'We are stumped': School board grapples with $40 million shortfall in draft budget
May 4—Frederick County Board of Education members appeared morose on Wednesday as they contemplated more than $40 million in budget adjustments they must make before June 30, with some officials floating increased class sizes or cuts to athletic programs.
The board has about $894 million to work with. It had hoped to have $938 million.
Officials have access to roughly $72 million more than they had this fiscal year. But they have to spend $46 million of that to account for inflation and enrollment growth.
And they had planned to spend $35 million to give 7.14% raises to employees across the district, whose salaries are not competitive with nearby jurisdictions.
Plus, the draft spending plan included more than $10 million to bolster special education resources.
"I'll be perfectly honest," Frederick County Public Schools Budget Officer Heather Clabaugh told the board on Wednesday night. "We are stumped."
Clabaugh walked through the scores of adjustments FCPS recommended the board make to balance the budget. Those included slashing $15 million from the salary resource pool; eliminating Elevate, a five-week summer program introduced in 2021 to help students recover from the pandemic; and delaying planned expansions to student mental health services.
FCPS also recommended reducing or delaying almost all planned enhancements to special education, among many other cuts.
"I'll be blunt," Board President Sue Johnson said, gesturing to the screen where the proposed adjustments were displayed. "This budget hurts kids. It hurts our teachers. It hurts our staff and will hurt our community."
And even if the board accepted every one of the reductions proposed Wednesday night, it would still have a deficit of more than $7 million.
Several people spoke about the budget during the public comment portion of Wednesday's meeting.
Missy Dirks, president of the Frederick County Teachers Association, urged board members not to cut the salary resource pool. The proposed $15 million reduction was "drastic and draconian," she said.
"You have crisis-level educator retention and recruitment problems," she said. "The solution is not to try and balance the bulk of the budget on the backs of these dedicated employees. ... This will quite literally break the backbone of FCPS."
Angie Vigliotti, whose son was secluded and restrained by FCPS staff and who later served on the Blue Ribbon Task Force, implored members to keep special education funding intact.
"If you cut the budget with these programs, the little progress that we have asked for ... you will have a repeat of the Department of Justice investigation," she said.
The U.S. Department of Justice investigated FCPS in 2021 for its practice of restraining and secluding students with disabilities and found that it had systematically violated the Americans with Disabilities Act.
Board members did not make any decisions on Wednesday. They asked Clabaugh to investigate other ways to save — including cuts to athletic programs or increasing class sizes.
Clabaugh said she would bring data on those options to the board's next full meeting on May 17.
Members also vowed to continue advocating before the Frederick County Council, which has the power to increase county education funding — though it would have to cut from somewhere else in the county budget to do so.
"I truly could cry right now," member Karen Yoho, a former FCPS teacher, said as the board discussed cutting the salary resource pool. "I'm just hoping the County Council hears the pleas."
Regardless, Clabaugh warned the board to prepare for difficult decisions ahead.
"We're going to walk out of here not feeling comfortable on June 30," she said, referring to the deadline for balancing the budget.
Follow Jillian Atelsek on Twitter: @jillian_atelsek
