Nearly 90 Harford County Public Schools teachers are without positions in the next year, but Superintendent Sean Bulson said he hopes that by the end of next month, that number will be down to just a handful.
Bulson said he realizes the stress that uncertainty is causing and told members of the Harford County Council and the Budget Advisory Board during a work session Monday morning he hopes to relieve some of that anxiety as soon as possible.
The council as a whole is concerned about the proposal to eliminate 179 positions — including 153 instructional — next year to balance a $472.7 million budget.
“I want to express the entire council’s concerns about the environment we’re creating amongst our educations and our administrators,” Council President Patrick Vincenti told Bulson and his staff. “I hear every day morale is the lowest it’s ever been, it’s a terrible work environment and at the end of the day, our children are suffering, and it concerns us all greatly.”
As of Thursday, the school system did not have positions for 89 teachers. Bulson hopes, however, some of those positions will be restored and others will be filled through attrition, but the number of positions eliminated will be determined by the final budgets approved by the Harford County Council and the Board of Education.
The proposed $472. 7 million budget for Fiscal Year 2019-2020 included a $15 million increase over what the county funded last year, but Harford County Executive Barry Glassman only provided $10.6 million of that, with $650,000 earmarked for mental health and psychological services.
However, the school system is projected to receive considerably more from the state than budgeted, Bulson said. He had anticipated receiving $653,000 in state funds over last year, but now Harford is budgeted to receive approximately $6.2 million.
“That was a surprise to us all, it’s very helpful,” Bulson said.
If that funding remains in place and no other changes are made, the school system’s final budget for FY2020 will be $473.9 million.
Some schools stand to lose more teachers than others, including North Harford middle and high schools, which could see 14 and 10 positions eliminated, respectively.
Councilman Chad Shrodes, whose district includes both those schools, urged Bulson to find a way to phase in those cuts rather than hit the schools all at once.
“You have got to phase this in, you can’t do that to North Harford,” Shrodes said.
Bulson said he doesn’t know how to do that with the budget the school system has.
“Try,” Shrodes said.
Bulson again said he understands, but it’s a matter of money and positions.
“Try,” Shrodes said again. “You can do better. It’s affecting our community.”
The number of teachers assigned to a school is determined by a student-to-teacher ratio, Bulson said. Looking at the existing staffing, that ratio varied from school to school, which is why some schools, like those in northern Harford, stand to lose more teachers and other schools will lose fewer, like Edgewood High, where no positions are projected to be eliminated, he said.
“Edgewood High School was dramatically understaffed compared to other schools,” Bulson said.
The council is in the midst of reviewing all of the county executive’s proposed budget for FY2019-2020 and is meeting with representatives from the various agencies who receive county funding.
Vincenti said the council members have not, as a group, discussed any amendments to the budget.
The council can not take money away from the school system’s budget, it can only increase it. If it adds funding to the schools, it must determine where that money will come from elsewhere in the budget.
Officials plan to begin re-assigning teachers during May based on the budget proposed by Harford County and the state.
“We may not finish, it depends on the number [of positions] we’ll be able to restore,” Bulson said. “Everything we’ve done is in anticipation of what the cuts would be.”
The superintendent said he hopes to having the budget finalized and teaching assignments done very quickly after the school board’s June 10 meeting, when it is expected to finalize its budget.
“It’s a dangerous thing to start doing before we have the budget, but as much as we can we want to reduce the stress so we’ll probably take conservative measures and restore as much as we can by June,” Bulson said. “Hopefully we’ll be down to a handful of positions by then.”
Reviewing processes
Several council members asked if the school system looked at ways it could work with the county to reduce its cost, such as combining some of its services, or if it has tried to find efficiencies in its budget.
Councilman Curtis Beulah said the county, through its procurement process, has saved $9 million over the last four to five years.
If the school system could look at its processes and save $2 million a year, that could save about 28 teachers, he said.
Bulson told the board that every $1 million added to the budget would restore 14 teachers.
He told Beulah that shortly after he took over as superintendent on July 1, he implemented hiring and spending freezes.
“I thought they would yield more than they have,” Bulson said. “This budget is very, very tight. There’s not a lot of room in there.”
Closing a school
Councilman Joe Woods asked if any consideration has been given to closing one of the school system’s underused facilities.
While it’s good to have a community school, could there be savings, he asked.
Bulson said transportation would be a factor, and the expense of getting students to schools farther away could offset any savings, which are minimal to begin with.
Most of the positions would travel with the students, because the teachers would still be needed to educate them.
Positions that would be eliminated include the principal and assistants, while custodial support would likely increase because of more students in a different school.
“Overall the savings are somewhat minimal, about $1 million to $1.5 million a year in closing a small school,” Bulson said.
Councilman Robert Wagner asked if redistricting had been discussed. “There are schools with 300 empty seats versus their capacity,” Wagner said.
Bulson, however, said empty seats are different.
“Physical space is not what drives assignment of teachers, the number of students is what drives assignments,” Bulson said.
Teacher raises
The school system is proposing 1 percent raises across the board and step increases for those who are eligible to be able to retain the teachers who remain, Bulson said.
Teachers could, however, see a pay raise of 4.5 percent if the Kirwan funding comes through as projected this year, Bulson said.
Harford is expected to get about $8.7 million from the state as part of the implementation of the Kirwan Commission recommendations. Of that, $3.5 is directed to raises for teachers, particularly beginning teachers, Bulson said.
The issue, he said, is that the funds are described as grants, and the school system doesn’t know if the county will get the same money beyond the two years for which they’re budgeted. They also don’t know when they’ll receive the money — last year when the state allocated money for mandatory safety improvements, Harford didn’t receive the money until March, Bulson said.
The teacher raises also requires the county to provide funds for the “me too” clauses it has with the county’s four bargaining associations besides the Harford County Education Association. Those clauses provide that those school system employees get the same raises as the HCEA. Bulson projects the “me too” clauses and other fixed charges will cost $1.6 million.
North Harford ag
Bob Tibbs Jr., a farmer in northern Harford County, couldn’t emphasize enough the importance of the ag program at North Harford High School where dozens of students had to be turned away last year because the program was full.
Important enough for the president of the national Future Farmers of America who, when he was in Washington, D.C., took an Uber to North Harford to see the program he heard so much about..
Latest Harford County
“I want you to realize how important to the county it is and how the nation sees that program,” Tibbs said.
