,361.61 FTE, in the year after headcount fell from 102,519 to 100,869. Against that assumption the district holds a Reserve for FTE Short Fall and Proration of $7,027,597. At the district’s own 2026-27 rate of $8,595 per unweighted student, that reserve covers roughly 818 students — about 24% of the increase being assumed. A repeat of last year’s decline would cost roughly $14.2 million.

The district addresses this directly on its budget questions page: it projects on the higher side on purpose, because funding follows students and the budget has to plan for students who might enroll, and money set aside for students who do not enroll is returned to the state. That is a defensible approach and it also means part of the increase never becomes spending. Per-student state funding is separately budgeted to fall from $8,643 to $8,595, the first decline since 2021-22. Question worth asking: if the count comes in short by more than 800 students, what gets reduced?

$24.6 million of facilities work passes in a single vote

MONEY · $24,578,056

Nine Facility Operations items ride the consent agenda: flooring and related services at $14,701,905, fire alarm maintenance at $3,021,906, facility maintenance and repairs at $2,200,000, casework services at $1,675,000, an OMNIA contract increase of $1,540,000, gate and fencing at $485,000, a $379,245 sewer reimbursement to a private developer, fire system inspections at $325,000 and rental equipment at $250,000. Three of the nine are piggyback awards — roughly $3.99 million bought off other governments’ contracts rather than a Lee County competitive bid.

Consent items pass in one vote unless a board member pulls one. That block also contains the year-end financial report, the final amendment to the 2025-26 budget, the teacher salary MOU, $37.97 million in federal grants and a 20-year facilities plan. Piggyback purchasing is lawful and often sensible, and the sewer reimbursement is a normal cost-share with a developer for a line serving two schools and private property. The question is one of visibility, not legality: a $14.7 million flooring award is not a small decision to approve without discussion.

The current year’s books are closed an hour after next year’s budget is adopted

ROUTINE · Two consent items

Consent item L-11 approves the Annual Financial Report for the year ended June 30, 2026 — the district’s official year-end report to the Florida Department of Education, later audited. Consent item L-12 approves the Final Budget Amendment to the 2025-26 budget, which in the district’s words “reflects the budget activity that has occurred since May 31, 2026” and aligns the final budget balances with that report. Its contents are ordinary: prekindergarten funds received, principals moving money between school accounts, workforce program fees matched to actual receipts.

Both are required. Districts must amend appropriations to match actual activity so that no line is overspent, and every Florida district does this. It is worth understanding rather than suspecting. The consequence is the part that matters for reading the budget: 2025-26 was adopted at $2,919,795,073 and closes at roughly $3.42 billion, and that larger closing figure is the baseline the new budget book compares itself against.

The Good — what this budget protects or improves

The tax rate goes down again — Total millage falls from 5.319 to 5.271, which is 1.97% below the roll-back rate. The district-controlled portion has not changed in over a decade; the reduction is in the Required Local Effort the state sets.
Positions were added back after August — Between the tentative book and the final book the district restored 218.71 positions, 208.10 of them to schools.
The reserve floor is met — The budget sets aside $58,792,985, or 4.76% of general fund revenue, against a district policy floor of 3%.
Debt is well inside its limits — Debt payments from capital millage transfers are 19.8% of what state law allows and 29.7% of the district’s own stricter guideline.
The district published a plain-language budget FAQ — A Budget Questions page answers common questions directly, including why department budgets can look larger than they end up being.

The Bad — what gets smaller

Instruction is cut at more than twice the administrative rate — Instructional positions fall 7.08% and administrative positions 3.23%. Across two budgets, instructional positions fall 575.43 while administrative positions finish above where they started.
Teacher training falls more than 40% — Instructional Staff Training drops from $11,905,148 to $6,607,466 in the general fund, and from $17,431,793 to $10,254,287 across all funds.
Per-student state funding declines — FEFP funding per unweighted student falls from $8,643 to $8,595, the first decrease since 2021-22.
Support roles shrink faster than teaching — Education paraprofessionals fall 187.62 positions (12.45%), security specialists 25.76 (15.51%), ESOL contact specialists 11.40 (30.91%), social workers 7.46 (13.51%) and speech-language pathology assistants 12.00 (63.16%).
The general fund balance has fallen $88.9 million in two years — From $244,960,073 at the close of 2023-24 to $156,068,582 at the close of 2025-26.

The Ugly — how these decisions are being made

No document shows budget against budget — Every budget book compares next year’s plan to last year’s result. The comparison residents would run themselves is not published anywhere.
The enrollment count is in hand and not on the page — The Day 14 count was taken August 28. The workshop explains the process using a school that does not exist and publishes no district-wide figure before the vote.
$37.97 million in grants and a 20-year facilities plan on consent — Both pass inside the block, with the year-end financial report and the final amendment to the current budget, unless a member pulls them.
A new supervisor role alongside a 63% cut — Job descriptions adopted the same night include a Speech Language Pathology Assistant Supervisor — a supplemental duty added to a licensed therapist, each overseeing up to two assistants — in the budget that reduces those assistants from 19.00 positions to 7.00.

How this budget moves

August 28 — Day 14 enrollment count taken; school allocations reconciled to it
11:30 AM — Quasi-judicial hearing — two employee termination petitions
1:00 PM — Workshop — Budget Overview, academics, transportation, construction, surtax oversight report
5:05 PM — SECOND public hearing — board adopts the FINAL 2026-27 budget and sets millage
6:00 PM — Regular meeting — 55-item agenda including the consent block
December — School allocations reconciled again to the state’s October FTE survey
October 13 — Next regular board meeting

Plain-language glossary

Adopted budget: What the board approves in September, before the year begins. In Lee County it has grown an average of 18.6% by the time the year ends.
Amended budget: The adopted budget after twelve months of changes — grants awarded, money carried forward, capital added.
Actual: What the year turned into once it closed. Comparing next year’s plan to this year’s actual is comparing a number before it grows to a number after it grew.
FTE: Full-time equivalent. Funded student count, based on instructional minutes rather than heads. State money follows FTE, not enrollment.
Day 14 count: The enrollment snapshot taken on the fourteenth day of school — August 28 this year. School budgets and staffing are reconciled to it.
Consent agenda: A block of items passed in one vote with no discussion, unless a board member asks for an item to be pulled.
Piggyback: Buying off a contract another government already competitively bid, instead of running a Lee County bid.
Proration: When the state’s total student count exceeds what it budgeted, every district’s per-student funding is reduced to fit.

Sources

All board meeting coverage