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Garrett County schools finance director: preliminary state aid totals show shifts to local funding and risks from governor's proposal
Summary
Director of Finance Smith presented preliminary state aid numbers that show a $57.9 million preliminary total for FY26, a decrease in state foundation funding and a shift of roughly $2 million of foundation costs to the local share; staff warned proposed state-level cuts could further reduce aid by about $809,000.
Director of Finance Smith presented a preliminary fiscal 2026 state and local aid estimate to the board, saying the numbers are early and subject to legislative changes.
Key figures Smith presented: a preliminary total revenue estimate of $57.9 million for fiscal 2026, with about $23.4 million (40.5 percent) expected from the state and about $34.4 million (59.5 percent) from the local share. Smith said approximately $2 million of funding that had been state-supported last year has shifted to the local share for FY26.
Smith showed program-level breakdowns: roughly $30 million in foundation funding, about $13.9 million for compensatory education, nearly $3.8 million for special education, roughly $2.8 million for pre-K and nearly $1.7 million for concentration-of-poverty funding. Smith said the proposed governor's budget could reduce funding further and noted a scenario tied to the Excellence in Maryland Public Schools Act that would cut district aid by about $809,000 (with more than half of that in foundation funding), and that, if sustained over eight years, staff estimated it could translate to roughly $23.1 million in cumulative impact for Garrett County.
On targeted programs, Smith and staff addressed transitional supplemental instruction (TSI), which Smith said is phasing out under the Blueprint and that fiscal 2026 is expected to be the last year of TSI funding in the current formula. Smith called some components (such as a compensation parity grant) “pretty solid” in the preliminary file but cautioned all numbers remain subject to legislative change.
Smith also reviewed the local share: local aid was presented as increasing by about $4.0 million compared with fiscal 2025, with roughly $2.5 million of that increase coming from a state-to-local shift in foundation funding. Other local increases included special education, pre-K, college-and-career readiness and national board-certified teacher funds.
Board members asked clarifying questions about which numbers were fixed versus preliminary and the potential timetable for revised figures. Smith said the numbers were prior to the governor's cuts and that the staff is monitoring House and Senate actions; she said the district relies on carryover and other local strategies to manage the near-term budget gap.
Why it matters: Smith said the district faces a structural challenge for FY26 because the projected increase in salaries and fixed charges tied to negotiated agreements is roughly $2.4 million for the next three years, while the preliminary net increase in unrestricted funding is about $2.1 million — a near wash that will limit discretionary capacity. The board scheduled a March public work session to review developing budget figures.
