Howard County Board increases FY26 compensation request, approves several budget add‑backs amid state funding uncertainty

The Howard County Board of Education on Feb. 27 voted to increase its FY 2026 above‑maintenance‑of‑effort (MOE) request and approved several proposed program and staffing additions while staff warned that proposed state budget changes would reduce projected revenues.

Brian Holt, chief financial officer for Howard County Public Schools, told the board the superintendent's proposed FY 2026 operating budget totaled $1.22 billion with $74.3 million in new expenditures and an above‑MOE request of about $67.1 million. Holt said a set of developments since the superintendent's January proposal — including the governor's proposed budget and preliminary estimates from the Maryland State Department of Education (MSDE) — combined to increase the board's above‑MOE request by roughly $18.2 million, to about $85.3 million.

"The combined impact on our projected revenue is a decrease of approximately $6,200,000," Holt said, and "the combined impact on our projected expenditures is an increase of about $12,000,000." He described a likely range of outcomes depending on county action and the final state budget, and said some items in the request remain contingent on legislative outcomes.

The board approved a staff motion, 7–0, directing staff to: incorporate potential impacts of the governor's proposed budget into the FY26 requested operating budget and the above‑MOE request; raise the employee compensation marker; and make several technical amendments. The motion combined three staff requests and passed unanimously.

The board then considered a sequence of board members' budget amendment motions. After discussion and requests for staff to validate costing estimates, the board approved, among other items: - Funding for 32 elementary special education student assistant positions targeted to schools with 500 or more special‑education weekly hours (vote: 6–1). - Funding for eight additional middle school assistant principal positions (vote: 6–1). - Addition of non‑instructional special‑education instructional team leads (ITLs) at elementary schools that host regional special‑education programs (vote: 7–0).

Board members and staff repeatedly noted the significant uncertainty created by the governor's proposed changes, including a proposal described by staff that would delay the Blueprints per‑pupil collaborative time initiative and shift additional nonpublic placement and pension costs to local governments. Darren Conforti, executive director of budget, told the board that the governor's proposal could add roughly $6.8…