Baltimore County's Board of Education Tuesday to pass its $1.5 billion budget plan along to the County Council and executive for approval, despite concerns of some parents.
At Tuesday's board meeting parents complained about a provision that would eliminate eight assistant principal positions at elementary schools with 350 students. Two of those assistant principal positions will be moved to schools with 800 or 900 students.
Savings would be used to fund new school programs including giving laptops to every student in grades one through three in all of the county's elementary schools. A pilot program begun this year in a limited number of schools has been successful, according to Superintendent Dallas Dance.
Board member Michael Collins voted against the budget, saying he believes the school system should delay the implementation of the computer initiative until studies are completed saying whether it increases academic performance.
He said money could be used instead to keep the assistant principals, add teachers to lower class sizes for immigrants learning English, and fix some of the maintenance problems that have plagued aging schools, such as Randallstown and Dulaney High schools. Parents at both schools have complained of the failure of the system to keep their schools functioning well.
Dance spoke in favor of full support of the technology program, saying that he had "qualitative data" that it was improving learning in the pilot schools. "I can put my career on the line with this," he said.
But some parents said they would rather have more staff than more computers.
"Why does the district value technology over face-to-face interaction with teachers? Many parents are questioning the decision to spend money on laptops for the district's youngest kids," said Cynthia Boyd, the parent of a West Towson Elementary student.
Parents from Bedford Elementary said losing their assistant principal would hurt their schools, and that they wanted money focused on hiring staff.
Adding the eight assistant principals back to the budget would cost about $1 million.