The threat to close the three Harford County Public Schools indoor swimming pools and ax the interscholastic swimming program produced predictable results.
Scores of students and parents jammed into the board of education's meeting room Monday night and protested loudly, so school officials – also predictably – said they will keep the pools open and the swimming teams competing, while finding other ways to balance next year's budget.
One new detail approved was to raise the pay-to-play fee for participating in high school athletics from $50 per sport to $100 per sport. We may have more to say on this decision at another time, but we'd like to remind readers our position has been pretty much consistent: pay to play is unnecessary and essentially unfair and discriminatory.
As noted previously, the school board approved a $457.8 million unrestricted operating budget for next year, but final determination of county and state revenue left the budget about $20 million short.
Cutting activities like swimming – or the Harford Glen overnight program previously eliminated but restored Monday night, closing pools, doubling up on bus routes, getting rid of 10, 20, 30 teaching positions, might get the funding/spending gap down by $8 million to $10 million, but it still doesn't deal with the fundamental problem of unrealistic budgeting and financial planning by leaders of our public school system.
Still unaddressed, for instance, is the unpopular and highly explosive question of how a school system with facilities sized to serve 40,000-plus students, but with only 37,500 enrolled – a number that continues to fall annually – can justify budgets that grow annually in what appears to be inverse proportion to the school population.
We understand. Nobody wants their school to close, but at some point the quality of instruction will decline across the board because money will continue to be diverted in ever-increasing amounts to pay for the cost of keeping underused facilities open and functioning.
The swimming pools/program, Harford Glen, money generated by pay to play, together represent, at most, around 0.5 percent of the operating budget. Trying to wring cents out of dollars is counter-productive, but does have what appears to be a desired effect for some HCPS officials of obfuscating the need for sensible, prudent management.
Also unaddressed in any reasonable discourse is the school system operating budget surplus, euphemistically known in accounting terms as a "fund balance," which stood at almost $23.8 million on June 30, 2015, according to the most recent annual financial report, the final day of the previous school year.
HCPS officials say they need to have funds for a cushion against emergencies, and indeed they do. They also will be using some of the surplus, at least $5.7 million, to balance next year's budget, an amount some HCPS officials say is dangerously high.
We, however, beg to differ on the latter. Most HCPS operating revenue comes from either Harford County or the State of Maryland through taxation. The money received should be spent for the purpose intended, providing education to the children of Harford County, not unnecessarily hoarded from year to year, while threatening children and parents with draconian measures.
Proper financial management does indeed involve some tough choices, but also sensible ones. We're still waiting on the HCPS leadership to come to its collective senses when formulating and enacting their annual budget.