Marion County voters approved a 10-year, half-cent sales tax for school improvements and maintenance in November 2024 with 59% voting in favor.
Since going into effect in January 2025, the district has begun work on several campuses. A volunteer citizen panel, the School Capital Outlay Surtax Oversight Committee, reviews how that money is spent, reporting to the school board.
Let’s Talk Money
The tax has an expected revenue of $335 million over the 10 years it is in effect. For the 2025-26 fiscal year, the half-cent sales tax was projected to generate $39.6 million.
The specific use of the revenues generated from the tax is limited to construction, renovation, expansion and maintenance with a high need for solutions to aging buildings and population growth across the district.
In a School Capital Surtax Oversight Committee meeting on Sept. 2, Robert Rios-Welsh, the district’s chief financial officer, said revenues generated from the sales tax are running higher than initial projections. For the fiscal year that ended June 30, including accrued revenues for July and August, collections reached about $41.7 million, according to Rios-Welsh.
“We’re sitting at a little higher than we had expected for the year and that is something that we continue to see as a trend as far as what’s going on in the local economy,” Rios-Welsh said. “That’s certainly a good thing.”
Ben Whitehouse, deputy superintendent of curriculum and instruction, later suggested the surplus could pay for new projects.
“The positive thing for us then as we start to look out at the projects we’d already worked through the board over the next ten years, we have room for some additional projects,” Whitehouse said.
Currently, the district is using a PAYGO (“pay-as-you-go”) strategy for projects being serviced by the fund. With the price of construction materials going up, the surplus revenue helps to cover materials needed for projects across the district.
“If we look at the time period of FY20 through FY25 we’ve seen a 45% increase in construction costs,” Rios-Welsh said.
County Campus Construction
Dollars from the half-cent tax paid for safety upgrades at Osceola Middle School where crews added permanent walls and doors to the formerly open-concept campus before the 2026-27 school year. East Marion Elementary is getting similar upgrades to its safety with construction that began in February set to finish by Dec. 31. At Belleview Middle School, HVAC upgrades budgeted at just under $1 million are still in the design phase.
Construction on the new Belleview Elementary school is set to begin in early 2027 on its current site with a completion date of May 2028. According to comments made by Whitehouse during the School Capital Outlay Surtax Oversight Committee Meeting on Sept. 2, the plan is to retain two of the existing, newer buildings on Belleview Elementary campus with renovations, alongside the new construction. The budget for this project is $65 million. “I think it is going to come in at a good bit less than that,” Whitehouse said.
The Belleview Elementary timeline hinges on a separate project – the replacement of Lake Weir Middle School, a project not funded by the half-cent tax. Upon the completion of the new Lake Weir campus, Belleview Elementary School students will be housed in the vacated Lake Weir Middle campus until the new elementary school is finished.
As of May 19, the district estimates the Dunnellon Middle and High school replacement will cost $150 million. The district plans to pay for it over four years starting in fiscal 2027. According to Whitehouse, the goal is a combined campus by 2030-31. Officials, alongside Dunnellon Mayor Walter Green, plan to visit combined middle and high schools in other counties to get a sense for what is possible for the replacement.
Remaining projects funded by the half-cent tax include student safety improvements to Bridgeway Academy slated at $15 million, a possible K-8 campus in southwest Marion County in place of wings at Hammett L. Bowen Jr. Elementary, Marion Oaks Elementary and Horizon Academy expected at $65 million, as well as an additional wing for Ward-Highlands Elementary and Maplewood Elementary each scheduled at $15 million. As for the possibility of new projects added to the list, the answer is unclear. According to The School Board of Marion County 2026-2027 Adopted Budget, the tax is projected to generate $38.7 million for the 2026-27 fiscal year.