2015 MCPS Fiscal Budget Approved

By Tom Lee ‘14

newsgraphicApril2014

The Montgomery County Board of Education voted February 11 to propose a four-percent increase in its budget for the 2015 fiscal year, citing growing enrollment, continuing costs and efforts to close the achievement gap.

The proposed $2.32 billion spending plan is more than $35 million higher than what Superintendent Joshua Starr recommended in December. Most of the new funding will go towards employee salaries because MCPS has signed a new agreement with its three employee associations.

“With the new budget, many teachers will receive a raise in their salaries. They work hard every year and deserve every penny of what they are paid,” said Starr at a conference held for high school newspapers on February 24. His statement was in response to a question asked about whether funds should be allocated instead to more programs that will directly affect students.

Board President Phil Kauffman said in a news release that the proposed spending plan “will allow MCPS to keep up with its rapid enrollment growth and invest wisely and strategically to improve teaching and learning.” The district has added almost 14,000 students in the past six years, increasing the total enrollment for this academic year to over 150,000 students.

The budget request is also geared toward closing the achievement gap. The spending plan will fund 15 new high school teaching positions to help decrease the student-faculty ratio in math and reading classes. Also, there will be more staff members to help middle school students learn English and two pre-kindergarten classes for lower class students. The proposed spending plan also allocates funds for a new program that would bring more effective teachers to high-needs schools and retain exemplary teachers already at those schools.

The Montgomery County Council of Parent-Teacher Associations (MCCPTA) aims to ensure County Executive Ike Leggett and members of the County Council give MCPS what it wants in next year’s operating budget. “Our county executive and members of the county council will soon demonstrate if they deeply support schools and students or not. I know the conclusions I am going to draw before I head to the ballot box in June if the school budget is not fully funded or if the conversations turn back again to [the] Maintenance of Effort (MOE) [law] this spring,” said MCCPTA President Janette Gilman in a January Gazette article.

The budget is $26 million above what is required by the MOE law, which requires local governments to provide an adequate level of per-pupuil funding to public schools. However, the county has been able to only approve 99.4 percent of the net amount of what all schools have requested.

“We are going to have to find $15 million in vital programs and services that our children and family need. It will be tough work for us and we are going to have to work with the council to figure out what is next,” said Leggett at a conference for student journalists held on March 13.

The Montgomery County Council has the final say on the district’s budget. The council is expected to pass a spending plan in May.