School board to collect over $6,000 per Santa Rosa student in 2008
BY PAM BRANNON Gulf Breeze News news@gulfbreezenews.com

If everything goes as planned for the Santa Rosa School District for the rest of this school year, the district's fund balance - or money left over at the end of the school year after all the expenses are paid - will be about 5.02 percent of the budget, according to a report presented to the district's new Budget Task Force and at the school board meeting last week.

That is the lowest fund balance the school district has registered since 2001, right after 9/11 hit and the Florida economy took a hit. Going back to the 1999-2000 school year, most years fund balances for the district have been between 8 percent to just over 10 percent of the school year's budget.

"If we have an emergency, like a hurricane or bad storm, those fund balances help keep our schools open and get the repairs done," School Superintendent John Rogers explained.

The report presented by Assistant Superintendent in charge of Finance for the school district Doug Dillon shows that as of Feb. 13, the total budget for this school year of the district is just over $297.6 million. The operating funds make up 68 percent of that budget, with debt service adding up to 2 percent, and capital outlay for new construction making up 21 percent, and special revenues adding up to 9 percent. Rogers explained that special revenues includes money from the state for projects like Title I and the school district's contracted food service.

The transportation and other contracted services make up 8 percent of the operating budget, adding up to just over $16.3 million this school year. Salaries and employee benefits add up to just over $144.6 million, or 75 percent of the operating budget.

The school district this school year is employing 1,851 teachers, or 68 percent of the district's employees, which is an increase of 53 teachers from the 2006-07 school year.

There are 95 administrators, which include those in the administrator intern program, and that is three more than last year and adds up to 3 percent of the district's employees. And the blue collar employees number 807 this year, which is 19 more than the 2006-07 school year. "These numbers are for strictly the school board employees, not the employees of the contracted companies," Rogers pointed out.

Dillon explained that one problem the district faces is the state mandated programs, and ear marking where state money has to be spent. "We do not have a lot of flexibility in how we spend our dollars here in Santa Rosa County. We may have other needs here that counties in the south do not have, yet the state does not allow us to decide if we really need to spend X amount of dollars in one particular area. That hurts us," Dillon said. "They even tell us how much millage we have to levy, IF we want state funds."

"And in some counties one mill will bring a lot more money than it does here. It depends on property values and the amount of property within a county as to what one mill will bring," Dillon said.

The report shows, for example, that based on certified tax rolls this year, Santa Rosa this year generates $377 per mill. Santa Rosa County has 25,103 students and the state has set the millage rate for the district to levy at .510 mills.Yet in other counties, the same one mill will raise much more money, as in Monroe County, in the south, where one mill raises $3,571 per student and in Franklin, where one mill raises $3,387 per mill per student. In fact, 11 of Florida's 67 school districts raise over $1,000 per mill, and 24 more districts bring in more than $500 per mill.

The overall state funding combined with tax revenues from millage per student for Santa Rosa County School District for this school year is $6,875. For Escambia County the funding per student this year is $6,953, and in Okaloosa County funding adds up to $7,066. Walton County brings in $7,612 per student, and Bay County gets $7,129 per student.