[Baltimore Sun] Carroll school board takes money from savings to pay for teacher mentor program, Winchester building maintenance

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The Carroll County Board of Education unanimously approved the allocation of $6 million from the school system’s savings to support a new teacher induction program and building maintenance.

“I’m recommending the assignment of fund balance for two specific purposes,” Superintendent Cynthia McCabe said. “These are two projects that are identified needs that require a one-time funding source to complete. With the annual independent audit complete, we know that the fund balance is healthy enough to support these projects and allow them to move forward without impacting any funds that we apply to schools. Assignment of the funds to the designated projects now allows staff to move forward with planning and implementation.”

Renovations to the roof and HVAC systems of the Winchester building, 125 N. Court St., Westminster, will be supported by $5 million from the fund balance. That building houses the system’s central office and school board meeting room.

The other$1 million will go to creating a new teacher induction program with a university partner. Assistant Superintendent of Operations Jon O’Neal said in an email the majority of the money would reimburse a university partner for providing mentors to work with new teachers. It is not currently known which university the school system would partner with.

“This partnership is our attempt to create an induction support structure for our new teachers to serve as a bridge during career ladder implementation,” O’Neal said.

Carroll County Public Schools has hired many teachers and a growing number of conditional teachers in recent years and has a relatively small professional learning office, according to O’Neal.

New teacher induction and increased professional development opportunities are components of the career ladder prescribed by the Blueprint for Maryland’s Future, which Carroll is in the early stages of implementing, according to O’Neal. The county’s strategic facilitator Frank Grossman, who assists with Blueprint-related planning and implementation, is working to develop the induction program.

The Blueprint is a multibillion-dollar public school reform effort entering the third year of its decade-long rollout. It is designed to make Maryland’s schools among the highest performing in the country by redesigning the public education funding formula, providing more time for teachers to plan lessons and develop skills outside the classroom, and offering universal prekindergarten for 3-year-olds, among other initiatives.

The fund balance is like a rainy-day fund the system uses for one-time, unexpected costs. The fund balance may not exceed 5% of the school system’s $467.8 million operating budget for fiscal 2025, which began July 1.

O’Neal told the school board on Oct. 10 that spending $6 million puts the school system’s fund balance at around 3% of its operating budget, which is a comfortable level the system has maintained for years.

“[The fund balance is] healthy enough that if some emergent scenario happened, we’d be covered,” O’Neal said at the meeting, “but not too much that it’s too much.”

School board meetings are open to the public and livestreamed on the Carroll County Public Schools YouTube channel and viewable on the right side of the Board of Education’s website at carrollk12.org/board-of-education/meeting-information, under CETV Livestream. Meetings are also broadcast live throughout the month on Carroll Educational Television, Ch. 21.

Anyone who wishes to participate during the public participation portion of the meeting must fill out an online sign-up form at carrollk12.org/board-of-education/meeting-information or call the communications office at 410-751-3020 by 9 p.m., on the Tuesday before a meeting.

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