A work session on the Carroll County Public Schools FY27 operating budget on Thursday centered on how state Blueprint requirements and shifting enrollment are complicating local budgeting.

Superintendent Doctor McCabe and finance staff presented early revenue estimates and said the governor's budget — due by law on Jan. 21 — will be a key determinant of the district's final FY27 state aid. Finance staff member Mister Burke said the county's adopted FY26 operating plan represents roughly a 3% local increase (about $7.6 million) that the system can use as a starting point.

Why it matters: Board members highlighted that previous years of declining enrollment reduced state formula aid and pushed the district to rely on county contributions and internal reductions. "We've cut $40,000,000 over the past decade," Doctor McCabe told the board while reviewing the decade‑long list of position and program reductions. That history, officials said, leaves little "easy" spending to trim without affecting students or staff.

Staff and board members spent the session explaining how Blueprint moves require the district to break out state and local funding by program (for example, special education, compensatory education, multilingual learners and pre‑K). Mister O'Neil showed a chart built from Department of Legislative Services data that places Carroll low in per‑pupil funding among Maryland systems, amplifying the local effect of statewide formula changes.

Consultant work and timing: District officials said work with consultants (the APA team under a waiver arrangement) has produced an accounting‑based methodology that can reclassify certain existing resources to meet Blueprint reporting and reduce the scale of proposed cuts. "That approach is more of an accounting methodology as opposed to ours, which is more of a staffing resource methodology," Mister O'Neil said, adding the approach is still being finalized and will be explained further at the December meetings.

Program‑level shifts: Staff called attention to program changes that can have counterintuitive effects. For FY27 projections, special education revenue was shown rising (roughly $1.7 million in the staff presentation), which could ease pressure on other accounts. By contrast, pre‑K per‑pupil state funding is scheduled to increase substantially (staff estimated roughly a jump from about $13,000–$14,000 per pupil to roughly $19,000), which could create or reopen compliance gaps in the short term because program dollars must be placed into specific Blueprint buckets.

Next steps: Board members were told to expect updated revenue and expenditure estimates at the Dec. 10 board meeting and a second work session on Dec. 17; the superintendent's proposed budget is scheduled for January with public hearings before a board vote in February and a county deadline of March 1.

The session closed with board members thanking staff for months of work with consultants while cautioning that the final state budget and continuing technical rules under Blueprint will determine how much flexibility the district ultimately has.