Superintendent proposes FY26 budget holding county request at $164 million; plans use of fund balance to avoid layoffs

Superintendent Dr. Townsville presented the Calvert County Public Schools proposed fiscal year 2026 operating budget at a board meeting, saying, “This budget is more than just numbers.” The proposal holds the district’s county appropriation at $164,000,000, the same amount received in the current fiscal year, and relies on prior-year savings and a planned $9,500,000 use of fund balance to cover increased costs while avoiding staff reductions.

The proposal matters because the district faces recurring cost pressures — wage increases from the Blueprint for Maryland’s Future, rising starting teacher pay, and the exhaustion of federal ESSER funds — that the superintendent said the district intends to absorb without asking the county for additional funding. “We are not asking for an increase from the county, not a dollar more than what we are receiving in the current fiscal year,” Dr. Townsville told the board, and he repeated that the proposed plan will result in “no staff reductions.”

Under the proposal, the district’s expenditures are estimated to rise by roughly $9,000,000, a 3.4% increase the superintendent said is slightly above the December-to-December Consumer Price Index change of 2.9%. The budget presentation listed key cost drivers: a higher teacher starting salary (now $61,000, up…