[Baltimore Sun] Anne Arundel school leaders back county budget plan, despite $37 million cut to their request
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Anne Arundel school leaders gave County Executive Steuart Pittman’s proposed $2.3 billion fiscal 2025 budget a passing grade, though they got about $37 million less than requested.
In his fiscal plan, Pittman proposes a $966 million outlay for schools, an increase of about $48 million over current funding levels. The budget also funds Superintendent Mark Bedell’s compensation request with a step increase and a 3% cost-of-living adjustment for AACPS teachers and school staff.
It also includes money to staff the three new schools opening this fall: Severn Run High School, Two Rivers Elementary School, and New Village Academy. And it provides funding to meet all Maryland Blueprint for Education requirements.
In December Bedell and the board requested a 3.71% bump in funding that would pay for a 3% cost of living increase, plus a 2% midyear increase, which together are worth $35.9 million. The county executive funded $26.9 million, which covers the cost-of-living increase, said Matt Stanski, chief economic officer for the school system.
Pittman’s budget would also fully fund a step increase for all eligible employees at a cost of $16.5 million.
“As I said in my budget address in December, our school system is one piece in a large puzzle when it comes to county funding,” Bedell said in a statement. “From my point of view, the county executive and his team have once again placed a heavy priority on our school system while still addressing critical needs in other parts of county government.”
Stanski said the expiration of some federal COVID relief grants will have a significant impact on the school system’s budget.
“We are only seeing a $36.3 million increase in revenue growth over fiscal ’24, which is only 2.2% revenue growth,” he said. “For comparison, we had 7.8% growth last year, so that’s a significant decline in resources to support our programming.”
Robert Silkworth, president of the school board, said the system will need to take a close look at the proposal over the coming weeks but added that Pittman has committed resources to school employees and students.
The proposed county schools’ budget requested $2.2 million to help support teachers who miss their planning time to cover classes. That was not funded in Pittman’s proposal, so the administration will look for ways to compensate, Stanski said.
“We’re looking into using extended substitutes to fill these gaps,” said Stanski. “The program has worked well over the last few years so we [need] to meet this obligation.”
With COVID funding going away, many programs are expected to take a hit, Stanski said, but the Chromebook program is safe. The program, which is being revised next year, provides students with laptops.
“The Chromebook program will now be funded from the general fund, which has been fully funded by the county executive, along with Google Voice and Google Suite, which is good,” he said. The program, which is being revised next year, provides students with laptops.
Capital budget
Pittman has proposed funding $183.1 million of the $234 million requested for school system capital projects for fiscal 2025.
Despite the $51.8 million cut, Bill Heiser, chief operations officer for ACCPS, said he is confident in the county’s ability to satisfy its obligations.
The school system’s priorities such as health and safety, security-related upgrades, building systems, maintenance, backlog reduction, and roof replacements will be fully funded. The CAT-North [Center of Applied Technology-North] construction project, with its $2.8 million price tag, also will be fully funded.
Some areas, such as the sustainability initiative and bus replacement, were not fully funded, coming up $200,000 and almost $1 million short, respectively.
The Old Mill High School and Old Mill Middle School projects are not fully funded but since these are being paid for over 10 years, money can be moved at a later date, said Heiser.
“We will continue to partner with his administration and the County Council to do all that we can to help every student belong, grow, and succeed,” said Bedell.
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