SNOW HILL — Starting teacher salaries and the efficiency of spending per pupil were debated at this week’s Worcester County Commission budget work session.
While the elected officials will not make a decision on any possible salary increases until the budget is finalized this June, a few of the commissioners told Superintendent of Schools Dr. Jerry Wilson that some of his requests will be met but it’s unlikely all of them will be.
Worcester spends more money per student than any other school system in Maryland. This unarguably gets results with Worcester County Public Schools (WCPS) consistently landing at the top of state rankings based on test scores.
But County Commissioner Virgil Shockley questioned how exactly the $16,277 spent per pupil is being distributed, especially since WCPS teachers have a starting salary only 16th in the state and second on the lower shore. The starting salary with a Bachelor’s degree is $42,222.
“How can we spend the amount of money that we’re spending per student and end up where we’re ending up with salaries?” he asked.
Citing data taken from the Maryland Department of Education, Shockley told Wilson that the statistics had surprised him. The $16,277 that Worcester spends per pupil is not only the highest in the state but holds that title with a hefty lead, with no other district breaking $16,000.
“And what’s amazing is there aren’t too many people who are even close to us. We spend a huge amount of money on education in Worcester County,” said Shockley, a school bus driver. “Again, I’m not arguing that we shouldn’t. I’m beginning to wonder exactly how and where we’re spending that money.”
It’s being spent in the classrooms, on technology and in hiring a large enough workforce of teachers that many other counties would envy, replied Wilson.
“I would say what we have in Worcester County is very low pupil-to-teacher ratios that many other counties would very much like to have. And that is the basis for why we see the numbers that you are describing,” he told Shockley.
Another contributing factor to why Worcester spends the most money per pupil but has a mediocre starting salary is the lack of state aid. Because Ocean City and West Ocean City have high real estate values it skews the state aid formula, which is supposed to be based on a county’s wealth. However, even with those high property values Worcester’s seasonal nature and significant unemployment means that residents generally aren’t as wealthy as the formula implies. Nonetheless, Worcester receives the second lowest amount of state aid of any county, only about $2,900 per student, meaning that a greater funding burden is placed locally.
Shockley acknowledged the point but was still concerned about the spending ratio only yielding underwhelming starting salaries. Shockley has previously expressed concerns over the high number of administration positions at the Board of Education in Newark as well as the high salaries that come along with those posts.
Commissioner Jim Bunting asked how many county teachers were actually coming in on starting salaries as educators transferring in from other schools began at a higher pay grade. There were 30 new teachers in Worcester last year, according to Superintendent for Administration Lou Taylor, with the majority of those at the minimum salary. Even teachers who transfer are started three steps behind their previous salary, Taylor added.
While spending efficiency could be debated, Wilson argued that the need for a salary increase, as proposed in his budget, was fact. WCPS are requesting a step increase for all employees, as well as a 1-percent Cost of Living Adjustment (COLA) increase with similar raises for bus contractors. This raise is also proposed for all county employees.
“The reality is that our starting salaries have dropped to 16th in the state and second on the lower shore. Teachers who have dedicated their careers in Worcester County are not earning as much as teachers teaching the same number of years in other lower shore counties,” Wilson said.
Wilson’s budget requests a total of $79,463,091 from the county, including about $700,000 in non-recurring funds for technology and school construction. The overall budget requested for FY15 including state appropriation is $98,950,353, an increase of about $3.4 million from last year. The county’s portion of the FY14 budget was $76,079,070, again increasing by about $3.4 million for this year’s proposed budget.
“When we surveyed our parents and heard from our schools, their first request is to compensate staff and their second is technology. This budget fulfills that request,” said Wilson.
The salary figures were compelling, according to Commissioner Jim Purnell.
“To hear that our teachers are 16th in the state in [starting] salaries is striking. That bothers me,” he said.
However, Bunting pointed out that the county is looking at a roughly $8 million deficit in the current budget draft that will need to be rectified. Not counting the approximately $6 million in budget stabilization funds that have been hypothetically added, the real deficit is closer to $14 million. That will need to be rectified either through cuts or a revenue increase such as a tax hike.
Despite that budget shortfall looming, Gulyas and Commission President Bud Church both told Wilson to expect at least some of his requests to be met.