The Clay County School District has announced that it is reevaluating its spending in light of the fact that it may experience a budget shortfall of ten million dollars in the coming year.
The district has stated that it is attempting to handle a decrease in revenue as well as an increase in costs.
Although the district stated that there would be no layoffs, the Clay County Teachers Union stated that there will be reductions in staffing levels.
On May 27, members of the board participated in a workshop where they discussed the budget.
According to Superintendent David Broskie, there has been a decrease in enrollment, which is equivalent to approximately 500 students, as well as a decrease in revenue brought about by a few different sources, including the uncertainty brought about by the state budget.
A further factor that he mentioned was the rise in expenses.
It has been stated by school officials that they are giving students priority in the classroom. They are also working to reduce the impact on employees, and they will reduce the number of district staff members by a greater proportion than they will reduce the number of school staff members.
“With 82% of your budget is, in fact, employees and the state kind of hands you with what they’ve handed us, we’ve got to take action in order to ensure that at the end of next year, we can be in as good shape as we are at the end of this year and be able to meet all of our obligations at the end of the year,” Broskie stated.
According to him, their objective is to locate all of the affected employees within the district.
The following statement was posted on the school district’s website by Terri Dennis, who is the communications manager.
“The changes some staff members are experiencing are transfers due to necessary adjustments in allocations based on our projected budget for the 2025-2026 school year. Every employee has been offered a position per their contract language, and there have been no layoffs within the district. All schools will continue to have either a media center specialist or a media center technician on staff. Furthermore, elementary schools will still offer weekly media classes as part of their curriculum rotation. All students, from elementary to secondary levels, will maintain access to a fully staffed media center with either a specialist or technician present.”
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On the other hand, the district did confirm that all of the employees who were affected were offered a position, and that the new positions varied depending on the certification and qualifications of the employee.
There were a variety of positions that were impacted, including administrative and instructional support roles.
In addition, the district explained the reasons why the budget cuts were essential.
“Like several other school districts across Florida, our budget is being impacted by inflation, proration, an increase in state-funded vouchers, and the uncertainty of a state budget not yet being finalized,” Dennis stated.
