NEWARK – Last week’s Worcester Board of Education’s budget meeting may have been overshadowed by Dr. Jerry Wilson’s announcement to not seek a second term as Superintendent of Schools, but there is a still an almost $100 million budget to pass, even if it’s one that ends up looking similar to last year’s.
Teacher salaries continue to be the big question mark in the FY2017 school budget in Worcester County as negotiations are still ongoing for a slight STEP increase and a 1% COLA bump for teachers adding $1.1 million and roughly $600,000 to the board’s bottom line, respectively.
The local share of teacher’s pensions will increase in FY2017 by $158,833, and an estimated 10% spike in health insurance will cost an additional $1.3 million.
“Based on current estimates, maintenance of effort (MOE) would require an additional $750,000 in county funding,” said Chief Financial Officer Vince Tolbert in his presentation to the board.
However, Tolbert explained that based on numbers released by the Maryland State Department of Education, the money the school district receives from the state will drop $35,453.
By and large, the FY2017 budget looks very similar to the FY2016 budget from a spending perspective, with only a few minor increases including an additional $285,843 in software, classroom and textbook costs that had been covered in past years by a RTTT (Race To The Top) grant, which has expired.
“The funding level we had in FY16 is still less than we had in FY09 for textbooks,” said Tolbert. “We made those cuts during the recession and that category has been $200,000 less since.”
Administration costs are proposed to stay the same, including salaries for board members and administrators. However, the board has allocated an additional $40,000 for new contractor buses.
Tolbert told the board that while there are no bus contractor salary increases listed in the proposed budget, that may change once the teacher negotiations concerning salaries conclude.
“We usually wait to get through those negotiations before we get to the bus contractors,” he said.
The board will meet again on Feb. 16, and Tolbert said he’s hopeful that the teacher negotiations would be finished by then.
The County Commissioners will also have the chance to further trim or amend the school board’s budget in April.
“This is my 12th budget session and each one has been more daunting than the last,” said board president Johnathan Cook, “but we are confident that we will pass a budget to help provide the best we can for our students.”