ELLICOTT CITY, Md. — He was an art teacher for 25 years and has two high schoolers in Howard County. Now, Benjamin Schmitt leads the Howard County Education Association, the county's teacher's union.
At stake in the upcoming budget: cuts to almost 350 positions, and with them, programs like gifted and talented and third grade strings, Schmitt said.
That's why Schmitt and other members rallied in front of the Howard County Board of Education on Monday night: to push for more funding from the county government than is earmarked in a recent budget proposal.
"Right now, they're somewhere in the neighborhood of $47 million. They need to ask for at least $25 [million] more," Schmitt told WMAR.
In January, the school system said the budget is seeking to balance a gap of more than $100 million, in part due to Blueprint requirements, and millions more from previously-used one-time funds.
"We know the shift in process is extremely difficult and unnerving for hundreds of staff who are currently learning that their positions are being proposed to be eliminated," said Superintendent Bill Barnes in a January news release. "The recommendations contained in this budget characterize our collaborative and strategic work over the past several months to balance the budget based on revenue assumptions and current information available to us. The proposed budget represents only one budget balancing scenario, and I look forward to collaborating with the Board to address our structural deficit.”
According to the superintendent's budget proposal presentation, the school system plans to address the gap with $47 million above Maintenance of Effort funding from Howard County, $10 million in fund balance and $46.6 million in reduced expenditures.
At a budget work session last Thursday, Barnes, who recently took over the role, urged compassion.
"As the County Executive considers our budget request, we will be using time in March and April to support staff who are potentially impacted," Barnes said. "It is important that we all remain compassionate, empathetic, and mindful of the journey staff are trying to navigate."
The school system did not return a request for further comment on Tuesday.
Schmitt said he is worried about what this would mean for morale and workload.
"How can this be happening in Howard County?" Schmitt added. "We have a number of staff that move here and parents that move here in our community, stakeholders, all over the community, they move here based on the school system. How can it be this way now?"
The Board of Education will keep working on this through next week, and then submit a budget to the Howard County government.
In April, the County Executive will put forth a full county budget proposal.
