Howard County schools officials told County Council members Thursday they plan to rearrange some of the funds in County Executive Allan Kittleman's proposed budget for the public school system.
The reallocated funds will help keep two other school renovation projects on track, according to Beverly Davis, the school system's executive director of budget and finance.
Ellicott City's Waverly Elementary School will get close to $4 million for a planned addition and renovations, while Swansfield Elementary School, in Columbia, will receive nearly $10 million to maintain progress on renovations and an addition there, Davis said.
Some of the shuffled money was freed up by a state award of $3.7 million for Wilde Lake Middle School, which will become the state's first school with zero net energy consumption. Other money was suctioned from New Elementary School #42, a construction project that will relieve overcrowding in the eastern county.
Diverting funding from the new elementary school project will not slow its progress, Davis said. In fact, she told the council, Kittleman and the school board are working together to push the school's opening date up a year, to August 2018.
Davis said the board's proposal would allow all three projects to proceed without delays, as long as officials were "creative" with the bidding and contract award process.
The decision would restore some funding to the Waverly and Swansfield renovations, which both had money from prior fiscal years. School system officials had hoped for $10.2 million for Waverly Elementary and $12.4 million for Swansfield Elementary, but Kittleman opted not to fund either in his proposal, which instead allotted $13.4 million to the new elementary school in the east. The county executive had pencilled in funding for both projects in fiscal year 2017.
The fund shuffling will still keep the school system's budget within the parameters Kittleman set, according to School Board member Ellen Flynn Giles. The school system will receive a total of $776.3 million, of which $544.1 million will come from the county, if the budget is approved.
"We think we put forward a responsible budget with all the priorities where they need to be," Davis said.
Council Chairwoman Mary Kay Sigaty called funding for Swansfield Elementary, which falls within her district, "necessary."
"Otherwise, we're going to be staring at closing downtown development," she said. "This will give us some room and space."
Other projects weren't so lucky: renovations at Oakland Mills Middle School and Hammond High School were delayed.
The council must vote to approve capital and operating budgets for the county before the next fiscal year begins on July 1.