The state’s third-largest school district is planning for deep cuts in response to another challenging fiscal landscape, downstream of the state’s deficit and federal funding uncertainty.
Baltimore County Public Schools Superintendent Myriam Rogers proposed an operating budget of $2.49 billion Tuesday. Last year’s proposal was $2.98 billion, which would have itself been a 6.5% hike over the previous year. The board eventually adopted a $2.79 billion spending plan.
Rogers’ fiscal 2027 budget proposal would cut nearly 594 positions totaling $59 million to fund other budget priorities. Nearly 325 positions are tied to the change in the staffing allocation formulas, and 111 school-based positions are tied to enrollments, according to the budget presentation Rogers delivered Monday.
This year, despite deep cuts and cost-saving measures, Rogers’ plan commits to funding the compensation agreements in Year 2 and Year 3 for the school system’s five union partners. The agreements, which run through June 2027, will increase total compensation by about $93 million for union-represented employees.
While Teachers Association of Baltimore County President Kelly Olds said she appreciated the superintendent’s treatment of the compensation agreement as a fixed cost in this year’s proposal, she also expressed concern about the wide-spanning cuts intended to pay for them.
“These cuts are too deep. We are concerned they will be detrimental to the gains our educators have helped win with our students. We must work together to curb their score, size and impact,” Olds told the school board Tuesday.
Billy Burke, president of Council of Administrative & Supervisory Employees (CASE), said the proposed staffing cuts “reach[ed] deep into the heart of our school communities.” His union represents principals, assistant principals, coordinators, supervisors, pupil personnel workers and superintendent’s designees within the district.
“While these are presented as fiscal adjustments, they will be felt as service adjustments by the most important clients we serve, our students,” Burke said. He requested to the board that as CASE members are reassigned due to the cuts, that no new hires be made until each impacted CASE member be placed into either a promotional or lateral position.
“We acknowledge that the cuts are unavoidable, however we advocate tonight for the members of CASE who will bear the brunt of these reductions.”
Sun reporter Natalie Jones contributed to this article. Have a news tip? Contact Racquel Bazos at rbazos@baltsun.com, 443-813-0770 or on X as @rzbworks.