Frederick County schools present three budget shortfall scenarios as county funding lags request
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Summary
School staff told the finance committee that the proposed operating budget requires $18.2 million from the county but county communications indicate $6 million is likely, creating a $12 million gap. Staff outlined three scenarios that prioritize health insurance and legally required positions while identifying potential reductions including bus replacements and non-student-facing roles.
School budget staff told the Frederick County Public Schools finance committee on Feb. 9 that the division’s full operating proposal requires $18.2 million in county funding but that current signals from county officials point closer to $6 million — leaving a projected $12 million shortfall.
The shortfall led staff to prepare three funding scenarios that all prioritize employee health insurance and compliance positions. “Eighty-three percent of our operating funds go to salary and benefits for employees because we’re a people-intensive business,” Ms. Anderson said during the presentation, noting that staff are the division’s top priority.
Why it matters: the difference between the requested and likely county allocation would force the district to choose among funding health insurance, mandated special-education positions and local salary supplements. Under the scenarios, staff recommend protecting state- or legally-required roles first and then considering reductions in non-student-facing positions, school and department supply budgets, field trips and other discretionary items.
What staff proposed: Scenario A would fund health insurance and critical compliance roles (speech pathology and English-language-learner positions) and adjust other items to fit a $6 million county contribution. Scenario B would add at least a 2% local salary increase to capture roughly $1.5 million in state funds but requires a $2.1 million local share. Scenario C would fund a 3% local increase, still receive the state share of 2%, and recommend reducing bus-replacement by four units to help balance the budget.
On vacancies and compliance: presenters said the district has roughly 100 vacancies, about 60 of which are filled by long-term substitutes, and roughly 15 vacant special-education positions. Dr. Hummer warned that removing required special-education FTEs could violate state maintenance-of-effort rules and jeopardize funding: “If that number goes down, we potentially could be out of compliance, and we could lose money.”
Local and state context: staff based state-revenue estimates on the governor’s introduced budget and told the committee the General Assembly is still finalizing numbers. Ms. Anderson said the division will update the board as legislative details change.
Next steps: the finance committee will review these scenarios and bring a recommended proposed budget to the full school-board work session next week for deliberation prior to submission to the county for funding consideration.