Seminole County families protest teacher cuts at Millennium Middle School

A petition with more than 1,000 signatures has turned the nonreappointment of Jenny Galarza, Millennium Middle School’s Teacher of the Year, into a wider fight over trust, staffing and transparency in Seminole County Public Schools.

Parents and students in Sanford said the district’s decision to leave several longtime teachers off next year’s roster hit especially hard at Millennium, a fine arts and communication magnet where performing arts is part of the school’s identity. The affected staff included veteran performing arts educators, among them Galarza and Edna Bland, and families carried their objections directly to the Seminole County School Board after learning the contracts would not be renewed.

The scale of the cuts stretches well beyond one campus. At Millennium, 17 positions were not reappointed, and four of those were left unfilled because of lost staffing allocations. Across Seminole County Public Schools, 243 positions were not reappointed at the school level and 61 at the district level, part of more than 300 district-wide reductions tied to a shrinking budget and a lack of state funding. PTA President Michael Foster said the concern began with Galarza but quickly widened to include other long-serving teachers, including three who each had more than a decade at Millennium and more than 26 years of service combined.

That concern is amplified by what Millennium represents. The campus includes a performing arts center, an 800-seat auditorium, two dance studios and music studios, and the school says its magnet program gives students opportunities in fine arts and performing arts alongside Pre-IB coursework. For families who chose Millennium because of those offerings, the loss of experienced arts teachers is more than a staffing shuffle. It affects ensembles, dance, theater, morale and whether parents believe the program can stay stable from one year to the next.

District leaders have pointed to budget pressure as the reason for the cuts. Board member Robin Dehlinger said Seminole County Public Schools is projecting about a $30 million funding loss based on enrollment and preliminary budget information, while the Florida Legislature has not yet finalized the budget for the fiscal year that begins July 1. The district has faced this kind of strain before. In 2025, county schools were already dealing with a nearly $17 million deficit and a drop in enrollment from a projected 63,501 students to 61,921.

For Millennium families, the central question remains unchanged: why were respected veteran teachers, including a Teacher of the Year, not reappointed, and how much explanation will the district give in public for a decision that has already shaken confidence in one of Sanford’s most visible magnet programs.