Harford County Public Schools is proposing to spend $24 million more next year than this year and to do that, it is asking the county for an extra $26.3 million to offset an anticipated decrease in the state's allocation.
The proposed budget for this year also includes a $16 million employee salary package for step and cost-of-living raises and a $1.3 million increase in teacher pension expense to be transferred from the state of Maryland to the local funding authority.
If approved, the request from Harford County, introduced at the school board's Monday meeting, would push next year's unrestricted operating budget, or general operating budget, to $450.9 million, up from $426.9 million passed earlier this year by the board for fiscal year 2015.
Jim Jewell, assistant superintendent for business services, said the request from the county would have been $24 million, but the school system intends to use almost all of its remaining surplus funds to cover anticipated drops in state aid. The change in state aid is due to the county's wealth compared to other counties, coupled with decreases in enrollment, Jewell said.
The school system has been using its fund balance, or surplus, to support operating costs for years.
"That $24 million grew very quickly into a much larger number," Jewell told the school board.
The budget report says the unrestricted fund budget includes increases of $16.5 million for wages, $5.5 million for employee benefits, a $3.2 million increase in "cost of doing business" and a decrease of $1.2 million for cost savings and reversals for a total increase of $24.0 million.
That is combined with a projected decrease in funding from the state of nearly $2.3 million.
"The proposed increase in salary/wages reflects our goal of maintaining a competitive salary structure within the market, especially with our neighboring counties," the superintendent's report on the proposed budget reads.
"As a result of a step increase and 1 percent Cost of Living Adjustment (COLA) once in the past six years, it is our intent with this budget proposal to avoid falling further behind," the report says.
Jewell said he employee cost-of-living raises could not be determined until negations with bargaining units are complete.
After fiscal year 2016, school officials will be almost out of fund balance, with less than $1 million left, Jewell said Tuesday.
Superintendent Barbara Canavan said at the meeting the school system has "had to do with what we were given" and explained why a drop in school enrollment alone does not equal a lower funding request.
"We have gone through an absolutely hard fiscal and economic depression," she said of the school system's budgets in recent years. "The bottom line is, we need to make sure that everyone is on the same page regarding a few key topics."
She said funding the school system at the legally-required "maintenance of effort" minimum would mean once again spending $5,834 annually per student.
She noted that maintenance of effort does not include funding for any unfunded mandates that could come from the state.
Joe Licata, chief of administration, said people often ask why the school system is asking for more money when it is losing students.
He said the maintenance-of-effort formula is adjusted for a drop in enrollment, so "we are losing money at the same time based on the number of students we are losing."
The school system saw an enrollment decrease of 299 students this past year, he said, but it is still spending the same amount to heat, light and maintain buildings.
"You still have to turn on the lights, you still have to operate the building," he said.
The budget also includes $96.3 million worth of capital projects, including $35 million toward a new Havre de Grace High School and $17 million toward a new Youth's Benefit Elementary School.
The school board did not discuss the budget or make other comments about it at Monday's meeting.
Public input sessions on the budget will be at 6 p.m. Jan. 7, 6 p.m. Jan. 12, 6 p.m. Jan. 13, noon Jan. 15, 6 p.m. Jan. 21 and 6 p.m. Jan. 26.
All the meetings will be held at the A.A. Roberty Building except for the Jan. 13 session, which will be at Jarrettsville Elementary School.
More information is also available on the school system's website, http://www.hcps.org.