SNOW HILL– While several citizens this week spoke in support of the local school system’s budget request, others said more transparency was needed from Worcester County Public Schools.
Most speakers at this week’s public hearing on Worcester County’s proposed $241 million budget addressed education, which accounts for more than half of the county’s spending. Several said they wanted the school system to have the funding it needed to hire and retain quality teachers and maintain small class sizes. Others questioned the school system’s ever-increasing budget. Commissioner Caryn Abbott said she wanted a forensic audit of the school system’s spending for the past five years.
“We owe it to all county taxpayers to be as transparent as possible,” she said.
When it came time for comments on education at the county’s annual budget hearing Tuesday, Superintendent Lou Taylor thanked the Worcester County Commissioners for their ongoing support of the school system. He said Worcester County students were more successful than those elsewhere in the state but stressed that the world was constantly advancing and becoming more competitive.
“It is essential we prepare our students for their future and not our past,” he said. “This requires continued investment in our people to ensure we can offer competitive salary and benefit packages to recruit, hire and retain the very best teachers and staff available. Research shows the teacher is the number one factor in student success.”
In addition to including raises for teachers and support staff, Taylor said this year’s proposed budget included increases for school bus contractors. He said the vast majority of school system employees lived in Worcester County.
“Worcester County Public Schools is proud to boast that 74% of our employees live in this county, which means those dollars are being invested into local services and businesses,” he said.
Several parents and grandparents of local students also asked the commissioners to support the school system’s requested budget. They praised the small class sizes and qualified teachers they’ve seen at local schools. Pocomoke resident Mason White talked about how his family had purchased a home here specially because of the school system.
Grandparent Debbie Lambertson said she wanted to see the school system be able to afford small class sizes, the latest technology and good teachers.
“Our children accomplish great things because of dedicated staff,” she said.
Newark resident Pat Barbely said she was concerned about the impact the Blueprint for Maryland’s Future would have on the county.
“More Worcester County taxpayer funds will have to be directed toward the board of education budget,” she said. “The commissioners have a fiscal responsibility to the taxpayers of Worcester County to manage our tax dollars as prudently as possible. This is why the commissioners have asked the board of education to provide a line item, detailed budget for their review, just as every other department has to provide.”
She added that the school system’s budget increased regularly.
“We continue to direct more money to the board of education but it’s not helping our test scores,” she said. “Our kids can’t read. Our kids can’t write. Our kids can’t add. Maybe more funding is not necessarily the answer.”
Alan Hudson, president of the Worcester County School Bus Contractors Association, reminded the commissioners how critical the safe transportation of students was. He said the requested budget needed to be funded so things like school buses could be maintained.
“You can’t put a price on safety,” he said, using three toy school buses to illustrate how easily an improperly maintained bus could be out of service.
Katie Addis, a member of the board of education, said she was speaking at the hearing as a taxpayer.
“The budget should not be a partisan issue,” she said. “Instead of worrying about party lines and whether we are all on Team Blue, or Team Red, we all need to start agreeing that we are on Team-America, Team-Maryland, and Team- Worcester. When we have commissioners who are actively trying to be accountable for the budgets of Worcester County, we should be applauding their desire for transparency, not condemning it because it’s never been asked for before.”
She applauded the commissioners for their recent requests for more detailed budget information from the school system.
“As we all know, elections have consequences, and ‘We the People’ have elected a set of commissioners who are no longer satisfied with the status quo of categories and summaries without a breakdown of each line item for the board of education budget,” she said. “I myself, am not satisfied with the lack of transparency within the Board of Education budget either.”
Bishopville resident Richard Addis asked the commissioners to think outside the box as they worked to balance the budget. He suggested they explore a reassessment of base at the state level in order to potentially reduce the amount of required education funding.
“We’re talking about a school board budget that has turned into a snowball,” he said. “It is growing exponentially.”
Berlin resident Tammy Donaway asked the commissioners to fund the budget so the school system could retain its high quality teachers and keep up with technology. She said she wanted to see the school system’s success continue.
“Our schools have consistently ranked near the top in almost all categories,” she said.
Resident Kate McCloskey thanked the commissioners for their recent calls for transparency and said they had an $11 million budget shortfall to eliminate.
“We have to figure out what’s essential,” she said.
Beth Shockley-Lynch, president of the Worcester County Teachers Association, said parents had voiced their desire for the school system to recruit and retain high quality teachers at the school system’s annual December public budget input session.
“The school system stakeholders unanimously feel this is critical to our system,” she said.
Commissioner Chip Bertino thanked citizens for providing input during Tuesday’s session. Abbott agreed public input was valuable. She said transparency and accountability should be the cornerstone of Worcester County government.
“The largest part of the budget is the board of ed and coincidently the least transparent and accountable to the taxpayers,” she said. “It’s time to end the excuse ‘it’s never been done before’ or this is ‘unprecedented’ when it should have been done all along.”
She said she proposed a forensic audit of the board of education’s budget for the last five years.
“Let the true transparency begin,” she said.
While the hearing closed without further comments, Todd Ferrante, president of the board of education, addressed the issue of transparency in an interview Wednesday. He pointed out the school system already underwent 17 audits a year because of the variety of funding it received.
“Some of those are required audits,” he said. “We’ve always passed with flying colors.”
He stressed that Taylor and Chief Financial Officer Vince Tolbert were working closely with county staff to provide whatever financial information they needed.
“We are working to be as transparent as possible,” he said. “The way we have things itemized and lined up is not how they want them. We’re providing them with the information they requested.”
Weston Young, the county’s chief administrative officer, said the school system’s budget was roughly 53% of the county’s annual spending. He agreed that school system officials were working with county staff on providing financial information.
“There are still a lot of unanswered questions and it would be really helpful to see a five-year trend of line item accounts,” he said, adding that county officials had questions about things like the school system’s fleet, take-home car policy and even maintenance of the two RVs recently purchased with grant funding.
“Over 50% of our budget goes to the board of education,” he said. “Over the last few years, our departments have made cuts and the board of education’s requests have been fully funded. The recent budget request is simply getting additional scrutiny. The board of education budget as originally submitted lacks significant detail compared to any other outside entity we would fund.”
