Carroll County school board asks commissioners for $13 million and $44 million to blunt Blueprint-driven cuts

Tyra Battaglia, president of the Carroll County Board of Education, presided over a Feb. 18 special meeting at which the board voted to ask the county commissioners for two supplemental amounts: $13,000,000 to shore up the district’s FY26 unrestricted operating request and $44,000,000 to mitigate program and staffing changes tied to the Blueprint for Maryland’s Future. Both motions passed 3–2; the board’s student representative voted with the majority.

The requests must be transmitted to the commissioners by March 1 as part of the board’s FY26 budget submission. Superintendent Dr. McCabe told the board that the changes mandated by the Blueprint statutes require re‑allocating existing funds rather than cutting overall revenue: “Combined, they total $44,000,000 that need to be reallocated or spent differently on compensatory ed and ML student services,” he said, referring to the district’s compensatory and multilingual programs.

Why it matters: Board members described the decision as urgent because the district must submit categorical totals to the county by law and because the Blueprint formulas restrict how certain state funds may be spent. Board members, parents and staff told the board that the proposed reorganizations will eliminate multiple specialized instructional positions and could reduce services at Tier 1 schools unless offset by new funds.

Discussion and dissents

Several board members expressed strong objections to…