{"id":394737,"date":"2026-09-09T13:00:11","date_gmt":"2026-09-09T13:00:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/394737\/"},"modified":"2026-09-09T13:00:11","modified_gmt":"2026-09-09T13:00:11","slug":"orange-county-public-schools-cuts-400-million-in-spending","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/394737\/","title":{"rendered":"Orange County Public Schools cuts $400 million in spending"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Orange County School Board approved its annual budget Tuesday evening, a spending package that is $400 million smaller than last year\u2019s and could mean layoffs are coming as the district grapples with the impacts of declining enrollment.<\/a><\/p>\n

Though Florida hiked per-student funding this year, that increase doesn\u2019t offset the loss of almost 8,000 students \u2014 and the subsequent drop in state money \u2014 or the higher prices of bus transportation and school food this year, officials said.<\/p>\n

The district said last week that it is trying to avoid laying off teachers but with the enrollment loss almost double what was projected, some instructors could lose their jobs. In a memo to staff and families, OCPS said last Wednesday it needed to cut even more than planned<\/a>\u00a0from its already leaner $5.78 billion budget because its enrollment was down by more than 7,600 students.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is a very trying time. It is a very difficult time for our district,\u201d said Superintendent Maria Vazquez at Tuesday\u2019s meeting.<\/p>\n

OCPS operates more than 200 schools and enrolls about 170,000 students. This year\u2019s enrollment losses are concentrated in elementary and middle schools, so the district slashed about $42 million from elementary school budgets and $16 million from middle school budgets, documents show.<\/p>\n

Principals submitted revised budgets for their schools to the district on Tuesday, but they will not be finalized until Sept. 17, according to a timeline the district sent to the teacher\u2019s union.<\/p>\n

The bulk of a school\u2019s budgets pays for teachers\u2019 salaries, and many school principals chose not to fill positions this summer as they waited to see what enrollment would be when classes started in August, Vazquez said. But others were not as conservative with hiring.<\/p>\n

Clinton McCracken, the president of the district\u2019s teachers union, said the superintendent needs to look at cutting spending at district headquarters not on school campuses.<\/p>\n

\u201cBudgets reveal priorities. If students truly come first, start looking for savings farthest from those students,\u201d McCracken said.<\/p>\n

District officials blame declining birth rates, the popularity of Florida\u2019s state-funded voucher program \u2014 which provides scholarships for private schools or homeschooling services \u2014 and the country\u2019s immigration crackdown for the smaller number of students now attending public schools.<\/p>\n

Students who use vouchers essentially take their per-pupil funding with them, and this year that equates to a loss of another $34 million, OCPS officials said.<\/p>\n

Board member Stephanie Vanos said the funding cuts to school budgets prompt a cycle where schools aren\u2019t equipped to best serve students, causing parents to leave public schools which in turn causes more funding cuts.<\/p>\n

\u201cNot having the funding that we need in a school directly impacts the experiences that people have in the school,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

To save money, the district will reduce spending on \u201cfacilities acquisition and construction\u201d by about $467 million. OCPS closed seven schools last year because of declining enrollment and also decided to pause new school construction for at least the next five years.<\/p>\n

The district\u2019s budget, though leaner than last year\u2019s, benefits from its one-mill referendum tax, which is projected to bring in $255 million this year, said Judith Padres, the district\u2019s senior executive director of the office of management and budget.<\/p>\n

The referendum tax is up for renewal in November, and if it doesn\u2019t pass, the district would need \u201csignificant reductions to staffing, programs and services,\u201d\u00a0she said.<\/p>\n

The Legislature has put a statewide proposal on that same ballot that would eliminate some property taxes, and OCPS officials fear it will make Orange voters unwilling to support the local tax that has passed easily in past years.<\/p>\n

Board member Angie Gallo said the district should look into ways to lessen its reliance on that voter-approved funding.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are way too reliant on that millage right now. If we were to lose the millage \u2026 it\u2019s going to be like a gut punch to this district,\u201d Gallo said.<\/p>\n

Vazquez agreed, saying losing the one-mill referendum would be \u201ccatastrophic\u201d to the district\u2019s finances.<\/p>\n

The statewide ballot proposal, called Amendment 3, shields schools from those cuts, but could still impact their budgets. Officials are worried, for example, that it will leave law enforcement agencies with less money and, therefore, mean more of the cost of putting officers in schools will be shifted to OCPS.<\/p>\n

If Amendment 3 is approved by voters, \u201cthere is no way that this does not cost us millions of dollars,\u201d said board member Maria Salamanca.<\/p>\n

The district is also struggling to afford its share of employee health insurance benefits, which tally $20 million a month.<\/p>\n

This year, the district is pushing for a new healthcare model in an effort to alleviate a potential, and \u201cunsustainable,\u201d $145 million budget shortfall. But the teachers union says the district\u2019s healthcare proposal passes much of the burden on to teachers, and that most employees would end up taking home less money because they\u2019d pay far more for insurance.<\/p>\n

The two sides remain at an impasse<\/a> over the insurance issue.<\/p>\n

Vazquez said passing on some of the cost increases was unavoidable.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve looked under so many rocks. We have evaluated different plans. We\u2019ve looked at different structures. There is no way around it. We are in a deficit when it comes to insurance,\u201d Vazquez said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Orange County School Board approved its annual budget Tuesday evening, a spending package that is $400 million…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":394738,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[113,114,266,115,139,141,140,109],"class_list":["post-394737","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-orlando","tag-education","tag-latest-headlines","tag-local-news","tag-news","tag-orlando","tag-orlando-headlines","tag-orlando-news","tag-social"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/394737","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=394737"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/394737\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/394738"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=394737"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=394737"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=394737"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}