Harford County Board of Education calls county executive's proposed fiscal 2024 budget a 'worst case scenario' following a $39 million cut to the school system's proposed budget

Apr. 19—Harford County Executive Bob Cassilly announced his fiscal year 2024 proposed budget last week, which included a $39 million reduction in the Harford County Public Schools' proposed operating budget.

In a news release, Cassilly outlined his recommended budget following an in-depth review of county operations and spending. The $1.1 billion county budget is lower than this year's and does not raise tax rates, while making unprecedented investments in public safety and contributing to full funding for Harford County Public Schools, the release said.

"I have met with my budget team every day for the past four months and reviewed county spending and operations in detail to ensure we're acting responsibly as good stewards of taxpayer funds," said Cassilly in the release. "Like other counties and families across Maryland, we're also facing a very uncertain economic future and steep cost increases from unfunded state mandates. I have not raised taxes as other Maryland counties have done, but we must act now to restore fiscal responsibility while maintaining essential services."

Cassilly continued: "My budget reduces our structural deficit, greatly increases funding for my top priorities, public safety and providing education funding in the amount required by the state. I encourage the Harford County Board of Education to take the same close look at their budget and operations to find efficiencies, especially in non-instructional salaries. However, they will be able to fully fund their budget by using a combination of county and state funds, and a portion of the $92 million in unspent taxpayer dollars they have amassed from prior years of overfunding."

However, Harford County Public Schools issued a news release Tuesday that called Cassilly's budget a "worst case scenario" and disputed some of Cassilly's claims. At Monday's Board of Education meeting, Superintendent Sean Bulson said that Cassilly is "mortgaging" the students' futures for "political grandstanding."

"He does not care for education in Harford County," said Bulson. "I certainly hope Mr. Cassilly underestimated the value our community puts on education. In his video that he released, Mr. Cassilly said 'My FY2024 budget continues the county's commitment to a higher quality of education for our children to provide the county's full share of funding as required by state law.' That statement by itself sounds fine, but the challenge is it would have been far easier to understand and frankly, more accurate if he'd said his proposal provides the minimum allowable share of funding that is required by law."

Bulson was referring to remarks Cassilly made in a video on the county's YouTube channel posted the same day in which Cassilly explained his budget priorities.

This is the first time in decades that the school system's budget received such a sizable reduction, according to the HCPS release. The proposed budget is $19.4 million less than this year's budget and $39 million less than the Board of Education requested for fiscal 2024. This is the equivalent of reducing spending by $1,000 per student, the HCPS release said.

According to Cassilly's proposed budget, Harford County Public Schools will receive $305 million in operating funds in addition to funding to upgrade schools, including: $20 million for Harford Technical High School; $17 million for Aberdeen Middle School; and $16 million to plan a new combination elementary school and Harford Academy, which serves special education students. The school board requested $344 million in local funds.

Harford County Public Schools proposed a $51.1 million increase over this year's budget, including a $19.1 million increase in funding for teacher salaries. Without those funds, Bulson said that a lower salary package would limit the county's ability to stay competitive with other school systems in the region to attract and retain teachers.

"In fact, our biggest competitor is Baltimore County for hiring," Bulson said. "They have made an aggressive change, and this year's teachers' salary package for them will see an increase."

Bulson also addressed allegations that Cassilly made about the amount of money going to the Harford County Public Schools' central office, claiming that most employees work remotely and that the school system has an available fund balance of $92 million.

Approximately 25 employees work 100% remotely, allowing Harford County Public Schools to avoid having to rent office space to house those employees, according to the HCPS news release. Administrative positions account for only 3% of the overall budget, totaling $21 million.

Harford County Public Schools does have a healthy fund balance, the release said. However, the school system does not have $92 million available to spend. Much of the money Cassilly is referring to is earmarked for expenditures based on the this year's budget but has not been spent yet. The unassigned fund balance is approximately $36 million, the schools' release said.

"With that said we've done a lot of work in the last few years," said Bulson. "For 11 years, ending with FY2020 budget, we cut positions in this school system in order to balance our budget. So, we started every school year with fewer employees than the year before."

When schools returned to in-person learning from the COVID-19 shutdown, 94% of the positions that were hired were student-to-face positions, according to Bulson. The school system planned to move those positions from the federal stimulus funds into the operating budget. However, with the budget cut, educator positions and resources funded by the stimulus will be in jeopardy after next school year.

"My greatest concern is that this wasn't the year for the crisis," said Bulson. "All of these federal funds are going to expire next year, and we have positions that are sitting in our operating budget that we are waiting to move over. We can use some of that [federal funding] to take us through this year. I am very concerned for what we will be looking at next year."

Without a significant increase to funding, Harford County Public Schools will see larger class sizes, athletic participation fees will no longer be waived, and teacher salaries will no longer be competitive with neighboring districts, the HCPS release said.

"County Executive Bob Cassilly shows he doesn't care about the children of Harford County, and instead plans to use them as pawns in his game of politics," the HCPS release said. "As it stands now, the budget will make it near impossible for HCPS to continue to attract the best recruits possible to work in our schools and to continue to support the outstanding educators already working for our students."

Board of Education members expressed their disappointment over the budget.

"My heart is sad," said board member Joyce Herold. "As we already know, we are up against severe budget cuts for our kids and our budget should have been fully funded. I felt like we learned our lesson during COVID where we found ourselves in a very sad predicament after decades of not being fully funded. I'm sad for my kids, for all of our kids, and it's not enough. They deserve better. We proposed a budget and didn't ask for all of the money we needed. We asked for money that will get the job done in our best ability considering the other priorities."

Board member Denise Perry agreed with Herold, saying that she hopes the school system can persuade the county to fully fund the schools.

"I would look at this as more important than anything else," Perry said.

Board of Education Vice President Wade Sewell called the proposed budget cut a "bloodbath."

"No other county executive has cut the school system's ask to this degree," said Sewell. "Let's be clear, the piece of the budget that we asked for from the county was already reduced from what we wanted to invest in this upcoming school year. Notice that I used 'invest.' Harford County Public Schools already runs the tightest fiscal ship in the entire state."

Sewell continued: "The year immediately before the pandemic, HCPS got the job done with the very least amount out of any county in the state. Our students typically have middle of the road, if not upper-half performances, yet we had the smallest amount of money."

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Chrystie Crawford-Smick, president of the Harford County Education Association, said that the budget cut is "shameful."

"The political theater playing out in Harford County right now is shameful," said Crawford-Smick. "Harford County Public Schools has over 5,100 employees, most of whom also live in this county. They have invested in their schools and their students, but their county executive isn't willing to invest in them. A $39 million budget shortfall will impact every single school and community. The staffing and programmatic cuts will sting for years to come. When you consider that every 12 teachers cost approximately $1 million, it doesn't take a math genius to see how devastating this will be. It may take us decades to recover. We are potentially looking at hundreds of staffing cuts. In a time when our neighbors in Baltimore County are making a record investment in their schools, Mr. Cassilly is showing his ignorance. I won't blame any HCPS educators who leave to go to Baltimore County because not only will they receive a hefty pay increase, they also won't be disrespected by a county executive who displays such petulant behavior."

Crawford-Smick continued: "Our community has proven time and time again that they value our quality public schools. By only providing the bare minimum funding that is required by law, our county executive is showing us that he does not value public education or educators. We do not have bare minimum students, we do not have bare minimum educators, and this community deserves more than bare minimum funding. It's time for Mr. Cassilly to stop playing games with our children's future and amend his budget."

Jake Zebely is a former teacher of the year for Cecil County, and currently teaches government at Aberdeen High School. A native of Harford County, Zebely left Cecil County Public Schools after 14 years to teach in Harford County. However, he's second guessing his decision following Cassilly's proposed budget cut.

"The previous county executive made it very clear that education is a priority, and that educators are valued in society. So last year I made the very bold move to come back," said Zebely. "When a county teacher of the year decides to leave that county to move to another, that's a statement. What the current county executive has done has made me second guess my decision to come back home because what he has said with his budget proposal is that he does not value public education."

Zebely continued: "What it says to me as an educator is that he does not value my contribution to society. What it means for my students is that they are not going to receive the individualized attention and instruction that they deserve. Public education is one of America's greatest pillars."

The Harford County Council, which has received Cassilly's proposed fiscal 2024 budget, is holding budget work sessions with county departments Wednesday through Tuesday, April 25. The council has scheduled public hearings on the budget for May 4 and May 10.