Posted: Friday, April 8, 2005 1:00 am | Updated: 11:40 am, Wed Nov 25, 2009. By Scott Goss
Full funding.
It's a phrase that signifies the holy grail for local government agencies and it's something the Cecil County Public Schools attained in their current budget - a first in memory.
Last May, the Board of Cecil County Commissioners approved the school system's entire $58.7 million budget request - a full $2.6 million, or 8.1 percent increase over the previous year.
The local increase also came with an $8.1 million bump from the state thanks to the 2002 Bridge to Excellence in Public Schools Act, commonly referred to as the Thornton Plan.
This time around Cecil Public Schools Superintendent Carl Roberts is seeking to repeat the funding success that helped him earn the state's Superintendent of the Year Award for 2004.
"We work hard to make sure that our requests are what we believe is necessary and not just a wish list," Roberts said after presenting his 2006 spending plan to the county commissioners Tuesday.
"Hopefully, we'll get full funding again this year but I believe the county commissioners will make a good-faith effort to fund everything they can given all the requests before them," he said.
Roberts, and by proxy the Cecil County Board of Education, are seeking another $3.6 million in new county funding for Fiscal Year 2006. That money would come on top of the $8.4 million increase that the schools are requesting from the state.
Under the spending proposal, the county would share the total funding responsibility with the state in a 42-51 percent split. Federal funding and school revenue would make up the difference.
If approved, that formula would represent a 1-percent shift from this year's 43 percent county- and 50 percent state-funded budget.
"Thornton is working," Roberts told the commissioners Tuesday. "It's expensive and it's causing some headaches in Annapolis, but it is beginning to level the playing field."
All told, the local school district is seeking a total of $146.5 million for Fiscal Year 2006 - a 9.1 percent increase over this year's spending.
By comparison, the entire school system is expecting to add just 44 new students next year - a scant 0.3 percent increase that would seem to defy local expectations created by Cecil County's current housing boom.
"We are limited to basing our growth projections on birth rates from the previous five years with a little wiggle room from historical data," Roberts said of the enrollment projection, which is expected to be seen exclusively in the county's five high schools.
Cecil's elementary and middle schools are expected to see an overall decrease in enrollment by a total of 169 students.
"We see what you're seeing as far as residential subdivisions coming before (the Department of ) Public Works and (the Office of) Planning and Zoning," Roberts said. "But, as far as funding goes, the state doesn't allow us to take any of that into consideration."
According to Roberts, the additional money he's requesting this year would allow the district to hire 47 new teachers at the highest starting salary of the 12 closest school districts in Maryland, Delaware and Pennsylvania. This year, the district's budget funded 32 new classroom teacher positions.
Roberts said the new teachers would maintain the county's current teacher-to-student ratio at an average of just over 24:1.
However, the additional teachers would allow the public schools to expand full-day kindergarten, meet an increased number of courses resulting from stiffer graduation requirements and allow middle schools to begin offering foreign language courses.
The schools' budget request for next year would add about 37 administrators, bus drivers, custodians, secretaries and guidance counselors. Currently, the school employs close to 2,020 employees - a little more than half of which are teachers.
All told, salaries, wages and benefits would make up $123 million or 84 percent of the school system's total budget request. Teachers' wages would account for $58.3 million or 40 percent of the total budget.
Fixed charges relating to employee benefits and fuel costs are expected to account for the second largest expense. Roberts said those costs will jump more than 30 percent next year and account for more than 18 percent of the total budget.
Special education spending, a major issue of contention last year, accounts for the third largest expense in the school system's spending plan. Roberts said those costs are expected to hit $18.1 million this year, a 7.3-percent jump over the current budget.
During his budget presentation Tuesday, the public schools' superintendent focused heavily on the increased funding proposed for staff training, a revised curriculum, new textbooks and technological upgrades.
The school system is looking to nearly double its outlay for curriculum and staff training next year. Roberts is proposing to increase those expenses from $737,400 to $1.2 million. He is also seeking to add $100,000 to this year's $439,000 line item for textbooks.
But the biggest increase highlighted by Roberts is a proposed $1.2 million hike in expenditures on computers, printers and projectors. The new equipment being requested includes 916 computers, 49 printers, 33 projectors and 10 new servers.
If approved, the public school's technology budget would push $5 million.
"In the 21st Century we need the technological infrastructure to ensure that we're providing an adequate workforce in Cecil County for years to come," Roberts told the board. "It may not be during my career, but I expect that in my lifetime students will be assigned laptops like they get textbooks today."
During his presentation, Roberts also said the schools are hoping to add men's and women's lacrosse and cross-country.
The school system's proposed budget for Fiscal Year 2006 does not include the $25 million contribution to renovations at Elkton High School or the upcoming additions and renovations to Perryville Middle School and addition of 17 new kindergarten classrooms in seven schools.
Those and other capital improvements costs are included in a separate county financing budget that gets vetted in the fall and winter.
A countywide operating budget must be proposed by May 1 and adopted no later than June 1. The budget will take effect July 1.
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