The Fort Mill School Board convened for a special called meeting following a sudden shift in state funding projections that left local administrators racing to reconcile a million-dollar deficit ahead of the upcoming fiscal year.
The budgetary shakeup began after the South Carolina Department of Education distributed Senate budget projections to school districts statewide on Tuesday, May 19, 2026. The Fort Mill School District initially utilized those figures to build its formal budget recommendation during a regularly scheduled board meeting that same evening.
However, on Thursday, May 21, state education officials notified districts that the original projections contained significant calculation errors. State administrators cited three primary areas where the accounting faltered:
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Errors regarding Limestone transfer figures associated with Erskine.
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Discrepancies in new school enrollment data.
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Computational mistakes regarding fiscal year 2025–2026 “Hold Harmless” calculations.
The state department has since corrected and reposted the projected allocations, but the recalculation carries financial consequences for the local community.
Under the state’s corrected calculations, the Fort Mill School District faces a sharp funding decrease of $1,041,723 from the previous state estimate. More critically, this revised figure places the district into a funding loss of $590,391 below its current 2025–2026 General Fund Budget operating levels.
In response to the state-level reduction, Assistant Superintendent Mrs. Leanne Lordo shared updated information and administrative recommendations to ensure the 2026–2027 General Fund Budget remains fully funded.
To bridge the gap, district administration recommended a 10.5 mill increase to cover all remaining budget items. To protect local taxpayers from absorbing the full weight of that adjustment, the district plans to offset the increase by utilizing a 2 mill reduction in debt service millage, resulting in a net increase of 8.5 mills.
According to district officials, this strategy maintains the total net millage rate recommended in the previous calculation. The 8.5 mill net increase will apply strictly to businesses, rental properties, and vehicle taxes. Concurrently, the operational structure of the plan will provide a tax decrease to owner-occupied homes, which do not pay millage toward the school district’s General Fund Budget.
The school district will host a formal public meeting to discuss the revised budget proposal beginning at 6:00 PM on Tuesday, June 2, 2026. The public forum will take place immediately prior to the regular school board meeting, during which administrators will officially submit the final budget to the board for review and approval.
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