Baltimore County officials expressed confidence yesterday that the county would be able to support the school system's proposed $1 billion operating budget for the next fiscal year.
County spokesman Donald I. Mohler said it is too early to comment on specific aspects of the school budget, but "we expect to be strong supporters of it again this year."
County Council Chairman John Olszewski Sr. had not yet seen the proposal. "I look forward to the budget process, where we'll closely scrutinize the budget," he said, noting that the council has not cut any requests from the budget during his seven years as a councilman.
"The main thing is that education is a high priority on a lot of our minds," he said.
The proposed budget, up 7.3 percent from the current spending plan, includes $23.6 million to make salaries for all employees more competitive and $10 million for scheduled pay increases across the system.
Because negotiations with the public schools' unions are under way, "we don't know how that pot is going to be divvied up yet," said county teachers union President Cheryl Bost.
The fiscal 2007 budget, which would go into effect July 1, also includes items that respond to mandates such as the federal No Child Left Behind Act, school Superintendent Joe A. Hairston said.
For example, it includes a request for $65,500 to hire a researcher to analyze data as required under the federal law. Baltimore County, with 107,000 students, has one such researcher; other Maryland counties with more than 100,000 students have as many as 16, Hairston said.
Other budget items include increases for health care and fuel.
