Charles County officials warn new Blueprint reporting rules may force waivers as redistricting and coding issues create compliance risk

Charles County Public Schools officials said at a Nov. 13 virtual town hall that the state's Blueprint for Maryland's Future minimum-school-funding rules are producing implementation challenges that may require the district to request waivers for some schools.

"The mission of Charles County Public Schools is to provide an opportunity for all school age children to receive an academically challenging, quality education," Board Chair Yanelle Morley Esquire said in opening remarks. Superintendent Maria Navarro and blueprint coordinator Chris Miller then described how the law's 75/25 requirement works and why it matters for local budgets.

Miller told attendees that minimum school funding requires, in many cases, that "75% of the funding for each school has to follow the student," and she listed the state funding categories that must be tracked (basic foundation, compensatory education, English-learner funds, special education, pre-K, transitional supplemental instruction, college-and-career and the comparable-wage index). She said concentration-of-poverty funds must be spent at the schools that generated them.

CFO Karen Acton described the mechanics and timeline the district must follow: fiscal year 2025 served as the baseline; for FY26 the district must show a 50% improvement in meeting the 75% targets and for FY27 must meet the requirement fully. "If we are not in compliance at the end of the day, then, funding can be withheld from us," Acton said, emphasizing the stakes for the district if required coding and reporting are not completed accurately.

District staff warned the requirement has become a detailed accounting exercise. Acts that were previously centralized'such as ordering a single curriculum invoice and distributing materials to all schools'now must be coded to show how the expense is allocated to each school. "What we need to do is break it up by school," Miller said, using the example of a large book order that previously required a single code but now requires dozens of school-level entries.

The accounting burden is compounded by timing: the state's waiver submission deadline is Dec. 1, shortly after schools open, when many current-year staffing and spending patterns are not yet stable. Miller and Acton described a specific redistricting example: Berry Elementary's minimum-school-funding budget was based on last year's enrollment of 666 students while its current-year enrollment is 540, and Middleton's budget was based on 716 students while it has 437 after redistricting and the opening of Thornton Elementary. Miller said those variances are a principal reason CCPS plans to seek waivers "at minimum" for affected schools.

CCPS officials said they have raised these concerns with the Accountability and Implementation Board (AIB). Miller said CCPS met with AIB staff and other LEAs and that AIB planned an additional meeting on Nov. 20 where modifications to reporting or deadlines might be discussed. "They heard us loud and clear," Miller said, but she cautioned that until any rule changes are formalized districts must plan to submit waivers by Dec. 1.

Acton described administrative workarounds and constraints: the district has implemented a coding system and a new ERP financial system that can accommodate the required fields, but decentralization'with many school-level staff entering purchase and payroll codes'makes consistent attribution difficult. She said correcting errors requires time-consuming journal entries at central office and that other districts have hired additional finance staff to keep up with the workload.

Board members reiterated support for the blueprint'they called it "a great law" that advances early childhood education and other priorities'but urged legislative advocacy to fix implementation problems. "We support the law and its intent," Vice Chair Nicole Kramer said, "but it's imperfect" in how it requires school-by-school, category-by-category accounting.

The panel encouraged parents and community members to advocate with state delegates and senators during the legislative session and highlighted district resources (a dedicated blueprint web page and recorded summaries) to help residents follow the issue. The district also said it will publish the mandated school-level reporting to a state dashboard once AIB/MSDE'built tools are available.

The Accountability and Implementation Board and Maryland State Department of Education are the authorities implementing the statute; CCPS said it is coordinating audits and monthly PowerSchool uploads to comply and will pursue waivers where necessary.

The board said it would continue monitoring AIB decisions and expects to use advocacy and the Dec. 1 waiver process while seeking longer-term statutory or administrative fixes. The board's next virtual work session is Nov. 24; any formal changes from AIB were expected after the Nov. 20 meeting.