Carroll County school leaders present FY26 budget with $3.6 million shortfall; public urges preserving Outdoor School

The Carroll County Board of Education reviewed Superintendent McCabe’s proposed fiscal year 2026 operating budget during a public hearing and work session that featured dozens of public commenters urging the board to preserve the county’s long‑running Outdoor School program.

The superintendent presented the FY26 proposal as a balanced plan the district could submit to the county without requesting additional funding, but staff said state revenue changes and inflation left the operating budget structurally out of balance by about $3,600,000. Dr. McCabe told the board, “I presented to you as a board a balanced budget that does not ask for any more funding from the commissioners than they have already committed to.”

Why this matters: the proposed reductions include programs and positions that commenters and alumni described as formative for students. At the same time the district faces additional, separate requirements under Maryland’s Blueprint for education funding that staff say could add roughly $7,000,000 in required reductions and affect about 100 positions, a change that board members and staff said will be presented at the Feb. 12 meeting on fiscal compliance.

Public comment and the central tradeoffs

Parents, alumni, teachers and community members used the three‑minute public comment period to press the board to keep Outdoor School — commonly referred to in comments by variants of the facility name (transcript: “Hoshua/Hashua/Oshawa”) — in the FY26 budget. Shannon Marble, a parent, said, “STEM programs…are not just electives, they are vital to ensuring that every…