ORLANDO, Fla. — Orange County Public Schools approved a nearly $8 billion budget this year, with funding aimed at teacher and employee pay, student services, school safety, health insurance and capital projects.
The budget is about $374 million more than the district previously worked with.
A large share is going to the district’s general fund, which serves as its operating budget, while nearly $4 billion is designated for capital projects, including renovations and debt service.
School board members raised questions about the budget as the district faces declining enrollment and higher health care costs.
Some of the conversations revolved around positions that were eliminated, which Superintendent Maria Vazquez said were vacant.
“Over the last several years, even though we’ve had declining enrollment, we have not adjusted our district level support,” Vazquez said. “We’ve kept the same regardless of the several thousand students that we’ve lost. So we did do those adjustments to staffing this go around.”
The budget was approved by all board members present. The board also approved a new millage rate of 6.3 to support the spending plan.