The School District of Palm Beach County Packet Summary — 2026-08-28
Meeting: Independent Referendum Oversight Committee - Aug 28 2026
The Independent Referendum Oversight Committee (IROC) packet centers on the year-end FY2026 report for voter-approved referendum funding and a resolution supporting continuation of the School District's 1 mill plan. The materials provide detailed reporting on referendum revenue and spending for teacher compensation, fine arts and career programs, mental-health services, school security, and charter schools.
Key Items on the Agenda
FY2026 Fourth-Quarter Referendum Report
The packet includes IROC's fourth-quarter year-to-date expenditure report covering July 1, 2025 through June 30, 2026. The report identifies $361.4 million in FY2026 referendum revenue and $15.9 million in prior-year carryover, for $377.3 million in total referendum resources.
The report separates funding between District-operated schools and charter schools:
- District revenue share: $319.3 million
- Charter-school revenue share: $42.1 million
- District prior-year carryover: $8.7 million
- Charter prior-year carryover: $7.2 million
- District referendum resources: $327.9 million
- Charter referendum resources: $49.3 million
The report lists $369.3 million in total reported expenditures, consisting of approximately $329.7 million in District expenses and $39.6 million in charter-school expenses. It reports no District carryover and approximately $9.7 million in estimated charter-school carryforward.
How District Referendum Funding Was Used
Teacher Pay and Supplements
Teacher compensation represents the largest District expenditure category in the report. District year-to-date teacher-pay expenses total approximately $188.8 million.
The detailed report identifies:
- $123.8 million for teacher supplements, including benefits, associated with 12,813 teachers.
- $65 million for a teacher pay increase.
The packet's minutes from the committee's May 8 meeting provide additional background, noting that referendum-funded supplements included $1,000, $5,000, and $10,000 tiers and that the $65 million pay-increase amount included an additional $10 million following an impasse hearing.
Fine Arts, Choice and Career Programs
District year-to-date spending in the fine-arts category totals approximately $91.6 million and supports 1,000.3 FTE positions reported across several programs.
The expenditure detail includes:
- Elementary art: $9.9 million and 112.0 FTE.
- Elementary music: $10.8 million and 127.0 FTE.
- Elementary physical education: $11.7 million and 128.5 FTE.
- Choice programs: $35.7 million and 411.8 FTE.
- Career academies: $18.9 million and 221.0 FTE.
- Musical instrument repair and supplies: $1.8 million.
- Band Pilot Program: approximately $978,500.
- Art, PE, choice and vocational program supplies: approximately $1.8 million.
Mental Health Services
District year-to-date mental-health expenditures total approximately $22.1 million, with the report identifying 268.0 FTE across the reported programs.
Major components include:
- Health services: $13.2 million and 175.0 FTE.
- Psychological services: $4.0 million and 42.0 FTE.
- Guidance counselors: $2.7 million and 27.0 FTE.
- CAPE teams: $2.0 million and 24.0 FTE.
- ESOL guidance counselors: approximately $97,300.
The packet provides school-level detail for mental-health professionals at elementary, middle and high schools, as well as services at several other schools and programs.
School Safety and Security
District year-to-date security expenditures total approximately $27.3 million. The report includes spending on personnel, recurring security systems, and one-time projects.
Reported expenditures include:
- School monitors and police aides: $3.6 million and 92.9 FTE.
- School police officers: $7.84 million.
- School police officer pay increase: $1.5 million.
- Additional security allocation: $4.8 million.
- Recurring security projects: $4.45 million.
- One-time security projects: $5.17 million.
Recurring projects include the Universal Student ID program, Centegix Crisis Alert System, LightSpeed software, GeoComm mapping, radio fees, school police rovers, fencing, metal detectors, and metal-detector personnel. One-time projects include approximately $4.97 million for school police radios, along with spending for metal detectors, lockdown security shades, and school police vehicles.
Charter-School Referendum Funding
The packet contains extensive school-by-school reporting for charter schools receiving referendum funds. The summary identifies $42.1 million in FY2026 referendum revenue and approximately $7.18 million in FY2025 carryover, producing approximately $49.3 million in available charter referendum resources.
Reported FY2026 charter expenditures total approximately $39.6 million, allocated among the referendum's authorized categories:
- Teacher supplements: approximately $12.95 million.
- Fine arts and related programs: approximately $15.05 million.
- Mental health: approximately $4.19 million.
- Security: approximately $7.39 million.
- Charter-school administrative fee: approximately $723,100.
The report identifies approximately $9.73 million in unexpended or unreported FY2026 charter funds carried forward. Individual charter-school reports provide revenue, prior-year rollover, expenditures, staffing information, and remaining balances.
Incomplete Charter Reports
The packet separately identifies three charter schools with incomplete Quarter 4 expenditure reports:
- Palm Beach Preparatory Academy MS
- Olympus International Academy
- Florida Futures Academy North
The document associates approximately $905,407 in expenditures with these incomplete reports.
Proposed Support for the 1 Mill Plan
A resolution included in the packet proposes that the Independent Referendum Oversight Committee endorse the School District of Palm Beach County 1 Mill Plan. The resolution describes continuation of the 1 mill referendum on the November 2026 ballot as the funding mechanism for the programs it identifies.
The resolution states that continuation of the plan is intended to support:
- More than 900 existing art, music, PE, health, choice, and career-education teachers without affecting existing teaching staff levels.
- Additional certified law-enforcement officers and school-safety equipment.
- School counselors, psychologists, mental-health professionals, and behavioral-health professionals.
- Teacher-retention salary supplements averaging $8,000 annually per teacher.
- Eligible public charter schools through a proportionate share based on total school-district enrollment, as described in the resolution.
The packet's resolution is written as an endorsement by IROC and bears an August 28, 2026 approval date. Because the materials are being summarized as a meeting packet, the resolution is best understood as the proposed committee action contained in the materials rather than evidence, by itself, of what occurred during the meeting.
Prior Committee Business
The packet also includes minutes from the May 8, 2026 IROC meeting. Those minutes document that seven committee members were present, constituting a quorum; no public comment was received; and minutes from the February 27, 2026 meeting were approved unanimously.
At that earlier meeting, staff presented the third-quarter referendum report for the period ending March 31, 2026. The minutes listed August 28 and November 13, 2026 as future IROC meeting dates.
What to Watch at the Meeting
The packet places two issues at the center of the committee's oversight role:
- FY2026 year-end performance: The fourth-quarter report provides the committee with a detailed accounting of how referendum revenue was distributed across teacher compensation, fine arts and career programs, mental-health services, security, and charter schools.
- Continuation of referendum funding: The proposed resolution connects those programs to continuation of the 1 mill referendum on the November 2026 ballot and calls for IROC to endorse the District's 1 Mill Plan.
The charter-school reporting is another notable oversight area. The packet reports approximately $9.7 million in charter carryforward and separately identifies three charter schools with incomplete fourth-quarter expenditure reports.
Official public-body source: The School District of Palm Beach County
Official Meeting Source URL: https://palmbeachschools-org.community.diligentoneplatform.com/Portal/MeetingInformation.aspx?Org=Cal&id=2841
Provider: boarddocs
Provider Meeting ID: 2841
Civic Translator summarized publicly available meeting materials provided through the official public-body source.
