MCPS budget meetings
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Anonymous
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S. Pollak, MCMedia:
MoCo Council, School Officials Meet for Early Look at School ‘Cost Drivers’ Montgomery County Councilmembers sat down for more than two hours Tuesday [Nov 12] for a work session with public school officials, striving to understand how the school budget is prepared and what drives up costs. “The goal here is for us to work together to address these issues. Your budget challenges are our budget challenges. Our budget challenges are your budget challenges,” said Council President Andrew Friedson. Before “crunch time” when the budget needs to be passed, it is important that councilmembers understand how MCPS spends its money, said Council Vice President Kate Stewart. During preparation of the current MCPS budget, Board of Education members urged the council to greatly increase its allocations, noting that extra federal funds received during the pandemic ended. Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) make up about one half of the county budget. The current FY 2025 operating budget is $3.3 billion. 65% of the funds to operate the school district come from Montgomery County, 28% come from the state and 3% comes from the federal government. The MCPS budget grew by 45.9% from Fiscal Year 2015 to Fiscal Year 2025, or about 4% per year. Personnel costs are the largest part of the school budget with MCPS filling its teacher staffing vacancies with older, more experienced teachers who receive a higher salary than beginning teachers. Students whose first language is not English, and problems related to the pandemic have caused MCPS to hire more personnel. Personnel costs for full time employees was $95,716 in Fiscal Year 2015, $105,297 in Fiscal Year 2020 and $121,008 this year. Other increasing budget lines include insurance and pension costs. Total expenditures per student grew from $14,780 in Fiscal Year 2015 to $20,561 in Fiscal Year 2025. “Our current path is not sustainable,” said Superintendent Dr. Thomas Taylor. That is why his staff intends to create future budgets at “base zero” and work from there, he said. First to be included in the budget are mandatory costs, followed by what MCPS should do and then “what we would like to do,” he explained. When Councilmember Gabe Albornoz asked what affect the President Donald Trump’s election and threats to end the Department of Education would have, Taylor replied that schools with the highest poverty level could lose Title 1 funding. Also, he said, if federal jobs are drastically cut, “that would really affect students.” MCPS expects to receive $112 million from the federal government, including $56 million for Title 1 this school year. Tuesday’s meeting was the first of three scheduled on the school budget. |
Anonymous
| Why would Albornoz ask a question about effect of election results? Is Taylor talking to Wiles and president elect's team to get the inside scoop on what could happen with DoE? How is Taylor supposed to know?? |
Anonymous
I think it’s fair question to ask about the worst case scenario if Trump is able follow through on shutting down the DoE completely without any replacement for the funding it provides. Not likely a political reality though. |
Anonymous
| This budget concern is rich, coming from Kate Stewart, the former Takoma Park mayor who blew up the city budget and threw the city into spending out vast more millions from its reserves, which is now almost spent out. |
Anonymous
Because if Trump goes through with eliminating the DOE, it would mean the elimination of Title I funds, which MCPS relies on quite a bit for resources. That kind of a hole in the budget would be highly disruptive, in what is already a challenging budget climate at the state level. Albernoz is merely doing his job by acknowledging this impending reality. |
Anonymous
Honestly I would hope Taylor has thought about what would happen if Trump makes good on his campaign promises. Trump ran on the promise to eliminate the department of education and regardless if you think that is a good or a bad plan, that is the plan promised by the winning party so it seems likely to happen. The Dept of education provides a predictable amount of funds to MCPS based upon already known formulas. If the department of education is eliminated then so is that predictable allotment leaving a question mark over how much, if any, funds MCPS would receive from the federal government and what the metrics for determining amount would be. |
Anonymous
As a politician, and even those who are not, already know what effects are coming if those campaign promises are fulfilled. ask a question just to ask a question? Some of these meetings (e.g BOE ones) are filled with pointless questions. |
Anonymous
14:08. 'think everyone already had/s thought of the worst under this oranghead. |
Anonymous
I mean, Trump has been very public about wanting to shut down the Department of Education, you don't have to be an insider to know that? |
Anonymous
Then we should stop building Crown High. The surrounding high schools are projected to have minimal overcrowding now. |
Anonymous
DoE is the Department of Energy. Are you talking about the Department of Education (ED)? |
Anonymous
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Anonymous
| Can Taylor and company work with MetroBus or RideOn to add more buses for overcrowded bus routes that are used by students and staff to get to and from school? |
Anonymous
| What's going to get cut you think in mcps? |
Anonymous
That really wouldn't work in most areas as the ride on doesn't work like that in suburbs. They need to get more buses and drivers. They need to work with the state so they don't have to get rid of the older buses and replace them so often. Metro is DC. |