March 28, 2024
Annapolis, US 51 F

Superintendent Kevin Maxwell Submits $986.2 Million Operating Budget

Requests Authority To Fill 62 Additional Classroom Teaching Positions And Fully Funds Negotiated Agreements

Schools Superintendent Kevin Maxwell tonight recommended a $986.2 million Fiscal Year 2013 operating budget that requests the authority to fill 62 additional teaching positions and fully funds negotiated agreements with all four employee bargaining groups.

Funding for the teaching positions – all to be deployed in classrooms – would come from school system savings accrued “through sound fiscal management and additional reductions in base salaries across all employee groups due to permanent turnover,” Dr. Maxwell told the Board of Education in his budget address.

“This is a win-win situation, and I urge every supporter of education in our county to encourage the County Council to allow us to fill these positions,” he said.

The request is $49.5 million more than the Fiscal Year 2012 budget approved by the County Council, with $33.8 million of that going toward funding of the negotiated agreements. The remainder of the increase includes allocations for increased transportation and fuel costs ($7 million), charter school expansion ($3.5 million) and textbook purchases ($3 million).

“As we look to the future and formulate a budget request that will continue to help us move our school system forward, we must not be oblivious to the fiscal climate that exists in our county,” Dr. Maxwell told the Board. “However, we also must not ignore the needs of our students and our system and, in the process, fail to invest in the very future of not only our county, but our state and nation.”

The operating budget revenue projections also include a $3.8 million penalty the school system is facing because the County failed to meet its legal obligation to meet Maintenance of Effort (MOE), the minimum level of funding that counties are required to allocate annually in order to support their school systems. AACPS received confirmation from the Maryland State Department of Education earlier this week that, based on its review, the County failed to meet its FY2012 MOE obligation.

The $198.2 million capital budget presented to the Board contains $120 million for construction projects at 10 schools: Northeast High School; Phoenix Annapolis; and Point Pleasant, Annapolis, Lothian, Crofton, Mills-Parole, Rolling Knolls, Benfield, and West Annapolis elementary schools. It also contains $5.7 million in design and engineering funds for Severna Park High School, $10 million for full-day kindergarten additions at Severna Park, Bodkin, Oak Hill, and South Shore elementary schools; $9 million for open space classroom enclosures at Central Middle School and Broadneck High School, and $9.7 million for a classroom addition at Crofton Middle School and gym additions at Maryland City and Waugh Chapel elementary schools.

Dr. Maxwell’s full budget recommendation, a Budget In Brief, and the text of his remarks to the Board can be found on the AACPS web site, www.aacps.org.

BUDGET HEARINGS, WORKSHOP

The Board of Education has scheduled two public hearings and a public workshop on Dr. Maxwell’s budget recommendation. Public hearings will be held on Tuesday, January 10, 2012, at Old Mill High School, and Thursday, January 12, 2012, in the Board Room at the Parham Building in Annapolis. Both hearings begin at 7:00 p.m. Those wishing to testify can sign up beginning at 6:00 p.m. Testimony will be limited to three minutes per person.

A public workshop on Dr. Maxwell’s budget recommendation will be held at 6:00 p.m. on Tuesday, January 24, 2012, in the Board Room at the Parham Building. No public testimony will be taken at the workshop.

Source: AACPS
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