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Academics budget: HCPSS leaders flag unfunded professional learning, reorganization and coach shortages
Summary
Division of Academics leaders said the FY26 proposal preserves central staff but leaves key learning supports unfunded, including professional learning wages and additional literacy, ELD and math coaches.
Chief Academic Officer Terri Savage and curriculum leaders told the Howard County Board of Education Thursday that the Division of Academics' FY26 proposal maintains core central-office positions but leaves several program priorities unfunded.
"Beginning on page 249 you will find the budget summary for the Division of Academics," Savage said. She described two major departments in the division'the Department of Special Education and the Department of Curriculum, Instruction and Assessment'and identified central office support and academic supports for schools as the primary programs.
Savage said the chief academic officer's program includes about 41 FTEs of central-office staff and that those positions account for roughly $7.3 million of the FY26 proposed amount; academic support for schools accounts for about $1.7 million in the proposal. She told the board that, following the superintendent's reorganization that took effect this school year, several positions were realigned to other programs (student well-being, equity and innovation) and that one FTE was reclassified to support early childhood.
Curriculum leaders emphasized that an unfunded priority in the division is professional learning wages. "Those funds are used year round for our professional learning opportunities," Ebony Langford Brown, executive director for the department of curriculum, instruction and assessment, said. She said funds support curriculum writing, revision after mandates or board direction, and occasional CPD credit opportunities for teachers.
Board members and staff discussed a series of unfunded priorities that Savage identified: converting six half-day pre-K classrooms into full-day pre-K classrooms (staffing needed), additional reading and math coaches and specialists, and expanded related-arts staffing to reduce reliance on some nonpublic placements. Savage and other staff described literacy and ELD capacity as especially constrained: the division currently lists 14 literacy coaches across elementary schools, with many coaches serving multiple schools and one coach rotating among as many as 12 schools. For English language development (ELD), staff said there are three ELD coaches who each service two schools; those positions are funded through a Title 3 grant and the division wants more support aligned with school needs.
Staff detailed secondary math supports as well: "At the secondary level, in terms of mathematics coaches, we have 4 middle school mathematics coaches...and 2 high school mathematics coaches," said a curriculum official, and the division reported 15 secondary math specialist FTEs distributed across high schools and middle schools.
Board members asked for more detailed plans and cost estimates for the unfunded priorities. Dr. Savage and the curriculum leadership agreed to return with more specific numbers and recommendations, including the number of additional coaches or specialists the division would ideally add and the cost of those additions.
