ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. — Orange County Public School officials say they are in limbo as they work to figure out their budget for the upcoming school year.

This comes as the state has yet to announce its budget for the year.

One challenge they face is figuring out how much funding the state and the federal government will allocate to the district.

Factors like declining student enrollment, under-utilized facilities and escalating healthcare costs have forced district leaders to make significant funding reductions across the board. 

During Tuesday’s work session, officials from multiple OCPS divisions discussed the 3% cuts they had to make within their own departments to avoid cutting teacher positions and to protect student services.

“The 3% amounted to approximately $8.3 million, but the general fund reductions that were reflected here totaled approximately $11.5 million,” explained OCPS Chief Financial Officer Doreen Concolino.

According to Concolino, the $8.3 million cut was part of the district’s 3% reduction.

However, she says that a number of the district’s departments ended up cutting more than was required, which amounted to $11.5 million.

A number of grant-funded positions were also cut, which District 6 School Board Member Stephanie Vanos confirmed was tied to the funding reductions from the federal government.

As a result of these cuts, district leaders talked about needing to explore innovative solutions to attract and retain students in schools.

Another area of concern that school leaders say could impact students is the funding gap from the state to pay for essential services like transportation.

Currently, they say the money allocated from the state and the federal government to cover transportation funding covers about 40% of the district’s needs.

“We’re given $32 million in our state allocation to cover transportation, but our costs were around $98 million. That’s a $65 million shortfall for that one categorical from the state. Then you’ve got SAFE schools’ allocation, that one’s short. All the categoricals add up to close to $100 million,” said District 7 School Board member Melissa Byrd.

The board is hoping to get more clarity on this following the special session in Tallahassee.

State lawmakers will return to the state capitol on May 12 to iron out the details of their budget.

In the meantime, school district budget discussions are expected to intensify in the coming weeks as they wait for a final budget from the state.