St. Lucie school board approves 2025-26 millage rates and $1.136 billion budget

On Sept. 9 the St. Lucie County School Board, at its regular meeting and final budget hearing, approved final millage rates for the 2025-26 fiscal year and adopted a final budget of $1,135,616,094. CFO Michelle Thomas presented the final figures and the millage proposal before the board voted. Thomas said the district must levy a required local effort of 3.048 mills and may levy up to a 1.0 mill voted operating levy, a 0.748 discretionary operating millage and a 1.5 mill discretionary local capital improvement levy; she presented a proposed total millage of 6.296. The presentation included taxable value figures and a rollback calculation. Thomas said the rollback rate calculated to produce last year’s revenue on this year’s tax base was 5.9374 and that “the proposed rate is 6.04 greater than the rollback rate.” She also reported the additional voted 1 mill will generate roughly $48,000,000 for 2025-26 and, as required by law, is proportionately shared with charter schools. Board members approved each millage and the final budget by separate motions and unanimous votes. For the required local effort millage, discretionary operating millage, capital improvement millage, the additional voted 1 mill and the final budget, motions were made by board member Ingersoll and seconded by board member Holly; each measure passed 5-0. Public comment before the votes included residents and union representatives who urged attention to affordability and staff compensation. Resident Joe Lowry said meeting times at 5 p.m. prevent working people from participating and urged coordination among taxing entities to reduce millage burdens. Union representatives described staffing shortages and low pay for clerical staff, bus aides and other support employees and asked the board to acknowledge state funding gaps and prioritize equitable compensation and affordable insurance. Laura Lividestema, speaking for the Education Association of St. Lucie, said support staff had been left out of some state funding flows; Melissa Kozlowski described retention and recruitment challenges and said some support staff face food insecurity. The board’s approval finalizes the district’s revenue and appropriation plan for 2025-26 and keeps the district’s collection assumption at 96 percent, the same rate the CFO said the district collected last year. The resolutions approving Trim A, Trim B and Trim C were adopted as presented.