You Shouldn't Have to Take the District's Word for It

Here are the numbers, and the questions to ask.

By Ali Olivo · September 24, 2026

This month, Superintendent Denise Carlin told Gulf Coast News that the school budget cuts parents saw in the spring weren't the real cuts. The spring figures, she said, were "the projected dollar amount that they were going to be losing." Once students actually enrolled, she said, the numbers changed. According to the station, Cypress Lake High, projected to lose $1.1 million, ultimately lost a few hundred thousand dollars. Then, they flashed up a document that they purportedly sent to principals in the spring. That spreadsheet is titled “School DRA/CSR Budget Comparison, FY26 to FY27” and appears to list the 84 district-operated schools (excluding special centers like the Buckingham Exceptional School, Success Academy, and Early Childhood Learning Services). The spreadsheet lists the proposed budget cut offset by $6,196,208 of allocated bridge funding.

Maybe so. But none of those final numbers have been published. Not for Cypress Lake, and not for any other school. So parents are being asked to take her word for it. The Superintendent said in the Gulf Coast interview that the reason the cuts were not as deep as anticipated in the spring is because the students showed up. We asked the district to provide the 14-day counts that were provided to the Board weeks ago. The public should know if the budget cuts are lower than anticipated in the spring, is that driven by additional bridge funds, higher enrollment, or a mix of factors? You shouldn't have to take anyone's word for it, hers or mine. So here is what the one document we do have actually shows, and every number in it is one you can check.

What the spring page shows

In the spring, principals received a page listing every traditional school's DRA/CSR budget for this year and its projection for next year. It lists the 84 district-operating schools excluding special centers.

Parents for Transparency entered all 84 schools into a spreadsheet. The totals match the page's own totals to the cent.

The youngest students take the deepest cuts. In the spring projections, elementary school budgets fall 6.4 percent, middle school budgets 6.3 percent, and high school budgets 3.8 percent. This isn't an average being skewed by a few schools. The typical elementary school was projected to lose 6.3 percent, and the typical high school 1.8 percent.

The bottom line isn't the real cut. The page's total says school budgets fall $25.3 million. Add up the budgets themselves and the drop is $31.5 million. The difference is $6.2 million in something called "bridge funding," which the page adds back into each school's figure before calculating the difference. It's printed right there in its own column. But the number at the bottom of the page is the cut after the cushion, not the cut itself.

The cushion is temporary

We have asked whether the bridge funding will be available next year and await a response. If in fact, the bridge funding is for one-year only, the $6.2 million cushion disappears after this year, and the 43 schools that received it so far face their full projected cut.

The superintendent herself pointed to The Sanibel School as one the bridge fund helped. On the spring page, Sanibel's projected cut is $102,824 with bridge money. Without it, the cut is $634,396, or 26 percent of the school's budget. Pine Island Elementary goes from a projected gain of $125,755 to a loss of $386,462. Manatee Elementary and Lehigh Senior High both appear to gain money this year. Neither does once the bridge money is gone.

So the question isn't only what schools get this year. It's what they're left with next year.

The cushion isn't evenly shared

The superintendent has described the bridge fund as help for smaller schools, and the station reported it at $10 million. The spring page shows $6.2 million handed out.

High schools, the largest schools in the district by budget, received 30 percent of that money. Middle schools, which are cut nearly as deeply as elementary schools, received 8 percent. There may be a reason for that split. Nobody has given one.

What I think

The superintendent has said the district is correcting years of allocations that drifted away from actual enrollment. If enrollment is why elementary and middle schools are losing more, that's a fair argument to make, and an easy one to prove. Show us the enrollment.

But I'd argue that if cuts have to fall somewhere, they should fall last on the grades where children learn to read, where class sizes matter most, and where a lost teacher or aide is felt by the smallest people in the building. That's a values judgment. The board should be making it in public, with real numbers in front of it.

My oldest child graduated from a public elementary school. This was a school hit disproportionately hard by the new budget allocation process because it is a small school that lost its small school funding and cannot grow beyond a certain size. I made the difficult decision to move my child to private school for middle school - a challenge even the school district has admitted they are focusing on. There are a number of parents who have similarly moved their children to my child’s school from one public middle school due to concerns. If the Superintendent is to be believed, the updated “School DRA/CSR Budget Comparison, FY26 to FY27” should show smaller base cuts to certain schools like Cypress Lake Senior High School because the students showed up, it may show additional bridge funding awarded - they had about $4 million left to allocate -, and other schools like the school I mentioned as having a larger cut to their base.

Questions to ask the district

If your child attends a Lee County public school, these are worth asking. You can email the board at BoardOffice@leeschools.net or speak during public comment at a board meeting.

• What is my school's final FY27 DRA/CSR allocation, and how does it compare to the spring projection?
• Is bridge funding one-time? If so, what will my school's budget be next year without it?
• The bridge fund was reported at $10 million, but the spring page shows $6.2 million. Where did the rest go?
• Why did high schools receive 30 percent of bridge funding while middle schools received 8 percent?
• Why were elementary and middle schools projected to lose a larger share of their budgets than high schools? Will the district publish enrollment by school so parents can see for themselves?
• Will the district publish final allocations for every school, with bridge funding shown separately?

Check our work

You don't have to trust us either. The full spreadsheet, with every school, every figure, and the method we used, is here. If you find a mistake, tell us and we'll correct it publicly.

The spreadsheet

All 84 schools from the spring page, every figure, and the method. Open it and check.

• Lee County 26-27 Budget Document FY26 to FY27 DRA/CSR budgets for 84 schools, bridge funding, totals by school level, and the classification log.

That's the standard I'd like the district to meet too.

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