School Budget

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.

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.

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.

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.

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)

Howard County's Board of Education is in that uncomfortable position where all the options available look bad. Not only are school board members unable to get the extra $4.4 million they want from the County Council, but the board must make cuts that could make it the target of an embittered community.This sequence of events is not Howard's standard operating procedure. In the past, county officials have largely acquiesced to school board requests, and the school budget requests have been inviolable.

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.

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.

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.

The attack on County Executive John G. Gary's proposed $733.2 million spending plan continued last night, as education leaders and parents urged the County Council to spend more on education."

Baltimore County Executive Kevin B. Kamenetz said he is seeking legislation that would combine some school system and county government functions, an effort to save money if teacher pension costs are transferred to counties. Kamenetz is one of the few local leaders not to protest Gov. Martin O'Malley's plan to transfer a portion of the costs of teacher pensions — now entirely paid for by the state — to the counties. The local leaders have said they would need to cut deeply into services to handle the pension costs, which are projected to rise each year.

Anne Arundel County residents attending hearings this week lauded school Superintendent Kevin Maxwell's recommended $986.2 million operating budget and encouraged the school board to adopt it and the County Council to help fund it. Maxwell presented his recommendations at two public hearings. The proposed budget comes at a time when concerns over maintaining the quality of education amid a stagnant economy are high and the school system and County Executive John Leopold are at odds over per-pupil funding.

While Maryland has been ratcheting up aid to local school systems, state education officials say that seven counties aren't paying their share and are failing to fund schools this year at the minimum level required under state law. Education advocates and state leaders say that school funding cuts by nearly one-third of the state's 24 local jurisdictions will undermine progress at public schools that have been repeatedly ranked as the nation's best....

Anne Arundel County residents lauded Superintendent Kevin Maxwell's recommended $986.2 million operating budget at a public hearing Tuesday night, encouraging the school board to adopt it and the county council to help fund it. About three dozen people attended the meeting at Old Mill High School in Millersville. All of those who commented on the fiscal 2013 budget voiced support; they included members of the teachers and secretaries union. Maxwell's budget requests the authority to fill 62 additional teaching positions and fully funds negotiated agreements with all four employee bargaining groups.

After receiving criticism last school year for cutting high school teaching positions while keeping administrators, Baltimore County Superintendent Joe A. Hairston is proposing to do the reverse next year - preserve classroom teachers and eliminate 46 administrative positions. Hairston presented a proposed $1.23 billion operating budget to the school board Tuesday night that includes an increase of $19.6 million from the current year. "We preserve our teaching positions. We preserve our academic programs for our children," said Hairston, who is leaving the school system when his contract expires in June.

Anne Arundel County school officials are seeking public support for Superintendent Kevin Maxwell's proposed budget, which the county government has signaled will not be fully funded, during hearings and workshops next week. Last month, Maxwell recommended a $986.2 million operating budget for fiscal year 2013 that, among other things, requests authority to fill 62 additional teaching positions. School officials said the request is $49.5 million more than the fiscal 2012 budget approved by the County Council, with $33.8 million of that to fulfill contract agreements.

Prince George's County Public Schools will hold its first budget forum of the year in Laurel. The community budget forum will be held Wednesday, Jan. 11 at 6:30 p.m. at Laurel High, 8000 Cherry Lane. Other community budget forums scheduled for January include one on Tuesday, Jan. 17 at 6:30 p.m. at Gwynn Park Middle School, 8000 Dyson Road, Brandywine; and Wednesday, Jan. 25 at 6:30 p.m. at Cora L. Rice Elementary School, 950 Nalley Road, Landover. For information, go to http://www.pgcps.org .

The likelihood of a negotiating impasse between Harford County Public Schools and the local teachers union will no doubt drag out further any final contract settlement between the two sides. The stalemate may also eventually trigger a test of the state's new binding arbitration law for teacher negotiations, but we're still a fur piece from that unfortunate occurrence. We do know the teachers were promised a 3 percent raise, a step increment raise for next year and another one to catch up from the one missed in the current year as salaries were frozen.