Board reclassifies May 21 superintendent forum as public hearing; delays fund-balance reallocation vote

The Baltimore County Board of Education on Wednesday reclassified a May 21 virtual superintendent forum as a virtual public hearing to permit unlimited 3-minute public comment, after board members said a hearing format would broaden community input in the search process.

Board member Dominooski moved to treat the scheduled forum as a public hearing; supporters said the change would allow any community member who signs up to speak for three minutes about the superintendent search. The motion passed on a roll-call vote.

In a separate and longer debate, board member Mr. McMillian moved to reallocate up to $3.6 million from the fund balance to hire secondary library media specialists and remove additional instructional assignments. Legal counsel Darren Burns advised caution, saying the board may lack authority to allocate next fiscal-year fund balance dollars while the county council is still reviewing the proposed budget. Burns recommended waiting until the county returns an adopted budget so the board could consider transfers after July 1.

"I don't believe at this stage ... you can actually have a motion to talk about next year's fund balance because that would be the fund balance you'd be tapping to do what you were talking about," Burns said, urging consultation with financial staff.

Board member Christina Pumphrey moved to postpone the reallocation motion until after the county council adopts the budget; the board approved that postponement. The effect was to preserve the idea for consideration at a later board meeting when the district has an adopted county budget to work from.

The reclassification of the search forum and the postponement of the fund-balance motion were the evening's most consequential governance actions; the board took no final action on hiring or fund allocation Wednesday.