Jordan Neperud and Natalie Zepf
Editor-in-Chief and Layout Manager
12 March, 2024
Howard County schools are facing a $103.8 million gap in next year’s proposed budget. Acting Superintendent Bill Barnes presented the proposed budget on January 18th. Due to a combination of mandated and priority expenditures from the Maryland Blueprint along with gaps in revenue, the budget remains a concern to many.
“This is definitely something that in my twenty-six years of working in education that I have never experienced or witnessed,” said Mrs. Pilcher, one of Atholton’s library media specialists.
The proposed budget has to be submitted by April with the official budget to be adopted by May 23rd. It’s likely that up until May 22nd there will still be changes being made to the budget and it could potentially be pushed back even further depending on the severity of the negotiations still taking place. Following the announcement of the proposed budget cuts, parents and students alike have participated in public hearings to express their concerns. There were four public hearings: January 25th, February 15th, February 20th, and February 26th.
“It’s such a difficult situation. We’re going to get through this. We’re going to be able to work it the best that we can. We may not be able to have all the things that we want and all the people we want. It’s going to look different,” said Principal Mr. Novak.
These proposed budget cuts are sweeping and will affect all grades and schools across the county, including Atholton. The main potential changes include class sizes being increased by two students, and many student-facing staff positions being cut or reduced. Teachers, paraeducators, and library media specialists alike face losing their jobs. The Howard County Education Association (HCEA) continues to fight for staff positions and a fully funded budget.
An increase in class size will be the most noticeable change for students next year. Although two more students does not appear to be much, it would raise the limit from thirty-three to thirty five. “When there’s more people in the class, you have to maneuver things differently. You have to go back to the drawing board. It takes more time to plan things sometimes. If you have a forty person class in secondary education, it’s in lecture style rooms and taught differently. We don’t have that luxury and we never will,” explained Mr. Criscuoli, Atholton English teacher and building union representative. These increased class sizes might cause more staff positions to be cut, as more students in classes means that fewer teachers are needed in the building. It also unveils the scary future that students will have less one-on-one time with teachers for help, and assignments will take longer to grade.
The reduction of staff positions has caused a great deal of unrest. If the proposed budget was to go through, buildings that are losing positions would most likely have to surplus recently hired teachers first. Although surplused teachers wouldn’t lose their teaching position in Howard County, they would be forced to move to a school with an open position.
This has sparked outrage from parents and students alike, as many spoke out in the public hearings, criticizing the proposal for cutting essential positions. As Ms. Chaudhry explained, “We know first hand through everyday experience the kinds of support that the programs and positions offer to our students. Our students may not realize it but once they’re gone, they will.” Students here at Atholton rely on organizations and clubs– which are sponsored by staff– in order to be successful outside of school and feel a sense of belonging. Taking away staff means less people to help run these supports which leaves students pulling the weight for missing opportunities that their teachers no longer can
“The way the budget works is that the Board of Education and Superintendent of schools request money that they need in order to run the school system. And it normally includes money that they need which is called maintenance of effort (MOE). We need at least this much additional MOE to maintain the programs that we have,” said Mrs. Chaudhry. Once the MOE has been accounted for, many new programs, staff positions, and school supports are shrunk via budget cuts, staff cuts, or department cuts.
It is not only teachers who face their jobs being cut; pareeducaters and custodial staff may be on the chopping block as well. An anonymous staff member stated, “A lot of people were concerned. A lot of people were saying that they ‘re close to retirement so they may as well retire. A lot of people were worried.”
The budget proposes cutting high school libraries down from two media specialists to one and a half, making it so one of the media specialists would split their time between two schools. This not only increases the workload, but makes it so students will have a harder time building relationships with their school’s library media specialist. Mrs. Pilcher explained, “Historically, everyone loves the library. It’s a place– whether it’s public, school, college– of acceptance, of peace, of seeing yourself in the literature, or feeling like you’re being represented.”
The Special Education Department is in the unique position of receiving both budget increases and cuts. Mr. Novak explained that, “At the same time Special Education positions are being reduced, they are also adding. Special Education is a very large part of our school system. They’re shifting away from temporary employees or T.E.s, so this is something that was a contracted position. A lot of times, people didn’t want this because it didn’t come with benefits. It’s one of the lower paying jobs and you don’t even get benefits. We had vacancies. I think they’re going to be shifting some of those by eliminating T.E. positions.”
Ms. Bollt, a Special Education teacher, stated that she is used to working short-staffed and it was something she was aware of going into the job. “ Not saying it’s a good thing, not saying it’s an acceptable thing, it’s a reality. While it’s disappointing, it isn’t surprising.”
Many staff stated that, off the record, a solution to this problem could be cutting non-essential central office positions. While the idea of cutting any jobs is unfortunate, some believe that many are not needed. More often than not, those working in central office are not in the schools day-to-day. They do not interact with the students in the same way teachers and other staff do. Mr. Novak explained, “There are certain parts of the budget that people feel are bloated or over-budgeted. Every area of the school system is looking at what is necessary and what is nice to have. We know that the most important things happen in those classrooms. That’s what education is about at its core.”
Not only does the chaos of the budget cuts cause stress amongst staff, but also stress amongst administration here at Atholton “It’s a shame for all of these things to come together at once. From my standpoint, I have to look at it and decide what it all means for our staff, our students, our community,” said Mr. Novak. Cuts among staff means Central Office has to get creative with how to fill the fast approaching gaps Atholton will soon face.
The public recent hearings have only reinforced the idea that education taking such a heavy cut will only make things worse. HCEA has been protesting this proposal by wearing red to show solidarity with all teachers across the district. The public hearings have been filled with heated debates from both sides of the podium. HCEA members have been negotiating terms of the budget with board members for the past two months. As Mr. Schmidt, the Atholton union liaison, explained, “It’s about demanding more.”
The annual budget negotiations for education occur annually but this year’s budget shortfall is more extreme than recent years. It’s agreed among staff, students, and parents that there needs to be more money going back into education, not less. As Mr. Criscouli stated,“This will not be the last time there will be budget negotiations. This is going to happen forever. There’s so many moving pieces to this. Everyone is impacted. Education is endless, endless, endless.”
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