The Manatee County School District is bouncing back from a financial crisis and now has a surplus of cash to start the new school year.

On the first day of school at Lincoln Middle School in Palmetto, students were getting to know their teachers and preparing for what will hopefully be a successful year ahead.

The Manatee School District already considers the year a success financially. It’s the first year in a while that they've been in the black.

“We will actually meet fund balance for this past school year," Superintendent Rick Mills said.

When the 2012-2013 school year ended, this district had a deficit of $8.9 million. For the  2013-2014 school year the school district is projecting to have an $11 million surplus instead.

“The surplus dollars that we have seen from last year budget is going to enable us to reinvest into our employees and reinvest back into our classrooms as we close this out in the upcoming weeks," Mills said.

Just how or when the school district will make this happen is unclear, but teachers hope their students will reap the benefits soon.

Eighth-grade science teacher Elston Brown has an idea on how to spend some of the cash.

“To upgrade software and the computers, upgrade computer equipment, field trips, that kind of thing," he said.

English teacher Kelly Woodland agrees, saying the school's technology needs upgraded. However, she would like teachers to have some simple supplies as well.

“We don’t have even, I don’t think, a supply budget," she said. "I haven’t seen one. That would be great to have access to things like paper, pencils, things that you have to do just to survive.”

Superintendent Mills says that he will be meeting with his team this week to discuss the options of where the over $11 million should be spent.