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Board of Education requests: commissioners back negotiated pay package, earmark $800,000 for bus drivers and remove $4M OPEB expenditure from county baseline
Summary
St. Mary's County school superintendent presented ECC requests including non‑recurring technology and OPEB proposals; commissioners indicated support for the negotiated pay package and earmarked funding for bus drivers while directing staff to re‑examine transportation accounts.
Dr. Smith, superintendent of St. Mary's County Public Schools, presented the school system's budget change requests and three ECC (extra departmental) packages during the county's FY2023 budget work session. The board and county staff discussed non‑recurring needs, a negotiated salary agreement and transportation costs tied to bus driver pay.
Dr. Smith said the school system had worked to concentrate federal and state aid and to protect core operations. He described three ECCs that would be presented to commissioners: roughly $6.2 million in non‑recurring items (technology, digitizing elementary English‑language arts materials, OPEB contribution), about $5.3 million to honor a negotiated agreement with school employees, and a transportation request tied to contracted bus drivers (approximately $1.7 million if full requested hourly and attendant increases are approved).
"We really took all of the federal and state funds and we pushed it into the side of the budget that are the non‑negotiable costs," Dr. Smith said, describing the system's approach to protect classroom programs if local funding remained flat.
Commissioners expressed clear support for the negotiated agreement. "You've got Commissioner Hewitt, you've got Commissioner O'Connor, who said they support the 5.3 for the negotiated agreement," one commissioner said during the discussion. The board indicated sufficient support to include the negotiated increase in the recommended budget.
On transportation, commissioners and school staff debated whether the full $1.7 million request for driver/attendant wage increases was necessary in light of the school system's current fund balance and multi‑year federal allocations. Commissioners asked school staff to re‑scrub the transportation accounts and suggested that an initial county contribution of $800,000 be earmarked to address driver pay while staff re‑work the remainder.
Separately, commissioners reached consensus to remove a $4.0 million county expenditure line for retiree health (OPEB) in the FY2023 baseline and to rely instead on existing OPEB trust assets to cover retiree liabilities for the year. "Do we have consensus to remove the $4,000,000 and use the trust funds?" a commissioner asked; several commissioners agreed to remove that expense from baseline expenditures, providing the county additional near‑term flexibility.
Commissioners also signaled support for a 2% cost‑of‑living adjustment and a 2.5% merit equivalent for county employees and the sheriff's department, a change staff estimated would cost about $2.2 million. County staff said they would carry forward the direction and return with recommended budget adjustments.
Staff and commissioners emphasized that some school system balances reflect multi‑year federal funds (ESSER/ARPA) and non‑recurring carryforward, and they agreed to revisit allocations during reconciliation in May.
The board of education's ECC requests and the commissioners' directions will be incorporated into the recommended FY2023 budget and the public hearing notice.
