ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. — New details are emerging about how Orange County Public Schools plans to absorb an $8.5 million budget cut and whether teachers and staff could be losing their jobs.
OCPS sent out a memo to staff members on Thursday, warning them that the cuts will soon be made at the district level.
Officials say OCPS is down about 8,000 students this year — a drop the district attributes to declining birth rates, low housing turnover, and the state’s voucher program. Fewer students means less state funding, and combined with a healthcare trust losing $20 million a month, the district says it has no choice but to cut $8.5 million.
Individual schools will have their budgets recalculated based on enrollment — a process the district says could take a couple of weeks to finalize.
“Right now, there is not a mass layoff situation expected,” says District 6 OCPS board member Stephani Vanos. “The district actually budgeted very conservatively last year, used its own numbers for projection instead of the state’s numbers. And thankfully, they did that because they were much closer in estimating what would be needed this year. What I really expect to happen is just a shifting of teachers and staff to where students are so that students can be best served.”
Although enrollment numbers are dwindling, Vanos says no schools will close or consolidate this year, but it could be a possibility as early as winter or spring next year.
“We want to make sure that our students have all of the resources they need, and we wouldn’t want to cut so many teachers or services at a school,” says Vanos. “It would be more beneficial to students to really consolidate so that they have the greatest number of services and support that they need.”
OCPS’ next school board meeting is set for September 8th.
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