The Gainesville City School Board held its first of two public hearings for its tentative FY2026 budget Monday night.
The current tentative budget predicts total expenditures of just over $110 million. The school system currently plans to adopt a rollback millage rate of 6.092 mills. From 2022 to 2024, the millage rate consistently stayed at 6.195 mills. During the meeting, GCSS Superintendent Jeremy Williams explained the system will see increased costs for the current fiscal year due to state mandates requiring additional funding for health insurance and retirement.
“Health insurance increase is now up to a cost to us of $22,620 per employee,” Williams said. “That's a $1.22 million increase as a district.”
The mandates will also increase employer contributions for teacher retirement from 20.78% to 21.91%, which will, in turn, raise the costs by $625,000.
“We are saving about $500,000 due to absorbing a couple of district positions, but also some other non-classroom positions across the district,” Williams said during the meeting.
Williams also said GCSS’s anticipated revenue sits just under $109.5 million, meaning the school system anticipates using roughly half a million dollars from its reserves. Still, the system should remain financially stable overall.
Williams says that because the board plans to adopt the rollback rate of 6.092 mills, hearings are not required. The second public hearing for the tentative budget will be held on Monday, August 18 at 5 p.m. at the Gainesville Public Safety Complex.
http://accesswdun.com/article/2025/8/1296244/gainesville-city-schools-board-of-education-holds-first-fy2026-budget-hearing