Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) Superintendent Dr. Thomas Taylor’s “big ask” of $3.61 billion to fund the next school year just grew even larger.
Board of Education (BOE) members reviewed Taylor’s budget, opting to add $36.7 million additional dollars, explaining the need to increase the request was due to a decrease in state dollars.
The state budget shifts some of the staff pension costs from the state to the county, includes a decrease in what the school district receives for non-public schools and delays some of the features of the Blueprint for Maryland’s Blueprint for Maryland’s Future.
Moore proposed to drop from 70% to 60% the state’s reimbursement for students attending private schools. The pension shift could cost MCPS $20.8 million.
“This budget alarming for the size of its request does not solve a lot of issues. It really merely puts us in the path to correct some of our challenges,” Taylor said during the BOE’s Tuesday meeting.
According to BOE Member Karla Silvestre, nearly 90% of the budget is set aside for staff salary and benefits. Another $55 million is set aside for utility bills.
The proposed budget, which now must be approved by Executive Marc Elrich and the county council, stands at $3,685,244,116.
The proposed budget that was unanimously approved by the BOE Tuesday includes adding 689 educator positions and another 47 educator positions to support emergent multilingual learners and increasing material resources to schools based on specific student populations of students receiving free and reduced meals, special education and emergent multilingual learner services.
It also includes 52 new school safety positions.
The budget includes a county contribution request for $2.41 billion, which is a decrease of $991,164 from Taylor’s original proposed budget.
Some of the reduction comes from a decision not to rename Col. Zadok Magruder High School and reduction of professional development funding.
This budget will be submitted to Elrich and county council on Feb. 28. A response is expected by May 22 with final adoption by the BOE on June 10.
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MCPS Superintendent Proposes ‘Big Ask’ Budget of $3.61 Billion, A 9% Increase
