Interim superintendent: PGCPS faces $30 million gap; $27 million special-education shortfall

Interim Superintendent Dr. Sean Joseph told the Prince George's County Public Schools strategic realignment work group on May 26 that the district requested $50 million from the county but expects to receive about $20 million, leaving an estimated $30 million shortfall between request and likely allocation.

Joseph said $17 million of the anticipated $20 million must be used to stabilize operations — covering compensation, energy and fuel costs, fleet, textbook adoptions and technology refresh — which leaves roughly $3 million for other priorities. He said the board set aside $1.9 million for academic programming and that, after that allocation, only about $1.1 million would remain from the county funds for discretionary priorities.

The superintendent flagged special education as the district’s most urgent unfunded need. Joseph said the district originally sought $27 million for special-education services, including contracted speech, occupational and physical therapy; counseling; private-duty nurses for medically fragile students; sign-language interpretation; compensatory education obligations; autism-program supports; and early-childhood teachers. “Special-education needs are not optional,” he said, adding that fulfilling those services will increase the district’s deficit unless internal cuts and new revenues are found.

Joseph described a gap in staffing readiness as an additional constraint: he told the work group that roughly 3,000 of the system’s teachers and administrators face possible nonrenewal because of licensure status and that many new educators will require substantial professional development and coaching.

To address training and retention, the district has created an Office of Organizational Development, Joseph said, with a charge to consolidate professional learning, deliver job-embedded coaching, run teacher induction and lead retention strategies. He told the group that the office was primarily a realignment of functions and that one new associate-superintendent position was budgeted; he said staff would prepare a public document explaining how the office was formed and which line items were repurposed.

Members asked for clarity on how district services can be billed. A special-education lead explained that related services (physical therapy, speech, occupational therapy and counseling) and some coordination work can be billed to Medicaid when parents permit billing, and that private-duty nursing and psychological services are among reimbursable pathways.

The superintendent and board members repeatedly urged the work groups to continue developing recommendations on cuts, reallocations and revenue options; those recommendations are to be finalized and forwarded to the board for action at the board’s next scheduled meeting.