Carroll schools lay out phased plan to meet state Blueprint fiscal rules; staff reallocations and class-size shifts possible

Carroll County Public Schools officials on Jan. 8 presented a work-group report and a phased timeline to bring the district into fiscal compliance with the state’s Blueprint for Maryland’s Future, saying the changes could require reallocating staff systemwide and alter class sizes and course offerings.

The report, compiled by a nearly 40-member work group and released to the public as part of the board meeting, lays out three immediate actions: maximize school-level expenditure reporting by program area, realign existing resources among schools and establish a new classroom teacher staffing-allocation standard. District leaders told the board they will put secondary schools into full compliance in fiscal 2026 and elementary schools in fiscal 2027.

District leaders said the district’s initial, refined analysis shows a roughly $39 million gap in compensatory-education spending and about $5 million in multilingual-learner spending under the blueprint funding and reporting rules, and that Carroll currently spends about $10.2 million more on special education than the statute requires. The report says some of that special-education overage can be treated as legitimately chargeable to other program areas under state guidance.

“This will fundamentally impact every school in our school system,” Superintendent McCabe said, characterizing the work group’s findings as showing “sweeping changes” to historical staffing and resourcing at schools. Staff members said the district is preparing school-by-school detail that will be presented to the public in February.

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