Teachers’ union and superintendent urge fuller funding of special education positions and pay enhancements in FY26 request

Dr. Mark Bedell, superintendent of Anne Arundel County Public Schools, and Jorge Cordova, vice president of the Teachers Association of Anne Arundel County, told the County Council on May 14 that the proposed FY26 budget provides unprecedented support but that additional investments are still needed to meet student needs and retain staff.

Dr. Bedell said the district is "ahead of the schedule" and described recent student achievement and enrollment gains. He thanked the county for support that he said has allowed the district to expand curricula and extracurriculars, staff classrooms and increase recruitment and retention. "None of this is possible if we don't have the support that we're getting from you all," Bedell said.

Jorge Cordova, speaking as a District 4 resident and vice president of the teachers' association, urged the council to expand funding for special-education positions beyond the 28 positions included in the County Executive’s proposal. Cordova said the Board of Education had requested 155 special-education positions; the county executive proposed funding 28 of those. He emphasized that the requested positions include a mix of roles across the birth-to-21 continuum, naming IEP facilitators, occupational therapists and speech-language pathologists among roles cited in testimony.

Union and school staff speakers also asked the council to fund other compensation items the Board or superintendent requested: a 3% cost-of-living adjustment (included in the proposal), a midyear 1% COLA requested by the Board of Education to offset rising health insurance costs, inclusion of national-board certified teacher (NBCT) school counselors on the salary ladder (an $87,000 line item the Board adopted 8-0), and a $1,000 incentive for staff with 30 years of service to delay retirement. Sue Young and Holly Klyderlein, school counselors and NBCT certificants, testified that NBCT counselors serve large caseloads (Young cited a combined caseload of 3,689 students for the group) and asked the council to restore the $87,000 line to provide parity with other certificate-based enhancements.

Distinctions in the record: Dr. Bedell described the county funding for schools as "a significant investment," noting the proposed $981,200,000 appropriation is a record amount and that a state shift of $9.3 million in public education costs increases the total new funding beyond the $52 million increase cited. Cordova and other union-affiliated speakers stressed that retaining staff by funding these compensation items is necessary because educator working conditions affect student learning conditions.

Next steps: these requests were made during the FY26 public hearing; the council has not adopted final budget decisions. Speakers asked the council to consider amendments or restorations during budget deliberations to increase special-education staffing and to fund counselor and longevity pay items.

Ending: The council heard the testimony as part of the public hearing schedule and will consider amendments during its budget review sessions.