The following public comments were delivered by Harford County Council Vice-President Richard Slutzky to the Board of Education at a Board meeting held Monday evening. A copy of Mr. Slutzky’s comments was provided to The Dagger for publication.
I am speaking this evening as Council Vice-President and Education Liaison to the Board of Education.
I and several members of the Harford County Council have serious concerns about the Administration’s letter dated July 17, 2013, which was sent to parents and guardians of students attending Harford County Public Schools, under the signatures of Superintendent Canavan and individual principals from the various public schools in Harford County.
The Council must assume that the language in this letter was approved by the Board of Education.
It is obvious from the comments and questions Council members have received from county citizens that the first sentence of this letter was at best, badly misinterpreted by them, or at worst, deliberately and grossly misleading.
The first sentence of this letter reads, and I quote: “In May 2013, the County Council approved the county budget, which resulted in a shortfall of $20.2 million in the Board of Education’s previously approved budget.”
Let’s dissect this statement, starting with the ending and working backward. Citizens interpreted the statement, “…the Board of Education’s previously approved budget.” to mean that the Council cut a previously funded budget.
Every member of this Board of Education understands that the Council has no appropriation authority. Under state law the Council can only act on a formal budget submitted to the Council by the County Executive who is the county funding authority.
The public needs to understand that the Board of Education approval was for a budget request, which the BOE provided to the County Executive – a request only. The Board of Education budget, constructed by the County Executive, is only one part of the overall county budget. The Council acts solely on the entire county budget submitted by the County Executive.
The County Executive presents the Council with a budget. In the section for the Board of Education operational budget, he provided almost $2 million more than the state mandated limit for maintenance of effort, and more money than the 2013 budget. He also sent the Council amendments that increased the Board of Education capital budget by $2.6 million, which was approved by the Council.
Under certain circumstances, the state education law gives the Council authority to add money to the education budget. However, whatever additional funding the Council would give to education would have to be cut from other county government departments or state agencies the county funds; such as the Sheriff’s Office, the Health Department, the Library System or the Community College. In the present economy, it would be very difficult for the Council to cut tens of millions of dollars from other government departments and agencies and give it to the Board of Education.
This Board of Education also understands that under state law the Council must fund the education portion of the county overall budget to at least the mandated level of maintenance of effort.
The public must also understand that since 1986, when maintenance of effort became law, in Harford County every Council has provided the Board of Education with more money than required under the law. Harford is one of only four counties in Maryland that can make that claim. In the ten years I have served on the Harford County Council no Board of Education operational budget funding requested by the County Executive has ever been cut.
Now let’s take a look at the beginning of your letter’s first sentence, “…the County Council approved the county budget…” Some citizens inferred that the Council should not have passed the Executive’s budget.
I’m not sure if every member of this Board realizes the consequences of not passing the budget. Certainly very few citizens have a clue what those consequences are. If the Council doesn’t pass the budget, the state requires the county to fund operational budgets equal to the previous budget year. For the Board of Education that would mean less money than they were given in the 2014 budget. Far more catastrophic is that all capital project funding stops. Think of the tens of millions of dollars in various agency budgets that are intended to replace HVAC systems, to repair roofs, to pave parking lots or to replace declining infrastructure. Not funding the budget would have been a disaster.
The public needs to know that once the county government transfers hundreds of millions of dollars to the Board of Education, neither the County Executive nor the County Council have any say or influence on how the Board of Education chooses to balance their budget or spend that money.
Decisions on pay to play, or bus transportation adjustments, or staff reductions, or whatever, are the complete responsibility of the Board of Education.
In conclusion, it is my hope that if the Board of Education, or this Public School Administration believes it appropriate to make public comments about county budget processes, county budget responsibilities, or budget decisions, those comments should be clear, accurate, and truthful. At this point, it would be difficult for me and my Council colleagues to be convinced that any of these conditions were met in the letter which was circulated.
It is also the hope of this County Council, and the expectation, that a letter correcting the erroneous information previously presented be circulated to the public.
Thank you for your attention.
Let’s hear it Burbey! Let’s hear your BS on how the County Council cut the school budget $22 million and how they have never fully funded the schools. I need to hear the 50 shades of Burbey tonight. Please Burbey explain to us all how you have been wronged by Slutzky, Craig and by the Council. Please explain to us the facts and how Slutzky is lying to us all.
Slutzky’s comments were a grand gesture to deny any responsibility. He and Mr. Guthrie were both rude in going over the allotted speaking time. Between his and Mr. Guthrie’s comments concerned citizens heard over 10 minutes of “it wasn’t me!” I hope the BOE and CC can sit down and come up with a reasonable projection for FY15 to avoid some of these shenanigans.
Representatives and members of other government bodies are regularly granted unlimited time by the chair (of any government meeting, not just the BoE) as a courtesy and out of respect for the organization.
Let’s be honest, the wording of the school boards letter was not misleading. If you have been following this chaos, you would know that:
1. BOE creates its own budget and approves it.
2. There approved budget is submitted to the County Executive, who then decides how much of the BOEs approved budget should be funded. Unfortunately he decided not to fund at a rate 24 million higher than the previous budget and reduced that total by 22 million.
3. The County Executive created his full county budget and submits it for review to the County Council.
The letter wasn’t misleading it is obvious that the BOA approved budget was not funded because the CE made alteration.
Not a Burbey fan, but I think he trying to communicate this through his postings. He should be a target of your displeasure over this. If you want to target him it should be for his lack of leadership and demonstrations regarding the lack of funding for our teachers. Ask him what progress has been made, what demonstration are occurring, what innovate ideas are lingering into the union, and how he might reach out to the non- union teachers who are paying for wage negotiation? I’m sure they would like a raise and would be willing to generate ideas on how to organize if you reached out to us.
Anyway, another full day of finger pointing.
The letter did not make clear the distinction between the BoE’s requested budget ,that only the BoE approved, and the CE’s submitted budget, which the CC approved.
I thought it was clear the board made a budget. The budget was not fully funded by the funding authority; cuts are needed. Just like the teachers.
Slutzkey is a life-long educator and the greatest wrestling coach the county has ever seen. He would not lie about this topic.
Yes but he omits that part of that additional capital was for a wrestling room for his favorite school. A luxury no one else has. Additionally his not me antics are obvious the county council did approve the budget. Face it you could have sent it back to Craig for further revision!
When I went to C.Milton Wright we had one. And that was 20 years ago.
Aberdeen HS already has a weight room. Mr. Slutzky just doesn’t think it is big enough. Priorities?
Coach Slutsky is trying to slip a throat lock and avoid any responsibility. Good Luck, I think he is turning blue!
True. He could have sent it back, but he didn’t because he didn’t want to undercut another organization within the county. However, this is all in the past and no amount of complaining, commenting, or speech giving is going to change this. Teachers still won’t have raises, pay to pay is still going to be in effect, and busing will still be an issue. Unfortunately, there will be 100-500 treads on the past and none about the future and how to prevent these matters going forward. I feel like its time for everyone to shut up or put up. The whole story is tiring.
The whole story IS tiring. How can we move forward: stay involved, attend school board and council meetings, touch base with your officials. Still so much of this process is non transparent and happens out of the public eye. We then as parents are only given the opportunity to react, not be proactive.
This is a very tiring situation. The bottom line is that parents must demand that funding be increased or this problem only gets worse. The current HCPS budget is predicated by using over $5 million of pre-existing HCPS fund balance. This is projected to be completely expended within two years. If the cuts seem bad this year, next year will be far worse without additional funding. I am certain the minute I post this, folks will bash me and cite HCPS “waste”. Unfortunately, HCPS does not appear to have enough “waste” to remove to account for increased costs. Recent increases in funding by Harford County Government are not even keeping pace with inflation. It is also likely that our state funding will again be reduced due to the continuing rise in Harford County’s measure wealth. Please also note, that these cuts were made without teachers receiving their contractual salary steps for 4 out of the past 5 years. If we are to preserve the integrity of our schools, HCPS must receive substantial increases in funding. The community must demand that our local government invest in our schools.
We invest in our schools – always have and always will. Problem is your definition and my definition of investment differ wildly.
So perhaps, there is need for compromise. Perhaps, collectively our leaders should pursue the middle ground. The unfortunate fact is that due to changes in education and a history of underfunding our schools, HCPS is not in a good position. Part of the problem is that there is an overall lack of understanding about what current public education costs. Last year, HCPS was 19th in per pupil funding. We will never be #1 and probably don’t need to be but how about we at least fund our schools at a level commensurate with our wealth? How about we dedicate at least 50% of the general fund to education? Investment in education reaps returns for all tax payers. If you look at the communities with the highest property values, there is a strong correlation to the quality of their schools. HCPS will never be able to create the kind of schools which our children deserve without a commitment by our community and increased investments by our local government. Cut waste where you can. Hold HCPS accountable for responsible spending but provide the funding necessary to make our schools sustainable.
Parents do not need to demand more money, because the amount of money is not the problem. They need to demand that BoE get their act together and learn to live within the budget provided. If that means cutting services, sports, non-essential electives, etc, to live within the budget, so be it.
Maintenance of effort is the legal requirement, the BoE should plan to live with that level for the foreseeable future.
MoE is intended to be the floor not the ceiling.
And in hard economic times, you’re stuck on the ground floor.
There is no magic elevator to the penthouse in our current situation.
Burbey, Harford County has always supplied more money than MoE required. Sounds like Harford County is not on the floor.
Also, why don’t you go after the State of Maryland for cutting funding? The State is the only group that has made cuts to Harford County education. But I guess you cannot be honest for once or say anything bad about O’Malley. Your union should know by now that O’Malley has done nothing to support your workers but you still back him.
So Sad!
The one item that all stakeholders can agree on is that Ryan Burbey needs to go!
After the Public Comment meeting, I realize The HCPS system and the wonderful Magnet programs are on the brink of collapse. When people move, their main concern is the quality of education. This can not be good for future real estate values. What I learned from the meeting was that there are 4 poor schools: Joppatowne, Edgewood, Aberdeen, and Havre de Grace and no answers. If only we had better leadership years ago who would have envisioned a new school combining Joppatowne and Edgewood HS and a new school combining Aberdeen and Havre de Grace HS. I also did not realize that teacher have been denied their step increases 4 out of the last 5 years. No leadership in the PAST and No leadership NOW.
Well versed at the meeting and again today.
Two things continue. No one will address waste in HCPS. And taxpayers are pro-education but anti-waste. They will turn a deaf ear until waste is eliminated. Mr. Burbey, BOE, HCPS, County Council and County Executive – if you are not eliminating the waste then the public has no interest in what your are saying. And if you insist that there is no waste then you have no credibility.
Please specifically identify the “waste” you want to see addressed.
Are you saying that there is no waste? Yes or no?
I am sure that HCPS has a certain amount of waste. I am just uncertain what can be eliminated and how much. All organizations and bureaucracies have a certain amount of waste. I am certain HCPS does not have $22 million dollars worth of waste.
In the last state audit the Harford County Public Schools showed $10 million of unexplained credit card debt. Burbey, is that a waste?
See:
http://www.ola.state.md.us/Reports/Schools/HarfSchools08.pdf
Really! Airfare to Paris and other locations with no justification! Hotel rooms for family members at resorts. That’s not waste is it? I would like to know how the union can spin this one.
How sad to see Mr. Slutzky parsing words and trying to give the BOE a tongue lashing over a letter from HCPS sent to parents explaining the recent changes to school transportation. The real issue Mr. Slutzky has is that county elected officials are catching heat because school funding decisions have forced the BOE to make some drastic choices that people are not happy with. The public has finally woken up and recognized that the funding source (the County Executive and County Council) has created this situation and shoulder a major portion of the blame. It is called accountability and those in county government can no longer hide behind their common refrain that they have no control over how the school system spends their budget. County elected officials are getting an earful from their constituents and the blame game will no longer fly with the public. Mr. Slutzky was right when he said, “Under certain circumstances, the state education law gives the council the ability to give additional funding to the board of education.” Mr. Slutzky and the County Executive did just that with a last minute 1.6 million dollar budget amendment added to the BOE budget to put a new weight room addition on and new stadium for Aberdeen HS. If I read the numbers correctly the cost savings realized by the school system for the transportation cuts (and resulting changes to four elementary school schedules) and student fees works out to be less than the cost for those extras added for Aberdeen HS.
Beautiful! I love it, Wow.
Take away the transportation, implement pay to play and in return Aberdeen gets a new weight room and a new stadium. One question. Does the BOE/HCPS have the authority to say “no” to the Aberdeen scam? If they do, then lets see if they have any chutzpah.
No because the Aberdeen stuff is in the capital budget. The BOE can not move funds without County permission!
Sadly, they would have had to wholly reject the capital budget then. That is how Slutsky snuck this in…he knew they would have to approve it.
To imply the adjustment to bus scheduling amounts to little by way of savings is a cavalier way of justifying the waste of taxpayer money for the convenience of just a couple parents. Personally I think operating the buses on a staggered schedule is a simple stroke of genius that cuts the costs of maintenance and personnel in half. It should have been done a long time ago.
Meanwhile the HCEA and Mr. Burbey in a post here on The Dagger has taken the position that is not their job to even identify waste much less try to get it corrected.
Again, please specifically identify “waste” which you believe needs to be addressed. Please note the budget line item.
Personally I think we ought to reexamine the entire structure of schools – moving to a year round schedule would make sense and would both be better for learning retention and maximize logistical and facility efficiencies. There’s a long list of countries that have year round schools – both Japan and Germany and a whole host of countries that we recognize as having superior educational outcomes.
@Burbey
You could advocate for a line item to be added to the Chart of Accounts – Waste & Non-Essentials Expenditures.
You could then add sub-categories.
I’m trying quite hard here to not get personal, Ryan. But if you and HCEA and HCPS, who deal with this stuff everyday, can’t find any waste then you have no credibility. I ask my question again? Is there waste in HCPS or not? Yes or no?
Please, if you do not believe there is any waste then just say so.
I am sure that HCPS has a certain amount of waste. I am just uncertain what can be eliminated and how much. All organizations and bureaucracies have a certain amount of waste. I am certain HCPS does not have $22 million dollars worth of waste.
This tiered bussing system *has* been place for years. They are just adding schools to the fourth tier.
I knew they had staggered busses based upon grade level…this seems to stagger based upon school.
Just a couple of parents? Were you not at the meeting last night??
No doubt schedule reshuffling may be necessary, but on the other hand these are your kids and therefore it’s your responsibility. The taxpayers aren’t exactly refusing to educate your child but if you think the school ought to provide buses for your convenience and offer classes to your schedule and at unnecessary costs to the taxpayers perhaps you could forfeit the child tax credit back to the county.
One very costly issue that isn’t being addressed here is the pension shift onto the counties by the State of Maryland. So we are all paying more to drive, buy groceries, health insurance etc. much of the money going to the State coffers with no offset in local contributions. In regard to magnets, when these magnet programs were set up, parents repeatedly asked about transportation but there was never any mechanism to address it. Just be thankful there isn’t a Medical Arts Magnet at Bel Air High School because that was what the BOE wanted to put it years ago – the Biomedical “Program” was a compromise. Their rationale was that Upper Chesapeake wanted it. YEP that was the rationale. When asked by parents what the ongoing contribution to the program was I think the answer was something along the line of “so much money you can’t even comprehend.” Seriously, this would be comical if it wasn’t true. So now Bel Air has a program that no other school has and many other students can’t take the biomedical classes at their home school. The whole idea behind “magnet schools” was always to draw students out of overpopulated schools into ones that were underutilized and needed more students to try and equalize some of the population disparities. Our BOE puts a Magnet Program in Bel Air to draw more kids in when you have schools like Edgewood that are very under utilized and could probably use more students from other areas. It is difficult to take the BOE seriously and respect them when these are the type of decisions they make and other ones that adversely effect the student population that is the most disadvantaged.
Edgewood has a magnet program!
Maybe they could have had more than 1. Or even better they could have made another vocational/technical school when they were in building/rebuilding mode. It was suggested by many people including many people from the Edgewood area but rejected and never discussed as a viable option.
The Medical Science program at Bel Air is not considered a magnet program, it is only available to students who would normally attend Bel Air. The magnet programs in Harford County are in Edgewood, Aberdeen, and North Harford. Harford Tech is listed under magnet schools, but is it’s own separate school.
So I guess I don’t understand why Bel Air should have a signature program and their students get options like taking Microbiology and other science classes that students in other schools don’t get to take. My kids went to Patterson Mill and had very limited course offerings when they wanted to get into a medical/science type of program in college. Still trying to understand the rationale. The idea of Comprehensive Secondary School Reform (gag) was to equalize course offerings and for students to be able to be on same schedule and if they transferred in same sequence. These kind of “programs” just seem to create more problems than they solve.
Joppatown also has a specialized program available only to it’s students, Homeland Security program. My belief is that at one time all the high were to have a special program, and were going to be magnets available to all in the county who wanted to attend them. I remember talk of a drama program going to HDG high. But as with most things, the money ran out. At least Patterson Mill offers one of the largest selections of AP classes. Not all the high schools offer as many choices in AP classes as PMill and Fallston.
Mr. Craig is still aggressively pushing for a new over capacity high school for HdG with a cultural arts magnet program. Given the current economic situation within the school system and county does anyone else believe this is necessary or reasonable?
After following the past couple of months of back and forth between our semi elected Board of Education, our elected County Council, and the HCEA Labor President I’d say we’ve got a whole bunch of buffoons. The only losers in all of this will be the students and those teachers that really care about the quality product they put forth. Students and top notch educators equal pawns in the battle of the bloated budget!
How much of that casino money goes towards schools, you know, like them advertisement on the television said during election time?
Not very much. Erlich wanted casinos at the racetrack and was lambasted by the dems. Once they got their Owemalley in they promised you the world to get Maryland now over saturated with these casinos. Anyone in Port Deposit or Perryville will tell you. They are not getting shit out of the casino revenue. They were promised the world, and now get nothing by stale brittle turds.
How much of that casino money goes towards schools, you know, like them ads on the television said during election time?
Test.
WTF
Slutzky lost all credibility in the Shucks Road/Red Pump school debacle five years ago. Personally, after speaking with him earlier this year, I really do believe that senility is beginning to set in. Are there term limits for the County Council, because I am getting real sick of this whole crowd of do-nothings and finger-pointers like Slutzky, Guthrie, McMahon, Lisanti and the rest of them.
I’ll drink to that Sam Adams!
Unfortunately no term limits for County Council members. The voters put this group in place at the last election. Hopefully the voters are paying attention and make so changes. Otherwise we can look forward to more of the same.
We need county tax restructuring to solve this problem. Here is a solution:
All families that want to play sports should be able to itemize that and put forth pre-tax dollars in an flexible spending account. Then, when little Johnny or little Suzy wants to play lacrosse, all mommy and daddy has to do is use the flexible spending account.
Here is why this is a solution: it’s a compromise. It’s that simple. The county is not burdened with full funding and parents get an economic break.
Of course, the absolute solution to this would be to let the Parks and Rec Dept handle ALL sporting events and programs.
***NEWS FLASH*** County saves $890,000 on bus transportation. Parents lose $3,000,000 transporting kids themselves and paying for extra preschool daycare. Harford County Roads and school entrances clogged every morning and school buses can’t get into parking lot. Isn’t it great when our government leaders just POINT FINGERS. Link to how it should be below. http://www.baltimorecountymd.gov/News/releases/0730kamenetz.html
Harford Co. does not have an overcrowding problem. The school system has excess capacity. Their own reporting shows that some schools are barely half filled and projections still show a gradual decline in student population for the next several years. The economically responsible thing to do would be to look at closing some of these schools. But that would cause a firestorm of complaints from parents like was seen during elementary school redistricting a few years ago and is being seen now. Everybody wants to cut waste and greater efficiency in the school system until it affects their family. Everybody needs to understand that with these kinds of adjustments someone (maybe you) is always going to be inconvenienced or hurt.
Problem is many of the half filled schools are not in areas that could be closed and save money. For example if you closed Joppatowne and shifted the overflow to Edgewood and than shifted kids to Aberdeen etc you would have kids driving past Aberdeen to go to Havre de Grace.
The most significantly underutilized schools are elementary schools. Projections show a decline in some middle and high schools but their overall student populations would make any of these difficult to close. Not saying it would not be possible but such a move could not be made without major changes to the idea of community schools and would certainly result in significant community and political opposition. Imagine the reaction to any suggestion of closing HdG HS even though their entire student body could be absorbed into the current extra seats in HCPS high schools.
Yes but the under enrolled elementary schools are exteriorly located
@Cdev, And?
That makes them harder to fill and shuffle like the Joppatowne example.
As evidenced by the difference of opinions on this and related articles about pay to play, fees and transportation changes some see these actions as leadership willing to tackle these thorny issues often fraught with emotion and others will see them as the actions of people without empathy for the problems faced by the affected families. I think this is very much a case of damned if you do and damned if you don’t. Of course you can always try to get a seat on the school board and fix all of this.
Mr. Burbey, I’d like to hear your response to Jaguar Judy about the $10 million in credit card charges – has the HCEA looked into that at all? Seems like that would be a big issue for an oversight group concerned about school spending.
I have no prior knowledge of the $10 million in credit card charges. Again, it really is not the role of HCEA to monitor school spending or charges. I looked over the report on the link but did not have time to thoroughly read it as yet. I did see that the report was from 2008 and that many if not all of the recommendations have already been implemented. Neither I nor any other teacher is in favor of waste or abuse. If there is true existing waste or abuse it should be addressed.
Yes, so would I. But it is enough to hear is admission that there is, in fact, waste. I know he can’t wave a magic wand and fix it but he can legitimately and publicly point out areas where waste can be eliminated so that more money is available to fund teacher raises. And it isn’t his job alone. It is primarily HCPS’s job and also the BOE. But talking about specif areas of waste would get HCEA much more credibility rather than singing the same old song.
Give me accurate info, indicating specific areas of actual waste. I am all for efficiency. I pay taxes too. However, I don’t think we should sacrifice quality or efficacy for efficiency. It should be balanced.
Burbey –
Instead of pretending there is no waste and abuse in HCPS why don’t you tell us from your experience as teacher in this school system.
In my experience as a teacher, I did not waste anything. My first years of teaching were in Baltimore City. I learned to conserve resources. In my practice, I printed quizzes on the backs of one-sided copies to conserve paper. I really could not identify a significant amount of waste in the schools I worked in. Likewise, in examining the budget I cannot identify glaring waste. I think HCPS could conserve significant resources if it had greater access to technology for all students. Paper consumption is a major cost. If students had digital access more readily available that could be diminished. However, that would require a significant investment.
Burbrey –
Stop being obtuse.
So you still maintain that there is no waste and abuse?
I just am not personally aware of significant waste and abuse. I am not being obtuse. I don’t always agree with how money is spent but does that make it waste? I am not aware of abuse. If anyone is, please contact me with specifics.
Burbey –
You can’t admit there is waste or abuse because it hurts “we need to fully fund our schools” narrative.
I looked up obtuse in the dictionary and saw your picture.
On the subject of waste one name comes to mind. Susan Darden. If we go back and re-visit her situation in detail we will find some employees who decided that a very well liked and very effective teacher was harassed in to retiring by some mis-guided, mis-managed non-classroom administrative morons. A travesty all around. You wanted an example of waste. Find those people and any others like them and add them to the bucket labeled “WASTE”. Then we can look at a very talented teacher named John Hickey. The time and attention spent on crucifying this innocent man was ‘waste’. And I bring up these 2 examples not because of the high dollar value, although in the Darden case there is a lot of money being wasted on non-classroom staff with nothing better to do than harass teachers. I bring it up because peoples lives were traumatized wrongly by wasteful practices and processes. Of course there was no mention in either situation of HCEA.
Not sure about Darden but Hickey was not a member of HCEA!
Comrade Burbey,
I love Harford County. I love Harford County Schools. I’ve liked and admired many teachers in Harford County as have my wife and kids. We respect and appreciate them and have gone out of our way to help them. It is time for you, your union, and the Board of Education to get real. We are in tough time. The spending and leverage spree that started in the 80’s is over man. Cities and local governments are going bankrupt. Wouldn’t be surprised if a state or two goes down as well. The parties over man – government workers are going to need to feel the pain just like the rest of us.
How can anyone take you seriously? Your dawg and pony show was a real drag last night. btw…Why didn’t the Board offer anyone to counter your Union propaganda? I understand you have a job to do but don’t take us all for fools…. Teachers stay in Harford County because it is a nice place to teach and raise a family. Teachers don’t want to drive hours to Baltimore County to teach in some ashtray of a school. The transportation expense alone eats up most of the difference that you try to extort. There are few job openings in Baltimore County. You act as though Perry Hall is ready to steal away hundreds of teachers. Open your eyes man. Stop making false comparisons to already bloated salaries, pensions, and benefits. It seems to me , the Harford County Public Schools Operations Funding last year was roughly $455,000,000. That doesn’t include debt service, capital expenditures, state pension, and so on that easily takes that number to well over a HALF A BILLION DOLLARS! The HCPS Operating budget has increased over $167 Million in ten years even though enrollment continues to decline. We’ve gone from $7,000 a kid to over $12,000 a kid with little or no improvement on test scores. Baltimore City is proof that throwing money at problems doesn’t yield results… Try coming up with real solutions, pay your best teachers what they deserve. Get rid of the deadwood regardless of tenure. Put our money behind the brightest students. Stopping wasting our tax dollars on punks that don’t want to be rehabilitated. Comrade Burbey, get off of your Union nonsense and come up with some real solutions and we’ll stand with ya. Until then you are just nothing but white noise man….
You are a moron….if you don’t think that teachers are leaving — check out the 9 page personnel report from the meeting.
Ryan, can you request the school system to stop printing out those pamphlets in the fall that we are suppose to give the parents at conference time. Each one is on a pretty color paper that details each subject area. Why can’t the just print a few for those parents who don’t have internet access and put the information on the school website for parents to look at. Most teachers I know just throw them away because parents don’t want to take them home!!
That seems to be a school specific issue. Contact me so I can look into it.
I pretty sure it is a elementary school issue. I have been in numerous elementary schools and they receive the pamplets from the county. It is a total waste!!
As Mr. Burbey said the report is old and changes were instituted to correct the issues identified. Every organization has some degree of waste. This is not specific to the school system. One dollar over necessary can be considered waste. The question is has HCPS done enough to limit potential waste in their budget. On the whole I believe they have and as we are seeing there is little extra to cut which has led to the last couple of difficult budget years with staffing cuts and now unpleasant changes that are directly affecting students and parents.
“In May 2013, the County Council approved the county budget, which resulted in a shortfall of $20.2 million in the Board of Education’s previously approved budget.”
True statement. Slutsky reminds me of Clinton crying over the meaning of two letter words.
What’s all the gum flapping about? The council clowns are just pandering to the audience in front of them…and we wonder why government is broken.
Well, Mr. Munny, I do have to point out that a more accurate statement would have have said “previously approved budget REQUEST”.
Asking isn’t getting even if you ‘approve’ your own ask. If it were I would meet with myself tonight and I would approve my request for a large salary increase which I would then demand that my employer fund immediately based on it being approved by me.
If the BOE expects to get every dollar of its request approved then we need to do some random drug testing.
The County council allcoates the funds to the school board. Then they HCPS must make decisions on how to spend the money. The new field at Aberdeen is through Parks and Rec. funds that all the new schools built received. These new schools also received a field house. The County Council is only trying to bring these same improvements to Aberdeen. These improvements were not orginally in the construction of Aberdeen or removed. HCPS does not understand how to run or operate a budget, so the teachers and the students are the ones that suffer. Isn’t it time that Aberdeen students receive the samethings as some of the other schools.
The State does not provide funding for turf fields as part of new school construction. That cost is absorbed by the local government. Patterson Mill does not have a turf field when their school was built. Funding for the same type of stadium upgrades for CMW (when they got their turf field – paid out of parks and rec budget not the school system) were removed from the school system budget when they got their turf field a couple years ago. Why does Aberdeen get the upgrades and not CMW? The real question that needs to be answered is all this really necessary? Aren’t there enough other things to spend tax dollars on?
Since Ryan Burbey has taken the helm of the union, student test scores have dropped.
Waste is imbedded throughout the system. How much money is spent on Spicer’s workgroup of administrators who sat around for days developing new policies for when and where teams and clubs can no longer meet? Or cell phone policies? Or green cleaning supplies? How about the $1.5 million for DESIGN work for existing HVAC systems at Fallston HS and Norrisville ES? Who knows what kind of fluff is in the $20 million technology infrastructure line item? Do we need a $100K pretzel contract? Half the administrators could be let go tomorrow and no one would even notice. There is plenty of money to direct to actual education, teachers, transportation and extracurricular activities all you have to do is open each budget line item and look for it. But why on earth would the administrative waste look to themselves as the problem.
The pretzel contract makes money for the cafeteria to offset losses
Has anyone noticed which part of the budget will absorb all the new costs associated with Common Core?
I used to admire and respect you Mr. Slutzky. What happened to your values? You, like Mr. Craig, have forgotten your past. You are just another lying politician.
The Bio Medical program At BAHS was added when the new building was ready and space was available. This program was never meant to be a magnet. This year Havre de Grace High School will begin the same program. CMW will also be adding an enginering program through Project Lead the Way this fall. These programs are very expensive to start and to mainain but well worth the investment. None of these programs are meant to be magnets. As a matter of fact if a student is a top math or science student they should apply to the magnet at Aberdeen which is much more rigorous and advance than the Project Lead the way Curriculum. As for Mr. Slutsky and his colleques on the council who always say they support education. Maybe they should have the nerve to stand up to the county executive and take some money away from his pet projects and cut the positions he has created for his friends and family members and allocate it to the board. Dick does make a good point that there are some administrative positions and other areas that the school board could make some cuts in. I am not in favor of taking the budget out of the hands of the board and giving the politicians more control over educational spending decisions.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324635904578639780253571520.html?mod=WSJ_hpp_LEFTTopStories
Time to move away from the current system.
Gene Simmons?