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Superintendent outlines Maryland "Blueprint" minimum school funding challenges; AIB grants waiver‑filing extension
Summary
Superintendent Barnes told the board the state Blueprint requires school‑level, per‑student reporting and a 75% school allocation rule; staff said the district faces heavy accounting work ("over 400,000 expenditure lines") and that the Accountability and Implementation Board granted an extension to the waiver filing deadline, giving the district more time to finalize methodology.
Superintendent Barnes used the Nov. 20 meeting to walk board members through Maryland's Blueprint minimum school funding requirement and explain why the district will need more time to comply.
Barnes said the Blueprint starts with a foundation per‑pupil amount for all students and adds supplemental funding for students with disabilities, multilingual learners, students in high‑poverty schools, pre‑K and students meeting college and career readiness benchmarks. "Each district must demonstrate that a minimum of 75% of the blueprint funding follows to students to the school they attend," Barnes said, adding that failure to meet the requirement could allow the Accountability and Implementation Board (AIB) to withhold part of future increases.
Barnes described the operational challenge in translating a systemwide budget to school‑ and student‑level reporting: "We're going through each expenditure, and that's over 400,000 expenditure lines in total, and connecting the dots to make sure those dollars are spent for each student in their school." He said the district sought and received a waiver‑filing extension from the AIB (the transcript includes an apparent date transcription error; staff described the extension as moving the filing deadline from Dec. 1 to a March date), which provides more time to refine methodology.
Board members asked whether the district will still file waivers; Barnes said the district would likely file waivers if methodology issues remain unresolved. Caroline Walker, chief equity and innovation officer, told members the extension was limited to paperwork and that the district expects to continue programmatic advances while final reporting work proceeds.
Board members also probed narrower operational items: school‑visit and orientation logistics, pre‑K space and staffing constraints, and a transportation estimate for systemwide site visits. Jen Robinson, chief school officer, said an estimated $50,000 would be the transportation component for districtwide middle/high school visits of about 45 minutes each; she said substitute costs for staff coverage add unpredictability.
Barnes said staff will continue to engage the community and planned to return with a fuller report in February as the district continues to refine its methodology and staffing needs for accurate school‑level reporting.
