School Budget

Rolling Knolls Elementary School third-grader Luke Mueller asked the Anne Arundel County Council to keep his aging, overcrowded school in mind when deciding on funding next year's school budget. "A new school would make everything better," Luke said of the Annapolis school. "We wouldn't have to come in from the trailers to go to the bathroom. We could even have a real playground with swings. And our parents could stop parking in the parking lanes because of how small our parking lot is. " Luke was among dozens of county residents of all ages and backgrounds who spoke up for their schools, their local libraries and their education programs during public hearings on the county budget on Monday at Old Mill High School in Millersville and Wednesday at the Arundel Center in Annapolis.

Baltimore City school officials say the nearly $1.2 billion budget the system unveiled last week will fund a raft of new academic endeavors, among them a new team to upgrade instruction in the sciences to meet the higher standards of the new national "core" curriculum and additional programs for academically gifted students. This is all to the good if it helps the city attract and retain more young families with children for whom strong public schools are often the most important factor in choosing where to live.

With elected officials and parents in Baltimore County clamoring for the school system to restore 196 teaching positions for next year, Superintendent Joe A. Hairston and county officials appear headed for a faceoff Tuesday over the district's $1.3 billion budget request. At a budget hearing, Hairston and the school board are expected to tell the County Council whether they plan to follow the direction of County Executive Kevin Kamenetz and fund the teaching positions. But if they do not reinstate them, lawmakers and education advocates say they will push to make school district leadership more accountable to the public.

Baltimore school officials unveiled a $1.174 billion budget plan Tuesday, which they said focuses on academics with a new science team to implement curriculum, programs for advanced students and a shifting of staff in the central office. Enrollment is projected to increase in traditional schools by about 2,500 students, causing per-pupil funding to decrease by $40 from last year to $5,190. The annual amount could change if the system doesn't see the projected increase in students.

Acknowledging the sparse turn-out of about a dozen residents at his March 18 Town Hall Community Meeting at the South Carroll Senior Center, in Eldersburg, County Commissioner Doug Howard jokingly confessed that he'd considered ways to drum up more excitement for the Monday evening session. "I asked Commissioner (Richard) Rothschild to come debate me on education, but that didn't work out," Howard said, referring to his fellow commissioner from District 4 who advocates for cuts to the county school budget that Howard opposes.

50 Years Ago (week of May 11-17, 1941):* The Howard County Boardof Education presented the largest public school budget in county history to the Board of Commissioners this week. The budget totaled $263,470, $22,000 of which was designated for an addition to the West Friendship School. The total allotment for teachers' salaries for the 1941-1942 school year was $145,200. The budget also provided for an increase in the salary of the superintendent of schools, from $3,040 to$3,300.25 Years Ago (week of May 8-14, 1966)

Let's see if we have this straight. The Baltimore County Board of Education has approved a fiscal 1995 budget that asks the county government to provide $46 million more than it did for the current school budget. At the same time, the County Council has adopted a spending limit that holds the jurisdiction's entire 1995 budget growth to no more than $41 million.You get the feeling that something's going to give here?Bet on it. County Executive Roger Hayden has already begun sharpening his ax in preparation for taking a whack at this school budget.

Question of the day:Were Baltimore County Executive C. A. Dutch Ruppersberger and public schools Superintendent Stuart Berger able to keep straight faces at their recent meeting when Mr. Ruppersberger warned Dr. Berger against submitting a fat budget request for the coming fiscal year?Both these officials have been around the track enough times to know how the Baltimore County school budget game is played, year in and year out, with almost maddening repetitiveness.It goes like this: County executive sends signals about money not being plentiful.

Cutting school spending is a hot potato these days. Anne Arundel County School Superintendent Carol S. Parham proposed a $437.7 million operating budget that eliminated 21 administrative positions, cut a popular water safety class and eliminated adult education, then tossed the plan to the school board.The board trimmed another $5 million by cutting money for computers, transportation, employee health insurance and retirement benefits, then passed it in turn to County Executive John G. Gary.

The Howard County school board approved a $230.2 million operating budget yesterday that falls 2 percent short of what it had requested to run the school system next year.Although the budget will be almost $13 million more than for the current school year, the board still was forced to make more than $4 million in cuts to many items intended to handle the county's exploding student enrollment -- including additional staffing, new textbooks and an expanded monitoring program for underachieving black students.

Acknowledging the sparse turn-out of about a dozen residents at his March 18 Town Hall Community Meeting at the South Carroll Senior Center, in Eldersburg, County Commissioner Doug Howard jokingly confessed that he'd considered ways to drum up more excitement for the Monday evening session. "I asked Commissioner (Richard) Rothschild to come debate me on education, but that didn't work out," Howard said, referring to his fellow commissioner from District 4 who advocates for cuts to the county school budget that Howard opposes.

The Baltimore city school system is projecting a nearly $26 million increase in its fiscal year 2014 budget, officials said, however the district's central office will once again take a hit, with a near 9 percent cut. The figures were released in a preliminary budget forecast presented to the city school board last week. In the presentation, district officials project $1.17 billion in baseline revenues next year--roughly 2 percent increase from FY2013-- that includes increased local and state funding.

Sixth-graders from West Middle School in Carroll County scoured the Bear Branch stream one recent morning in search of aquatic life in the dead of winter. Nathan Grella said the contents of his bucket did not appear promising. "We just got leaves and rocks," said the 12-year-old, one of 57 youngsters spending the week at Outdoor School at Hashawha Environmental Center in Westminster. Closer inspection, however, showed the leaves and rocks were indeed harboring life, information the students will use to size up the stream's health.

The Anne Arundel County Board of Education has approved an operating budget request that for the first time surpasses the $1 billion mark, and members say they're preparing to cross yet another unfamiliar threshold: working with a new county executive to enact the budget plan. The school board passed the coming year's $1.01 billion operating budget — and also a request for $240 million in capital projects — on Wednesday, the day before the County Council was slated to interview candidates to fill the executive post vacated by John R. Leopold.

Baltimore County classrooms would have about 100 more teachers next school year under a budget proposal unveiled Tuesday by Superintendent Dallas Dance. In his first spending plan since taking the post, Dance presented a $1.3 billion operating budget to the county school board, saying a top priority will be managing growth in the school system of 107,000 students. Dance, who became superintendent this summer, is advocating spending about $4.7 million on additional teachers because of projected increases in student enrollment.

Tensions between Anne Arundel County Executive John R. Leopold and the school system over funding have been well documented, but Leopold's recent comments at a meeting with residents appear to have further strained the already contentious relationship. Leopold met with residents of the Green Haven community in Pasadena after two teens were charged in the fatal shooting Oct. 13 of a 21-year-old man outside a house party in the area. According to Patch.com, Leopold spoke about increasing police presence in Green Haven as well as other parts of the county.

In his letter "Time to devise a better plan for county school board" (April 10) Mel Mintz makes two arguments that absolutely demand response. First, in words that almost parrot language Kevin Kamenetz used in dismissing the idea of an elected school board as an opportunity for the public to ask for golden doorknobs to classrooms, Mr. Mintz begins by fearing the introduction of "many unnecessary frills to the school budget. " He continues with a series of warnings of what "would" and "could" happen if district-elected representatives were on the board.

Sometimes well-intentioned legislation has unintended consequences that are not so desirable. The recent proposal of a hybrid elected school board in Baltimore County is one such proposal. Parents are correct in expressing the need for more accountability from the Baltimore County Board of Education. The solution proposed, however, creates the potential for more problems. County Executive Kevin Kamenetz was right in courageously and successfully opposing the legislation ("Balto.