Facing $17M deficit, SCPS mulls losing teachers, classes

Seminole County Public Schools enrollment continues to decline and the school system faces a nearly $17 million budget deficit for the current year — and SCPS is not renewing teacher contracts to help offset the costs. 

For the end of the 2024-25 year, SCPS recently saw a drop in enrollment, from a projected 63,501 students at the beginning of the year to 61,921, a drop of 1,579 students. School enrollment is a key metric in public school funding.

“Unfortunately, that adds to the deficit,” SCPS Chief Financial Officer John Pavelchak told board members at an April 8 budget meeting. “Our deficit right now is $16.7 million.” 

The enrollment drop continues a multi-year trend, as a state law allowing scholarships for private schools grows and birth rates continue to slow. The drops could mean fewer people working at Seminole County Public Schools, one of the largest employers in the county. 

“Just based on the reduction in students, the instructional and support staff will be reduced for the 2025-26 school year to align with the enrollment shifts,” Pavelchak said. “Those changes will primarily be managed by attrition or reassignment to minimize disruption.”

Seminole Education Association president Thomas Bugos II said 187 teachers have received non-renewal notices this year. Some of those were due to certification issues — meaning the teachers would not have been eligible to return anyway. And it’s less than the roughly 450 teachers who weren’t renewed last year.

But, in general, Bugos said SCPS needs to adapt to the new realities of school choice and scholarships. 

“We’re no longer the only players in the game now,” Bugos said. “We have to do everything we can to promote our schools, and show that public schools have the best outcomes and best resources. We are not doing that.”

Oviedo Community News obtained the budget documents and audio of the budget hearing through a public records request. You can download the Seminole County Public Schools budget presentation here:

And you can listen to the audio below. 

Florida began offering scholarships in 2023 for people to attend private schools, regardless of income. The Family Empowerment Scholarships to attend private schools in Seminole County have been steadily growing, while traditional enrollment has been dropping. 

Private school enrollment growth is on the rise

CrossLife Christian Academy in Oviedo is growing. 

The school opened last year, and currently has 55 students enrolled in kindergarten through second grade. Next year, the school already has 105 students registered, and will be adding third grade. 

The private Christian school costs about $10,500 per year now, not counting books and registration fees. But every student coming to the school gets a voucher for up to $8,000 to help cover the costs. 

Founder and principal Andrew Dees said it took a year to get the program up and licensed after the voucher program was approved. 

“We will add a grade level every consecutive year after that,” Dees said. “This gives the family the opportunity to pick and choose what they like to do. I think it’s no different from picking a college.” 

Oviedo mayor: ‘The only thing left for public schools is the dregs’

Oviedo Mayor Megan Sladek has had two older children go through Seminole County Public Schools, and her youngest is scheduled to start kindergarten next year. She’s enrolled her child in SCPS again. 

But she said she hears from parents who are opting for private school instead. 

“This is a disaster for the schools,” Sladek said. “The only thing left for public schools is the dregs (of funding). I do not know how long they can go with this level of attrition.”

For those doing homeschooling, annual passes for theme parks can be qualified expenses as field trips. She said the voucher program is essentially a $7,500 “coupon” to make private school affordable. 

She said vouchers allow people to more easily self-segregate into philosophical and economic silos.

“But is enabling that a good thing?” Sladek asked.

She said lawmakers need to consider if this is the intended outcome of the voucher program. Another wild card for the coming year: Florida lawmakers are considering cuts to the funding levels school boards get for Advanced Placement courses. Those cuts were the subject of recent demonstrations in front of the Seminole County school board. 

HB 5101 would cut the extra reimbursement school boards get by half for students who earn a passing score or certificate from the following programs: Advanced Placement (AP), International Baccalaureate (IB), Advanced International Certificate Education (AICE), dual enrollment, and CAPE courses or earn an AP Capstone, AICE, or IB diploma.

“Are we concerned? Yes,” SCPS School Board Chair Kristine Kraus said. “We’re mission focused and we’ll always strive to provide the best for our kids.”

Kraus said she’s hopeful the school board will be able to manage the cuts. That could mean that some AP courses that don’t have enough enrollment could be cut, though. 

“I don’t want that to happen, clearly,” Kraus said. “We want to offer every opportunity for our students. We just don’t know what that looks like, based on enrollment and what the legislature ultimately decides.”

But there’s been no talk of drastic actions, like closing schools. 

“There’s been no discussion about closing any schools behind the scenes,” Kraus said. “I haven’t heard any discussions like that.”

School year	Seminole County Public Schools traditional enrollment by year	Students getting Family Empowerment Scholarships to attend private schools or homeschool in Seminole County
2022-23	60,815	3,517
2023-24	59,657	6,166*
2024-25	58,056	9,437

Elementary grades hit hardest by enrollment drops

The drops in enrollment are hitting the younger grades harder than the older grades. 

According to data presented to the board, kindergarten through third grade classes are 3.4% less than projected, while ninth through 12th grade is 1.5% less. 

Grade	Projected enrollment
Kindergarten through third grade	3.4% less than projected
Fourth through eighth grade	2.7% less than projected
Ninth through 12th grade	1.5% less than projected

The number of students projected to get scholarships is expected to grow, but then level off. 

“We do have the projection from the Department of Education as to what they’re projecting for us next year: it’s 11,759, a 24% increase,”  Pavelchak said. “The projection … is that it will flatten out after this next year.”

As a result, the unassigned fund balance — think of it as Seminole County Public Schools’ cash savings account — is dropping. The district went from having $65.5 million in reserves to $55.8 million in reserves in the 2024-25 budget. Kraus said part of that reduction is because the school district is paying $30.6 million this year to pay off bond debt early. 

For the coming 2025-26 school year, school board staff are already talking about a 5% cut to discretionary budgets. 

“Sorry there wasn’t much in the way of good news there,” Pavelchak added as he finished his budget presentation.

In other counties, school board members have also pointed to declining birth rates as a factor in declining enrollments. Orange County Public Schools is paying a marketing firm $1,000 per student the firm enrolls. And Seminole County Public Schools is marketing to students who live outside Seminole County that there are open spots in its schools. 

“We have not discussed hiring an external marketing firm at this time,” Seminole County Public Schools communications officer Katherine Crnkovich wrote in an email. “We engage with our community and families in a variety of ways from events and our Student Success Express to our ambassador program and advertising our enrollment windows for magnet schools, programs of emphasis, and controlled open enrollment which is happening right now through May 15.”

Seminole County Public Schools will begin workshops on its 2025-26 budget on June 17, 2025. The board could ultimately adopt its 2025 budget at meetings on July 22, 2025 and September 16, 2025.