Montgomery County Public Schools could cut 380 staff positions and delay the second phase of its Chromebook laptop rollout to close a $53 million budget shortfall for the 2015-2016 school year.
Interim Superintendent Larry Bowers will formally make the recommendations to the Board of Education at its June 16 meeting, when the board is expected to approve a final operating budget for next school year.
The staff cuts will cause “some class size increases across the district, but will have a lesser impact on schools that serve a higher percentage of economically disadvantaged students,” according to a press release from the school system.
The budget proposed by Bowers will shift some money to restore more than 30 school-based English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) positions.
Staff cuts will happen both in schools and at the school system’s central office in Rockville, saving the school system about $25.5 million.
In February, while making staff assignments for next school year, Bowers held back 370 school-based positions. He also announced MCPS would be eliminating more than 40 central office positions.
The final recommendations revealed Tuesday come after the Montgomery County Council approved $2.32 billion in school funding for fiscal year 2016, which starts July 1.
The school system had requested $53 million more. The council chose to fund the school system at the minimum level required by the state’s controversial Maintenance of Effort law, which establishes a minimum per pupil funding standard for future years.
The council-approved education budget is an increase of $31.9 million, or 1.4 percent, from last year’s education budget. But Bowers said an increasing school enrollment of about 2,000 students a year means it’s not enough and could pose even bigger issues for the 2016-2017 school year.
Bowers said the school system will need a nearly 5 percent budget increase when the budget cycle for fiscal year 2017 starts next spring.
“I am hopeful that we will be able to work with our county executive and County Council to find a way to increase revenue next year and beyond so we keep up with our growth and invest in strategic areas that will benefit our students,” Bowers said. “A minimum [maintenance-of-effort] budget is not going to be sufficient in the future.”
The school system claimed that the increases required by the law doesn’t account for increasing costs, inflation and pay increases of employees.
This year’s schools budget includes compensation increases for staff, though Bowers recommended delaying those increases by one pay period in October, saving more than $3 million.
The unions representing school system staff are now ratifying the change in their contracts, according to the press release.
“Our employees do outstanding work and have certainly earned a compensation increase,” Bowers said. “I am pleased we can honor this commitment to our staff while finding a way to save some money in the budget. I appreciate the flexibility of our employees and their commitment to our students and our system.”
The school system will save another $3 million by not purchasing more Chromebook laptops. MCPS rolled out the laptops in all classrooms in grades three, five and six and high school social studies classes this school year.
The plan was to roll more laptops out in grades two, four and seven classrooms and for other high school subjects next school year.
MCPS said its only option would be to find funding in the capital budget for “a small number of additional devices,” though that wouldn’t be enough to do a full implementation.
Bowers also recommended cutting another $1.2 million from efforts to close the achievement gap, leaving $1.3 million for what the school system called “strategic investments” in closing the gap. Other cuts will likely be made to professional development and textbook purchases.
The school system press release detailing the cuts didn't specifically mention Gov. Larry Hogan’s decision to hold back $68 million in funding for schools mandated by the so-called Geographic Cost of Education Index, or GCEI.
School system leaders in May urged Hogan to release the money, which would’ve meant about $17.7 million in education funding for Montgomery County.
The school system press release did say that it’s the seventh straight year the County Council has funded it at or below the state’s minimum funding level.
“In that time, MCPS has had to eliminate more than 1,800 positions,” the press release read.