Montgomery County Public Schools Superintendent Jack Smith on Tuesday unveiled a $2.5 billion budget proposal for the next fiscal year that would increase spending by 2.5 percent and dedicate more than $10 million toward expanding equity across the system.
In the first spending plan of his tenure, Smith is emphasizing career and apprenticeship programs and diploma programs for reentering students and engaging more young people in rigorous academic coursework. He’s recommending training teachers in cultural understanding, investing in science and math education and paying for each student to take either the SAT, ACT or a career certification assessment.
His goal is to narrow some of the racial and economic divides that leave certain groups of students behind despite the school system’s overall excellence.
“We have decades of success, and we never want to lose that. The way to not lose it is to move more and more students to that high level of learning,” Smith, who became MCPS superintendent July 1, said in an interview before the release of his proposal.
He reviewed the plan with the school board at midday Tuesday and is slated to give a presentation at 7:30 p.m. to parents and community members at Gaithersburg High School.
The budget he is handing off to the school board would increase spending by roughly $62.4 million over this year’s spending and add a net total of 95 positions. To keep up with the year’s projected enrollment growth of nearly 3,600 students, he’s looking to make about 226 hires in teaching, school support, special education and other areas.
Staffing expansion in those areas would be offset by the elimination of 196 positions, according to Smith’s proposal. More than 91 of these would be data analysts posted in elementary and middle schools, part of what Smith argues is an outmoded model of tracking student performance. Smith said that rather than having analysts comb through assessments, he wants to put data tools directly in the hands of principals and teachers so they can make real-time adjustments in the classroom.
Another 38 positions would come from central services and 35 reading initiative teachers would be eliminated as well. However, Smith said there are enough vacancies in MCPS to absorb any employees displaced by these changes.
His recommended plan would set aside $1.2 million for alternative graduation paths, career technology education and apprenticeship programs to serve the many students who aren’t heading straight to college.
“Some people build multimillion-dollar construction companies by going and becoming an engineer or an architect, and some of them start as a foreman on a construction site,” Smith said. “Our job is to make sure they have a good first step so when you leave school with a high school diploma, you have somewhere of value to go: credit-bearing courses, living-wage jobs.”
Offering the SAT, ACT or career certification tests to each student would cost about $500,000, Smith estimated. His fiscal plan also reserves more than $1 million to bolster special education so that more young learners can access services within their neighborhood elementary schools rather than having to move into alternative schools.
He’s also asking the school board for funding to designate six new “equal opportunity schools,” where students have greater access to advanced courses even if they’ve struggled academically.
“There are a whole lot of adults out there who are doing just fine who didn’t get straight A’s and didn’t do every assignment,” Smith said. “So what can we do in school to say, ‘Let us help you. You have tremendous potential in this area. How can we support you?’ ”
Smith’s proposal also sets aside $55 million for contract negotiations with the system’s three employee unions. While talks with these groups are ongoing, the contracts should have a more definite shape by the time the school board approves the budget, Smith said.
The school board must adopt a version of the superintendent’s budget by Feb. 14. The County Council will then review the budget before the school board gives the fiscal 2018 plan final approval on June 13.
This year’s school budget focused on reducing class sizes and closing achievement gaps and was the first spending plan since 2009 to fund the system above the state-mandated minimum.
