CECIL COUNTY — The Cecil County Board of Education’s (CCBOE) $258.8 million FY24 budget request passed Wednesday night in a 3-1 vote with the absence of board member Dianne Heath.
The passed budget request reflects a $5,546,183 increase from the proposed request presented to the board in January. The overwhelming majority of this $5.5 million increase is from a change in Salaries and Fixed Charges to accommodate an additional 64 positions to help lower class sizes in the county.
The 64 positions include eight elementary teachers; six middle school teachers; 15 special education teachers; one ELL teacher; 17 regular education paraprofessionals; 12 special education paraprofessionals and five ELL paraprofessionals.
The addition of these 64 positions occupies $4.1 million of the total $5.5 million increase.
The passed budget request also shows increases in Education Services, Direct Instruction, Student Services and Transportation.
Student Services show the second largest increase in the finalized budget with a $972 thousand rise.
“Blueprint requires us to set aside $62 per student grades K-12 and that money should be used in conjunction with the Susquehanna Workforce Network for career counseling for middle and high schoolers,” said CCPS Chief Finance Officer Denise Sopa.
Direct Instruction for coordinators received an increase of $63.4 thousand to accommodate tutors – another state-mandated increase that the CCBOE needs to reflect in its budget.
“This isn’t extra money that can offset our expenses on our budget, we have to add expenses to match the state’s revenue,” said Sopa.
Also, as a result of higher state funding, Education Services had an increase of $17.4 thousand.
“We can all agree that these are good things, but my point is that none of this revenue is toward reducing class size,” said CCPS Superintendent Jeffrey Lawson.
The last area of the finalized FY24 CCCPS budget to receive an increase is in Transportation. The increase comes subsequent to a meeting the school system had with transportation contractors.
The $525,000 increase in Transportation reflects a five cent increase in maintenance per mile, and dollar per hour bus driver pay.
A breakdown of the finalized $258.8 million FY24 budget shows that $26.9 million is restricted state funding. Restricted money is money that the state dictates what the dollars can be used for.
The remaining $231.8 million of the $258.8 budget is unrestricted money that the school board can allocate as they see fit.
“We know we are getting that restricted money from the state so it’s not really a request,” said Lawson. “The request is the $231 million in unrestricted.”
The board predicts that they will receive $135,550,339 from state funding in both restricted and unrestricted dollars, however, this number is subject to change.
If CCPS receives the anticipated $135.5 million from the state, that leaves a gap of roughly $94 million.
The $94 million gap is outlined in the Board’s request to the county for FY24 funding.
If the Cecil County government funds CCPS at Maintenance of Effort – the state-mandated minimum a county is required to provide its public school system – for the third year in a row, the chances are high that CCPS will be low on funding, resulting in position cuts, according to school officials.
“Our children and their education are the best investment a government can make,” said Lawson.
In approving the Board’s FY24 finalized budget request, BOE member Renee Dixon voiced her opposition, saying that funding for new staff positions should come out of administrative salaries.
“We absolutely need more teachers and support staff but I think we need to look long and hard at our administration and how much they get paid,” said Dixon. “We need to figure out a way on how to get teachers and into the paras and into the student support staff so that our students are getting as much help as they can possibly get.”
The Board’s budget request is due to the council on Mar. 1 and the Board’s approval of the final FY24 budget request is scheduled for June 14.
CECIL WHIG CLIP
By Matt Hubbard
