Garrett County to seek waivers on weighted student funding for pre-K and multilingual learners
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Summary
At its Nov. 11 meeting the Garrett County Board of Education heard a presentation proposing waivers to Maryland’s weighted student funding rules: a targeted pre‑K waiver for four schools and a multilingual learner waiver for all schools to address calculation rules that exclude Head Start staffing and the district’s very low multilingual counts.
Dr. Miller and GCPS staff presented a plan at the Nov. 11 Garrett County Board of Education meeting to seek waivers from the Accountability and Implementation Board (AIB) for components of the state’s weighted student funding calculation.
The presentation, led by Dr. Miller with Ashley and Glatfelty, said the district’s baseline review (conducted with consulting support from APA under an AIB grant) shows GCPS is serving pre‑K classrooms in collaboration with Head Start but that Head Start staffing is excluded from the Blueprint funding calculation. The presenters said combining GCPS and Head Start staffing would meet the 75% school‑level spending expectation, but because the state calculation omits Head Start staffing the district plans to request a waiver for four pre‑K sites so those schools are not counted as noncompliant.
On multilingual learners, Dr. Miller said the district’s population is extremely small — “under 10,” with recent years ranging “between 7 to 8 students” — and year‑to‑year fluctuations can push schools out of compliance when the calculation uses prior‑year enrollment alongside current‑year budgeting. For that reason the presenters proposed asking AIB for a multilingual learner waiver that would apply to all GCPS schools.
During questions board members asked whether waivers are annual; presenters said they requested perpetual waivers but acknowledged AIB may approve waivers for limited terms (the presenters cited an example of a two‑year approval). Dr. Miller also warned of a financial penalty for noncompliance, saying, “The AIB can, withhold 25% of new blueprint money year over year if the school system does not come into compliance,” highlighting the fiscal risk to a small system.
GCPS staff said they will continue working with APA to improve coding and reallocations (for example, some central office maintenance costs that might be allocable to schools) and that the district intends to monitor compliance closely as staffing and small enrollment changes can affect the calculation.
The district posted a live Google form for public feedback and announced two in‑person opportunities listed on the slide (Dennett Road and Northern Middle School), with dates on the slide shown as November 18 and “the 20 first.”
Next steps: GCPS will submit waiver requests to AIB and continue modeling FY27 staffing and expenditures under current grants and APA consultation.