The county school board's proposed 1995-1996 budget gets it first public airing this week and if the response of previous years is any guide, the two public hearings are likely to prompt requests for more money, not less.
The $140,673,838 spending plan -- up almost 8 percent from this year's $130 million budget -- makes its debut Tuesday at Runnymede Elementary School. A second hearing is set for Thursday at Winfield Elementary School, and the school board will vote on the budget Feb. 22 at Westminster Elementary School. All three meetings start at 7:30 p.m.
Parents lined up last year to ask for more teachers and lower class sizes. Elementary teachers asked for more planning time. Bus company owners asked for more money to keep up with increasing costs.
This year, the proposed budget is designed to keep pace with growth. Carroll County Schools expect 728 more students next year, and the equivalent of 42.2 teaching positions have been included in the budget to accommodate them.
"It's very difficult to do much with improvement when you have growth," said Superintendent Brian Lockard. "That, coupled with the decreasing support from the state, really creates a problem for us. It's just like swimming upstream, is what it feels like.
"I don't know how much we'll get, but these are our needs," Dr. Lockard said.
An additional 16.75 teaching positions in the proposal are meant to improve schools, not just keep up with growth. They include:
* Five technology resource teachers for elementary schools.
* The equivalent of seven middle school teachers to reduce the average class size from nearly 27 to 25 at that level.
* The equivalent of 3.75 teaching positions for primary grades to reduce class size and work with students at risk of falling behind.
To pay the $479,651 cost of those teaching positions, individual schools are giving up some of their discretionary allotments. Those allotments normally would have increased 3 percent to 4 percent, depending on the consumer price index, but instead will rise only 2 percent, Dr. Lockard said.
"The staff made a very conscious effort, and the principals agreed, so we can get a few more people," he said.
The idea for the technology resource teachers grew from two needs: the increasing difficulty that elementary teachers have in finding time to stay current on computer technology and finding ways to incorporate computers into daily instruction, as well as their need for more planning time away from students.
The technology resource teachers would work with students for a half-hour each week, allowing that much more planning time for classroom teachers. While students are with the new teachers, they will do work directly related to their classroom projects, said Dorothy "Dottie" Mangle, director of elementary education.
The specialists also would help classroom teachers keep up with technology, Ms. Mangle said.
Plans call for hiring five technology teachers, who would divide their time among 10 schools. Next year, Dr. Lockard said, he would want to hire another five teachers, thus covering all 19 elementary schools.
To pay for extra teachers in primary grades, Dr. Lockard said, he removed a request for $80,000 to hire a training coordinator for teachers and other staff and a secretary for that person.