BY MARK J. CRAWFORD
The 2025-26 state budget passed late Monday night contains funding for two local schools, one new and one historic.
The $115.1 billion budget was $3 billion less than the current year but still contained money for a few local requests.
Union County School District was allotted more than $29.5 million for the new Lake Butler Elementary School. Next year will be the first year of a three-year funding cycle. The new school will be constructed adjacent to the existing campus, which has buildings dating back to 1956. It will be among the largest elementary schools in the state, with room for nearly 1,200 students. It will host K-5 classes, reducing Lake Butler Middle School to grades 6-8.
Concerned Citizens of Bradford County will be able to move forward with the third phase of its RJE Complex modernization project. The historic Black school serves as a community center, hosting services for young people, senior citizens and the community at large. The buildings in question host the summer youth program, Head Start, and a proposed Boys and Girls Club. The renovation project will consist of roofing, flooring, upgrades for electricity, plumbing and HVAC, painting, sidewalk coverings and more. More than $900,000 was awarded.
Funding for neither project, nor the projects below, is assured until the governor signs the budget and spares them line-item veto.
Bradford and Union counties were awarded funds for courthouse improvements. While Bradford County was awarded $500,000 of its $2 million request, the Union County Courthouse restoration project received $850,000 of its $1.4 million request. Bradford’s request was for ADA compliance and hardening of the clerk’s office. Union’s concerns deal with damage from years of rain infiltration. The project will address structural concerns, repair masonry and damaged windows, replace HVAC and improve air quality, address energy efficiency, etc.
Union County’s Public Safety Complex received a fourth round of funding in this budget, this time in the amount of $750,000. The county requested $3 million to complete the project with a deputy substation and evidence vault/storage facility.
The state budget funds continued salary increases for county deputies and correctional officers — $454,522 for Union County and $858,176 for Bradford County. Bradford Sheriff’s Office also received $907,000 for its SLERS radio equipment replacement and updates, which was half of the requested amount.
Starke’s $2 million request was fully funded. This is additional money that will expand the city’s water and wastewater utilities down State Road 16 to the bypass where hundreds of acres have been annexed for a multiuse development.
Nearly $745,000 was included for Keystone Heights Airport’s highway connectivity project, which would add deceleration, turn lanes and a driveway connecting a new access road to State Road 100. The request was nearly $2.68 million and included constructing an additional road on airport property parallel to the highway for commercial development.
The Arc of Bradford County submitted a Rural Workforce Capacity Building and Infrastructure project, which received a total of $600,000 from multiple funds. Arc had requested $1 million for capital outlay and operations, including funds for vehicle and equipment purchases, storage expansion and commercial kitchen upgrades.
The Bradford School District also received nearly $551,000 to support its licensed practical nursing program. The award comes through the PIPELINE fund (Prepping Institutions, Programs, Employers and Learners through Incentives for Nursing Education). Additional education funding includes initiatives for school readiness, voluntary pre-K, workforce education, etc.
Subject to State Board of Education Approval, Santa Fe College could receive funding to “acquire land/facilities and construct/remodel/renovate facilities for classrooms, labs, offices, academic and student support services, utilities, and parking from local funds, grants, private-public partnership funding, and/or capital improvement fees, for future growth and development of a new campus or special purpose center in Alachua or Bradford County.”
