School board hosts budget public hearing today

The Manatee County School District will host its first public hearing on its 2013-14 fiscal year budget today.

At 1.p.m. at 215 Manatee Avenue W., the public can comment on the $565 million budget, which is tentative. 

The district released a line-item budget, a 417-page document broken down by individual school, Aug. 23.

See the budget at http://www.manatee.k12.fl.us/hot_topics/pdfs/budget_2013-2014/Line_Item_Detail_Budget.pdf. 

The document does not contain comparisons to last year’s budget.

District staff has said last year’s budget has no validity in that it contained errors and appropriated money that didn’t exist. 

The district suffered a $6.3 million deficit last year. 

Today’s public hearing is not required by the state, but Superintendent Rick Mills has made transparency a priority in his first go-around with the budget.

The board will vote to adopt the budget Sept. 9. 

Contact Josh Siegel at [email protected].