Byron Donalds's wife's firm gets most of a charter school's tax money

A Collier County online charter school plans to pay about $15.7 million this school year, nearly all its money, to OptimaEd, the Naples company of Erika Donalds. Her husband, Byron Donalds, is the Republican running for governor, the office that signs the state budget behind part of that money.

The school, Optima Classical Academy, is a public school whose classes are online. A nonprofit board, not the school district, oversees it. The school pays OptimaEd, a private company, to manage it and to supply its online teaching. Erika Donalds, a former Collier County School Board member, runs private companies that charter schools hire to manage them. That board approved the charter that lets the school operate. The school's budget for this year sets aside only a small share for its own costs and lists the rest as due to OptimaEd. That is the year's plan, not a record of payments.

The story so far: Byron Donalds, a congressman from Southwest Florida, faces Democrat David Jolly for governor on Nov. 3. His political committee, Friends of Byron Donalds PAC, raises money for that race. Ken Griffin, the Citadel hedge fund executive, wrote the committee's biggest check. GEO Group, a Boca Raton company that runs for-profit prisons and immigration detention centers, gave the committee $1 million on Oct. 8, state records show. No record ties any donor's money to the school money in this story.

Why it matters: The state budget supplies about $9.7 million of the money, and Collier County taxpayers supply part of the rest. Local property taxes add about $4.1 million, and a school tax Collier County voters approved adds about $2.1 million. Ethics experts told the Tampa Bay Times and Miami Herald that the family's reliance on that state money could pose a conflict if he wins. Byron Donalds told the papers that if elected, he would follow legal guidance and all ethics rules, including recusal. The school is paid by the student under the state's school funding formula: the more children it teaches, the more it gets. The school's audit for last year, filed with the state, says OptimaEd manages the school. Revenue is not profit, and no wrongdoing is alleged.

What's new: the Tampa Bay Times and Miami Herald analysis of Oct. 22.

What's next: Election Day, Nov. 3.

Old Florida Money desk · Fri Oct 23 · Sources: Optima Education Network (2026-27 budget, Amendment 1, Sept. 8; board agenda); Tampa Bay Times and Miami Herald (Oct. 22); Florida Auditor General (school audit filing); Clerk of the U.S. House (financial disclosures); Florida Division of Elections; WUSF; The Real Deal; Florida Department of State

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Bird’s-eye map of Tampa looking west: the County Center tower, in red, sends a dashed red line across the Hillsborough River to an empty parcel outlined in red, the ballpark site on the Dale Mabry campus. Links to Money Pulse on the site.

Plate II · Commissioners vote on sales tax for a ballpark on a college campus

Money Pulse

Teams

The Rays' owners want Hillsborough's sales tax, and they are giving to its commission races

The Tampa Bay Rays' owners and their companies have given at least $140,000 to three Hillsborough County commissioners up for reelection since the team's sale, Axios reports. Their board votes Nov. 10 on whether sales tax meant for roads and public buildings helps pay for a privately owned team's ballpark. Any Florida county a team asks for tax money can point to that vote. The three are Gwen Myers, Harry Cohen and Joshua Wostal. No record ties any gift to a vote.

Houses

Boca Raton's unfinished Mandarin Oriental faces a $418 million foreclosure as buyers want their deposits back

Via Mizner Lender 1, a lending company in the same corporate family as New York lender Madison Realty Capital, is suing to foreclose on the unfinished Boca Raton condo tower. It shows the risk of a deposit on an unbuilt condo: if the lender wins, it is paid before the buyers. Two Penn-Florida companies sued the lender in New York state court, seeking more than $500 million. The suit, led by Penn-Florida chief executive Mark Gensheimer, says Madison "created the defaults" it is using to foreclose, The Real Deal reports.

Houses

Hedge fund veteran Jay Newman sues Miami Beach and Five Park's developers over a bridge never finished

Jay Newman and the owners' association of Five Park, Miami Beach's tallest condo tower, sued the city and the tower's developers Oct. 13 over an unfinished public footbridge. The case tests whether a developer's promise to a city still binds once the building is done, a question for anyone buying into a new tower. Five Park was built by Terra, the Coconut Grove developer run by chief executive David Martin, and GFO Investments, the family office of developer Russell Galbut, The Real Deal reports. The association is the condo owners' governing body for the tower's shared facilities. Condos there sell for about $4 million, the Miami Herald reported. Residents told commissioners the bridge was a big reason they bought. The owners want a judge to order the bridge built, and no court has ruled.

That is the edition. Every story above, with its records, is on the site.

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