Board hears FY 2025–26 budget presentation; staff seek clarity on pay compression, minimum wage and recruitment

Montgomery County Public Schools staff presented the proposed fiscal-year 2025–26 operating budget and a staffing update at the Feb. 4 meeting, and board members pressed administration for more detail on pay compression, minimum wages and recruitment strategies.

Angie Bland, Director of Finance, and Trevor Bennett, Budget and Finance Manager, said the proposed total budget presented to the board is about $154,178,200 and that the division will request approximately $7,500,000 from the Board of Supervisors. The administration noted plans to purchase bulk fuel and install four on-site tanks; they estimated annual fuel savings of $200,000 to $400,000 depending on market prices and utilization. Finance staff also reported a switch last year from Anthem to a prescription benefits manager, MedImpact, which they said reduced prescription spending from about $4 million to roughly $2 million in the Oct. 2023–Sept. 2024 period, enabling district-level benefits such as Delta Dental coverage for employees and families.

The board discussed a proposed compression of pay scales (condensing many 30-step scales to 15 steps) intended to raise starting pay, shorten the time needed to reach the top of a scale, and reduce large gaps between steps. Administration said staff would receive the proposed 3% increase and that compression would affect how quickly employees reach top-step pay; it may cause some employees to see immediate increases while others on particular steps would not, though they would eventually benefit as steps compress.

Board members urged stronger action on minimum pay. Several members proposed concrete targets: one member asked administration to model the budgetary impact of raising the division minimum to $20 per hour; others asked for cost estimates for $1 increments between the current $15 and $20 per hour. Board members also requested that administration compare county and municipal pay scales to ensure parity with other local government employers.

The staffing update noted progress filling several previously hard-to-fill positions (school psychologists, speech-language pathologists, bus drivers, and others) and listed current vacancies; the division reported substitute fill rates of about 93% in December and January, and that 15.2% of new hires this year identify as minority employees while 8% of the overall workforce identifies as minority.

Ending: The board asked administration to return with cost estimates showing the budget impact of incremental minimum-wage increases and comparisons to county and municipal pay, and to provide more detailed staffing-fill projections at the next meeting.