Carroll County Public Schools officials on Dec. 10 briefed the Board of Education on ongoing blueprint implementation work with APA consultants, and on the district’s fiscal outlook for fiscal year 2027.

Mr. O’Neil, speaking for the superintendent’s office and the APA team, described a shift from a staffing-formula approach toward an accounting- or base-model methodology for meeting blueprint requirements. He said that under the consultants’ approach each school would have a base set of positions and that many additional staff costs could be coded across blueprint categories rather than being narrowly attributed to a single student subgroup. "Their methodology allows for more flexibility and layering of services across schools," O’Neil said, explaining it could reduce the large staff movements the district feared last year. O’Neil said initial tests using earlier data suggest the accounting model could move many schools toward roughly 50% compliance this year, and that a final, school-by-school base-model report will be presented in January when the consultants process the latest payroll and operating-cost data.

Ernesto Diaz, director of human resources, reviewed Pillar 3 workforce metrics. He reported growth in national board-certified teachers (NBC) — stating the October target was met and that 135 NBC teachers were recorded with roughly 238 educators pursuing NBC — and described steady reductions in conditionally licensed hires. Diaz emphasized recruitment activity, including 33 recruiting events, and the system’s $60,000 starting salary in the career ladder as a recruitment advantage.

On finances, district staff noted the independent audit reports an unassigned fund balance of about $7.2 million and said the fund balance now sits at the low end of the board’s policy range. Mr. O’Neil warned that CCPS used significant fund balance for infrastructure projects in recent years and urged caution on one-time expenditures. He told the board the district’s enrollment decline (436 students this year) reduces state funding and likely requires the board to consider budget reductions unless county government covers the shortfall.

O’Neil presented a menu of potential reductions for further study: closing or reducing outdoor-school programming (staff housed at that site), adopting a fourth transportation tier to reduce bus fleet cost (with later arrival times in winter months), phasing student-device purchases (one device per several grade levels) to save about $1 million in a first year, reductions in athletics/extracurricular line items (noting more than $2.5 million in that category), limiting community summer building use for utility savings (estimated at ~$400,000), and potential reductions to materials-of-instruction budgets. The superintendent and board members emphasized that none of these were planned reductions tonight; the list was to frame discussion for a Dec. 17 budget work session.

Board members asked for details on school-by-school effects and codings, and staff committed to returning with the consultants’ final base-model report and clearer options at the January implementation stage.

Ending: Superintendent McCabe and staff said they will return in January with the consultants’ final model and school-by-school analyses; meanwhile, the board scheduled a December 17 budget work session to discuss preliminary options and impacts.