The Harford County Board of Education has passed a $438.9 million operating budget for fiscal 2017, with last-minute appropriations to save the interscholastic swimming program and restore overnight stays at the Harford Glen Environmental Education Center, but board members have not heard the last of public concerns about the final product.
Harford County families will shoulder the increased costs of participating in interscholastic sports, with the doubling of the "pay-to-play" sports participation fee from $50 to $100, and the institution of a $100 fee to take part in drama productions next year, one measure the board used to help balance the budget.
"There's a lot of anger, that it now puts drama instructors in a position where they now have to consider whether a student is able to afford a $100 drama fee," Ryan Nicotra, a Bel Air High School alumnus who participated in his school's drama program, said.
Nicotra, 26, facilitates occasional workshops for the school's Bel Air Drama Company. He attended a meeting earlier this week with 20 to 25 people, many of them concerned parents and students, about the drama fee.
"The fact that there's a cost barrier, even for students that can afford it, I think goes against everything the Board of Education stands for," he said.
Students, their parents and supporters of HCPS drama programs plan to air their concerns when the board meets Monday at the A.A. Roberty Building in Bel Air. It is the final school board meeting before next year's budget takes effect July 1 and the new school year begins in August.
Several student groups are scheduled to protest in song outside, about 30 to 45 minutes before the meeting starts at 6:30 p.m. – Nicotra called it "sort of a free concert."
Nicotra, who graduated in 2007, got involved in drama his freshman year. He then got a bachelor's degree in theater arts from Flagler College in Florida in 2011. He is the development director for the Single Carrot Theatre in Baltimore and is pursuing a master's in arts administration at Goucher College in Towson.
He splits his time between residences in Baltimore and Bel Air.
"I'm very excited and passionate about making sure the next generation of young artists has the opportunity to share the stage and to take full advantage of all that the arts have to offer," Nicotra said.
He said school officials "should make it easier to participate in the arts, and we should be celebrating kids who want to stay after school and make it easier to do so."
School board Vice President Joseph Voskuhl made the motion during the June 13 board meeting to increase the sports fee and add the fee for drama.
"High school plays are extracurricular – just like sports, students must try out for a part in the play," Voskuhl said then. "They are not connected to any school-based class; it's strictly an extracurricular activity, just like a sport, and I feel that these students, like the athletes, should pay the participation fee."
School officials estimate the drama fee will raise $50,000 in revenue, based on 500 students participating. The projected revenue will offset, by $50,000, the $552,293 appropriated from the operating budget fund balance to preserve the swimming program through the 2016-2017 fiscal year.
Surplus used
Next year's HCPS budget includes an assignment of $5.52 million from the fund balance, or cash reserves. It includes a base assignment of $4.75 million to help balance the budget, $502,293 for swimming and $271,453 to restore Harford Glen overnights through the next fiscal year.
The amount remaining in the fund balance will not be known until the fiscal 2016 books are closed in July, according to HCPS spokesperson Jillian Lader.
Fiscal 2015 ended June 30, 2015, with a total operating fund balance of $23.77 million, according to the Comprehensive Annual Financial Report for that year, although $17.3 million of the fund balance was assigned to various expenses, such as balancing the budget, employee health insurance and fuel reserves.
Teacher salary increases
Next year's budget includes an $11.4 million line item for employee salary increases. That money covers a contingency wage package, including one step on the salary scale and a 1.5 percent cost of living adjustment for teachers.
The Harford County Education Association, the teachers' union, and the Board of Education ratified a contract for fiscal 2017 that calls for a maximum of two steps and a 2 percent COLA, and the latter increases as a contingency based on available funding.
Ryan Burbey, president of the HCEA, said members would prefer the full salary increase, but noted the school system faces a difficult financial situation.
"The budget is tight, but I really think the school system needs to start to look at ways to build a sustainable budget where they can honor their agreements and their commitments," Burbey said Tuesday.
There are about 5,000 HCPS employees, and the teachers' union represents about 3,200 people, the bulk of the employees, including teachers, guidance counselors, media specialists, occupational and physical therapists and hearing and speech clinicians.
School officials have said about 2,000 union members would be eligible for the step and COLA increases.
At the same time, school officials will cut up to 51 full-time positions next year, including 23 teaching slots and many other staff who support teachers, such as inclusion helpers, media technicians and paraeducators.
Burbey said "chewing around the edge" by eliminating various positions and programs will not get HCPS to a better financial position.
"Long term, I think they have to make substantial cuts to the administrative bureaucracy," he said.
Burbey renewed calls he has made in the past to cut instructional facilitator positions, which number 12 but cost the school system more than $1 million each year. School officials and principals have said instructional facilitators are a key part of working with teachers, administrators and students to improve academic performance.
"I am a proponent of the whole child," Superintendent Barbara Canavan said June 13 when board member Jansen Robinson made a motion to cut four instructional facilitator positions. "How can we possibly look at these kids and these teachers and say, 'We're taking this out from under you?'"
Robinson withdrew his motion after Canavan and a majority of board members protested.