Next fiscal year’s funding for budgeted expenses, which begins July 1, from the Florida Education Finance Program, along with transfers to this year’s general fund and a balance the district is required to carry, is $959.3 million. The 2020-2021 total budgeted expenses were $933 million.
For the first time in more than a decade and after several years of begging by School Board member Lynn Wilson and school district lobbyist Wendy Dodge the Florida Legislature did not roll back the millage tax rate amount Polk County Public Schools is required to contribute. This year, taxpayers will provide $166.2 million, compared to last year’s $158.5 million.
Friday, May 14, 2021 - 5:54 pm
Correction: An earlier version of this story said Massena would be be increaseing the tax levy, in fact the levy will remain flat. North Country This Week regrets the error.
BY MATT LINDSEY
North Country This Week
Budgets, elections and propositions will be voted on May 18 at all St. Lawrence County schools . Below is a list of schools in the area that includes budget information and voting day details.
Potsdam Central School District
Potsdam Central School District voters will be asked to approve a $35,815,351 budget for the 2021-22 school year the includes a 1.58% tax levy increase and raises $14,167,364 for the district.
LAKELAND Incoming Polk County Public Schools Superintendent Frederick Heid was on the job Wednesday afternoon as he transitions into the position after the School Board voted 5-1 Tuesday night to approve his contract.
School Board member Lynn Wilson did not attend the meeting because he is self-quarantining with COVID-19 symptoms. Kay Fields was the lone dissenting vote.
Her opposition, she said, was not against Heid she successfully lobbied her colleagues to vote unanimously for him but that his $255,000 salary is $17,000 more than outgoing Superintendent Jacqueline Byrd’s $238,000 salary.
“I believe wholeheartedly in gender equity,” Fields said. “It sends a very poor message in my part of the world to have an incoming male making more than a departing female.”
This story has been updated to correct Superintendent Jacqueline Byrd s salary, which is $238,000, not $237,000.
BARTOW – Incoming Polk County Public Schools Superintendent Frederick Heid said he wants to be treated like any other school administrator when it comes to salary and health insurance.
The Polk County School Board will vote on Heid’s contract at Tuesday night’s board meeting, which includes a salary of $255,000 and health insurance for Heid, but not his wife and son he will cover the cost for their insurance just like school employees do for spouses and children.
“I’ll pay for it – I pay for it now,” Heid said during a Monday morning phone call. “It’s something I’m accustomed to. It’s a fairness – you re modeling (behavior). I m not better than anyone else in the organization.”