One hundred and nineteen million dollars.
That’s how much Orange County Public Schools, one of the nation’s largest school districts, has set aside for “pending litigation” involving the Disney World, which sued the county property appraiser and tax collector (not for the first time) last year over “excessive” property tax assessments.
Disney, the state’s largest single-site employer, reported $94 billion in revenue last year, up 3 percent from 2024. The Orange County school district, meanwhile, was forced to close seven schools for the upcoming school year, due to a substantial reduction in student enrollment and a consequential loss in funding.
“Disney has the legal right to sue. They’re not doing anything that they’re not allowed to do, but they also don’t have to. They could drop the lawsuits, and they could also agree to give that money for our schools and teachers here,” said Ella Wood, an organizer with one of the Disney World unions Unite Here Local 737, speaking to a crowd gathered at a local community center Thursday night.
The union represents roughly 19,000 tourism workers in Central Florida, including workers at Disney World who Wood says are facing steep health insurance hikes ahead.
“We’re here because we think it’s time to ask for more. We need an economy around us and a political system around us that put us first, that care about our families first, and we don’t believe we have that,” Wood acknowledged. “We think we need to build that together.”
A few dozen people, mostly workers at Disney World, packed into the Taft Community Center on South Orange Avenue Thursday evening to discuss the slew of lawsuits filed by their employer in December. The Mouse has been filing lawsuits over property taxes since 2016, but this year, the potential risks of that litigation are being felt very keenly by Orange County teachers.
Clinton McCracken, president of the Orange County Classroom Teachers Association — representing roughly 13,000 instructional staff — said the school district has cited the $119 million for “pending litigation” as a reason for why the district is offering a less-than-1 percent pay raise for teachers this year as the union works to negotiate a new union contract.
“The district has proposed a 0.93 percent raise,” McCracken said, immediately earning a round of boos from town hall attendees, “coupled with a massive increase to the cost of premiums and deductibles to our insurance, which already increased by 64 percent two years ago.” Teacher pay in Orange County begins at $50,000 annually.
Even more, the district recently announced that SAFE (Student Assistance and Family Empowerment) coordinator positions in Orange County schools, which aim to support students experiencing homelessness, suicide prevention and crisis intervention, are being cut for this upcoming school year.
Fifteen licensed mental health counselor positions in Orange County Public Schools are also being eliminated, in addition to 12 social workers and six psychologists, according to the district.
“These decisions have real consequences for students, educators and our community. If we are serious about supporting public education, we need all stakeholders, including major community partners like Disney, to reconsider actions that are contributing to the strain on our public schools,” McCracken told Orlando Weekly.
A school district spokesperson initially denied in an email to Orlando Weekly that Disney’s lawsuits have anything to do with the staffing cuts or paltry raise offer. That’s despite the district’s chief negotiator directly referencing “Disney” litigation in a discussion with union leaders last week, according to audio of the meeting obtained by the Weekly, in explanation of their staffing cuts and proposed health insurance hikes for union members.
Scott Howat, the district’s chief communications officer, later acknowledged in a call with Orlando Weekly that the Disney lawsuits were “one of a number of factors” affecting the district’s proposals for wages and health insurance cost changes this year.
He confirmed the district has been setting aside $8 to $11 million each year since 2021 to cover the estimated share of ad valorem taxes paid by Disney and other large commercial property owners. Howat didn’t name any of the other large commercial property owners involved in the lawsuits, but acknowledged that Disney is the largest one.
Property taxes are the largest source of funding for Orange County’s school system, followed by state funding and a sliver of funds from the federal government. Funding from the state, notably, is tied to student enrollment, and the district has lost roughly 5,600 students over the last school year.
Half are students from immigrant families — a loss the district attributes to the Trump administration’s crackdown on undocumented immigrants, DACA recipients, and immigrants living and working in the U.S. through a Temporary Protected Status program.
Other contributing factors the district has cited include a decline in birth rates and the expansion of the state’s controversial school voucher program, according to the district. That program — facing scrutiny from legislators in both major parties — allows parents to receive money to send their kids to private schools or homeschool.
“Ongoing pressures like the Disney lawsuit, the expansion of vouchers and attacks on immigrant families are impacting our schools in multiple ways,” McCracken told the Weekly.
Organizers of the new pressure campaign to get Disney to drop its lawsuits have created a petition with their call to action for the Mouse that they say has already gotten over 1,000 signatures. Members and staffers of Unite Here Locals 362 and 737 have been canvassing neighborhoods in Orange County’s District 3 (which contains Disney World) over the last month, collectively knocking on more than 12,000 doors.
District 3 county commissioner Mayra Uribe, State Rep. Anna Eskamani, former senator and county commission candidate Linda Stewart, and county tax collector Scott Randolph (one of the defendants in Disney’s lawsuits) were all present at the town hall, getting an earful of community members’ concerns.
Following initial remarks from union leaders, several Disney World workers walked up to a podium to share their own two cents on Disney’s lawsuits (collectively opposed) and its threat to school funding.
Mac Millar, a second-generation Disney “cast member” (Disney World’s term for its workers), said it was “reprehensible” that Disney was choosing to move forward with its lawsuit, despite its billions in revenue. Rosa, a Disney cast member and immigrant from the Dominican Republic, said she was shocked by the United States’ treatment of teachers, coming from a family of teachers herself.
Florida ranks 50th out of all U.S. states and the District of Columbia for average teacher pay, and state legislators have made their jobs harder in recent years by passing laws to censor their speech, attack their unions and dilute funding for public schools through expansions of the voucher program.
“Working people in Central Florida are struggling,” said Wood, citing post-pandemic rent spikes, higher gas prices and major hikes to health insurance plans. “We think that needs to change,” she added.
The air conditioning system in the Taft Community Center was seemingly not operational Thursday night. There were no fans in the room and everyone in the room (this reporter included) was sweating.
The lack of airflow, however, surprisingly appeared not to deter the crowd from sticking it out and uniting around the simple idea that teachers, students and Orange County taxpayers matter more than the allegedly inflated property tax bill of a multibillion-dollar corporation.
“Public schools, for all of us, they reduce inequality, they give people opportunity and the tools to contribute to the rest of the community, and they make the whole community around them stronger,” said Wood. “Our schools need more funding, not less.”
Disney World did not respond to Orlando Weekly‘s request for comment on the lawsuits or the new campaign urging them to drop them.
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