Superintendent Shanoff defends millage ballot referendum
He owned the report card.
And then he proposed a way to make the county’s schools a place to earn better grades.
At the State of Education event on Oct. 14, School District of Osceola County Superintendent Dr. Mark Shanoff told a gathering of local stakeholders about how the district came as close as it humanly, possibly could to earn a system-wide ‘A’ in the Florida Department of Education grading system for the previous year. Where 774 points were needed, Osceola earned … 773.4.
"I was pretty disappointed to say the least, and I'm still a little bit. It took me a while to get out of my own feels," he said. "But then I remembered that progress is not built on one year of effort, it's built on years of persistence and on people who refuse to accept predictable outcomes. Was it easy to make the gains our district has made over the last three years? Absolutely not. We face resistance. Sometimes it requires tough conversations. We made decisions that required backbone and were not always popular. It required our school board members and our team to lead from the front and not the back. We made the tough decisions along the way. Because progress is not convenient, it doesn't come fast enough or is ever good enough for our critics.
“Those who work in government leadership know what I'm talking about. But it is necessary to permeate the preferred choice in this industry, which is now much more competitive than it ever has been. In education gaps exist everywhere, such as between systems and outcomes between intention and impact over the last year, we minded our gaps, instead of ignoring them, we chose to confront them relentlessly.”
In 2025-26, Osceola County achieved its highest graduation rate in history at 91.1%, along with other positive metrics in achievement and acceleration rates — 3 out of 4 2026 graduates earned at least one college credit or accelerated credential.
"That demonstrated strong preparation for both secondary success by obtaining these college credits and industry credentials while still in high school so students and their families save money on college tuition and reduced the time. It takes to complete a graduation degree. The Class of 2026 earned more than a $140 million in academic scholarships," he said. "We built in-house academic data predictive models, and we have put powerful data in the hands of principals, teachers, and even the students themselves. We're asking harder questions of ourselves, my team can absolutely attest to the fact that the hard questions are being asked. That's how historic improvement has been earned."
Shanoff stood on the same Osceola Heritage Park Events Center podium where, two weeks prior at the State of the County Address, Osceola County Commission Chairman Brandon Arrington delivered a speech that laid out the impact of the passage of Amendment 3, which would drastically lower the property taxes Florida homeowners would pay to their local governments, on the county’s budget and in turn the impact on residents.
Using that stage, he provided the financial details of an operational millage referendum on the Nov. 3 general election ballot. Boiled down, the county would charge an additional $1 per $1,000 of the taxable value of a home within the school tax assessment on a home, the portion of property taxes that Amendment 3 would not affect.
It’s designed to stem the tide of cuts needed to ward off what Shanoff said would be a reduction of $100 million over the next four years from state and federal sources. Deep cuts have already been made in district programs and initiatives, and the district has spent down $20 million of reserve funds saved over the last decade in just the last three years.
Candidly, Shanoff discussed the millage referendum with the News-Gazette following the State of Education event.
“I wish we didn’t have to ask our residents for this,” he said.
The funds, which would be shared with charter schools and vetted by an oversight committee, would be earmarked for three sources: teacher salaries and retainment, campus security — namely the school resource officer program — and helping fund and maintain extracurricular programs.
Salaries: “We're not in the top third of central Florida districts in what we pay, but a lot of that has to do with the fact that most of these other districts have millage that they're able to use to help pay their teachers more. All we're trying to do is keep up with the Joneses.
He said the salary increases would be more than “a drop in the bucket” if voters opt to add that to their school property taxes.
The millage, according to figures quoted by Shanoff and confirmed with staff, would result in annual raises of $2,900-$9,800 for teachers, $1,300-$6,700 for support staff and $2,200-$11,000 for school administrators. Those figures would close a gap from Osceola’s starting teacher wage ($52,000) to the $62,000 Indian River County reportedly starts teachers.
“This is allowing our folks to pursue homeownership, spend more of their money in Osceola County,” Shanoff said. “Each departure means a new onboard, which comes with a cost. We're trying to give our community the best opportunity to be as competitive as any one of our surrounding school districts, because we believe that our kids are worth it, and we believe quite honestly that the community’ new economic developments are really going to demand a higher performing student and we have to be there to meet that challenge.”
The millage discussion in social media circles has included the scrutiny of administrative salaries like Shanoff’s ($309,200 according to 2024 payroll data).
“This is all I do. I have no hobbies. I sleep with my phone next to me, and it goes off in the middle of the night,” he said. “We’re not eligible to earn anything from the millage. We're out here trying to advocate to improve the quality of the work experience, the student experience and safety.”
Security and SROs: Having an armed security presence on campuses — law enforcement or private security — is mandated by the state’s Marjorie Stoneman Douglas Act that it's a school district responsibility.
"We have had a cost sharing agreement with the municipalities around the county. If Amendment 3 passes, they can no longer afford their share,” said Shanoff, who noted the School District’s share in that cost sharing agreement is paid for by a safe school allocation from state. “I don’t want to leave school security to chance regarding (the vote on) Amendment 3.”
"People tend to take for granted the fact that we have these law enforcement officers on our campuses, gathering intelligence, not just on issues at our schools but issues in our communities,” Shanoff said. “Being able to know certain things before certain things happen, I believe, is the transformative component of the (SRO) program, that we are actually maintaining the safety of our communities.”
Sports and extracurricular activities: Shanoff spoke of the rising costs of putting on athletic events, like officials pay, and materials to put on plays and shows.
"I don't want a scenario where we have to raise the cost of tickets just to compensate for the losses that are taking place, because the cost of everything continues to rise, something the millage really could help offset,” he said.
And when you lead a $1.7 billion enterprise that employees 8,000 people to educate 70,000 students to a set of state benchmarks, many are going to offer input.
I'm glad that people have engaged,” Shanoff said. “I've responded to anybody who's emailed me.”
