Harford County Public Schools leaders will begin deciding next week how to come up with the $22.3 million they need to balance the $457.8 million budget for next school year that the Board of Education approved in March.
At stake are likely to be some positions and programs that could be cut and, possibly, reductions in some of the largest salary increases negotiated in some years by the unions representing the bulk of the Harford system's 5,200 employees.
The school board has scheduled a budget work session for Monday, June 6, at 6:30 p.m. in the board room of the A.A. Roberty Building at 102 S. Hickory Ave., in Bel Air. The meeting is open to the public.
The school system asked Harford County government for $255.8 million to fund next year's budget. Harford County Executive Barry Glassman and the County Council, however, approved only $233.5 million, resulting in the $22.3 million gap the school board has to reconcile. State and federal funding of the remainder of the school budget is projected to be flat to slightly lower, meaning any increased spending next year has been contingent on how much money the county provided.
Jillian Lader, HCPS manager of communications, said Superintendent Barbara Canavan and her staff expect to make recommendations to the board during Monday's work session about how to reconcile the budget shortfall.
The leader of the largest school employees union representing about 3,000 teachers is urging members and parents to attend the work session and to advocate for realistic budgeting decisions that don't affect instructional programs and positions.
"We have to become more efficient and make the budget more sustainable," said Ryan Burbey, president of the Harford County Education Association, which represents teachers and guidance counselors.
Burbey said Thursday he expects the board to consider some position cuts to bring the budget into balance. Some are probably needed, given HCPS' chronic declining enrollment, he said, but he wants them to start outside the classroom to minimize "disruptions" in instructional programs.
"With these enrollment drops, there has to be some realignment," he said.
HCPS had 37,451 students at the start of the current school year, but its buildings have a capacity for 44,077 students, according to the Sept. 30, 2015 annual enrollment report. More declines are projected over the next eight years.
In October, Burbey sent Canavan a letter suggesting more than 25 areas where HCPS could achieve cost reductions or budget efficiencies. Among the recommendations were the elimination of instructional facilitator and central office positions, consolidation of middle and high school bus routes, adoption of system-wide staffing metrics, limiting travel distance for athletic and extracurricular activities, setting systemwide charges for such things as high school student parking passes, eliminating the use of outside legal counsel and forging more partnerships with Harford Community College and county government.
Canavan never responded, he said.
"We reviewed Mr. Burbey's letter as we reviewed all comments received from employees, parents and guardians, students and community members," Lader said Thursday.
HCEA and the school board completed negotiations last month on a three-year contract that will give about two-thirds of those represented by the union a 2 percent cost of living increase and two steps on their salary scale, about 8 percent total, next year. According to HCPS, the first year cost of the contract is estimated at $9.7 million. Similar raises negotiated by five other unions are, like HCEA's, contingent on sufficient funding being available.
While Burbey said he believes Canavan could recommend some teaching position cuts Monday, "I don't think there will be a RIF [reduction in force] because enough people are already leaving."
Burbey said there's "always" a chance the negotiated contract could be in jeopardy, which his why HCEA negotiated a one-year contingency for a 1 percent cost of living and one step increase starting July 1 and an additional .5 percent COLA starting Jan. 1, 2017.
"This isn't just about money, it's the trust factor," he said. "The loss of teachers thus far has been a drop in the ocean" to what could happen going forward, he continued. "And, teachers aren't going to come to Harford County, or they are going to use it as a stopover. This isn't the way to build a quality system, not how Harford County has been in the past."