From Harford County Public Schools:
As part of the process to develop Harford County Public Schools’ (HCPS) Fiscal Year 2018 (FY18) Operating Budget, Superintendent of Schools Barbara P. Canavan is hosting a series of sessions to gather input from internal and external stakeholders.
A Town Hall for the general public will take place on Thursday, October 13, from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. in the Board Room of the A.A. Roberty Building in Bel Air. This is an opportunity for parents and community members to gain a better understanding of the development of the school system’s operating budget and to communicate their priorities for the FY18 budget directly to Superintendent Canavan. The Town Hall will be live streamed as well as archived for viewing at a later date.
“As we continue to meet the demanding standards established each year to balance the school system’s budget, it remains a priority to engage with our community,” said Superintendent Canavan. “I want to ensure my proposed FY18 operating budget is representative of a transparent, collaborative process which reflects input from stakeholders across the system and community.”
At the start of the budget process, Superintendent Canavan will hear directly from school system leaders, administrators, and staff members; community group leaders; and residents during meetings held throughout the month of October.
Superintendent Canavan will be joined by her chief of administration and finance team, as well as other members of her Leadership team, for the meetings.
In addition, citizens can provide budget comments and suggestions via the email address budget@hcps.org at any time throughout the process.
Superintendent Canavan will present her proposed FY18 budget to the Board of Education of Harford County in December.
This was done last year and the Board of Education ignored public input and added the $100 athletic fee and a nontransparent $100 drama fee in the middle of the night that doesn’t balance the budget. The drama fee in particular isn’t collecting enough funds right now to balance the budget and is unfair anyway as it singles out one group of students over another. No other clubs or actvities except athletics has a fee, and all clubs incur costs. The board is also pretending to be transparent by inviting accountants from Baltimore County to discuss the fund balance, but the board won’t ask any tough questions such as if the drama fee doesn’t bring in enough revenue, is the budget still unbalanced, and is the constant dipping into fund balance as a quick fix irresponsible? The board wouldn’t dare invite an outside expert or even an internal HCPS staff member to discuss these questions or current drama fee collections at a public meeting. Sorry Board, but many can see through the sham transparency of selectively inviting accountants from Baltimore County to explain the fund balance.
The collection of student fees were never meant to balance the budget.
The middle of the night discussion when the $100 drama fee was approved included comments from board members and central office staff that the fee collections would address the shortfall and balance the budget.
The school system is required by law to have a balanced budget. The budget recommendation submitted by the superintendent was balanced. The numbers were shifted around a bit by the school board but the end result was the same. It is obvious you are upset about the drama fee and that is fine but it is inaccurate to claim the purpose for the drama fee or raising the athletic fees was to balance a shortfall in the budget.
Sorry, but that’s not correct. The Superintendent did initially present a balanced budget, but it was contingent on closing the pools and ending the swim programs. The board then voted to save the pools and swim programs by dipping into fund balance. But they still needed to address a shortfall because they did not have a fully balanced budget after the vote on the pools. The board then later passed the drama fee in the middle of the night, and board members and the central office staff discussed how they had addressed a shortfall after they did so. So let’s be transparent in this discussion. Yes of course I am upset about the fees, just as you are upset that I am criticizing the Board of Education for their lack of transprency.
I am not concerned about criticism of the school board which is fair game for those that don’t like the decisions made by them. When the school board dipped into the fund balance to keep pools open and fund repairs to Harford Glen the budget was still balanced. They did not need the additional fees to balance to the budget. The money was always there in reserve. Adding drama and increasing athletic fees was just a position the school board decided to take.
Someone also suggested cutting the lawn with goats. Hard to take some of it seriously!
The fund balance is not an endless supply of money as school board members believe and shouldn’t be used to reconcile the budget. I think the word that should be used above is reconcile or reconciliation and not balanced. It’s a bit shortsighted on the board’s part to use the fund balance to reconcile the school budget. Frankly it’s probably bad accounting practice. Also fees shouldn’t be charged from students and parents by the school board if there is no reason to charge them.
This is nothing new. Fund balance is used every year to reconcile the budget.
Z, the discusson at the Board of Education meeting where the $100 drama fee was approved does not support what you are claiming. Board members and the central office budget team all stated that they needed the drama fee for balancing the budget. It was claimed it would raise $50,000. Several news articles also show this and used the words “balanced budget” in discussing why the fee was approved. The board however dug a hole for the schools as the drama fee collections won’t raise $50,000. By inviting accountants at the last meeting, the board is trying to appear transparent and justify its actions about the fees by discussing the fund balance. The reserve, which is the fund balance, isn’t supposed to be part of the calculations. Why isn’t the board being truly transparent and asking publicly how the fee collections are going? Why not be truly transparent and ask drama teachers and students to testify at board meetings about the current situation instead of out of county accountants?
With an overall budget approaching 500 million the school system certainly did not need 50K in drama fees to balance the budget. There was 20+ million in fund balance available for the board to use to pay for open commitments and support keeping pools and Harford Glen operational. Drama/athletic fees were raised for other reasons than to balance the budget. The need to have a “balanced budget” is a legal requirement.
It doesn’t really matter. The Superintendent will form her budget with her “yes” men defending it all the way. No input will matter for parents, school-based people, etc. It’s a sham. Look behind the curtain!
Don’t bother. There’s input at the beginning of the process but zero input at the end when the cuts are made, when it matters most.
Maybe they will show a little common sense and redistrict all the schools and close some of the smaller less populated schools. This would save a bundle of money and there would be no need to build anymore new schools, and eliminate a few administrative positions.
Agreed we can start with havre de grace!
Disagree – Joppatowne HS built on wetland is sinking and pumps run 24-7 keep it from flooding in the lower levels. The clay pan in the soil causes large pseudo- sinkholes that have to continually monitored and repaired and are a both a structural and safety concern. It is very much under capacity and should be the first choice to be closed.
I would agree with you except Joppatowne and Magnolia underwent recent improvements. Already spent the money. Havre de grace is also under enrolled and the current buildings need replaced. Move SMA to Joppatowne shift havre de grace kids to North Harford or Aberdeen. Shift excess Aberdeen population to Patterson Mill and Edgewood. Move excess to Bel Air and Joppatowne move rest of excess from both to Fallston.
or better shift the Joppatowne students to the very under capacity Fallston and the rest to Edgewood and close JHS down. Done.
Your still left paying for a new havre de grace building
From what I hear that project is going through no matter how little sense it makes. Therefore, I say go down the path of least resistance. Then, at least you got one W and are still in the game to maybe slow down the process until a reshuffling of the deck chairs in the next election. Who knows maybe the electorate will quit putting the control of the county in to a one party basket. We need a few checks in the vote yourself a big raise crowd on the current council. I really don’t understand why they are so foolish as to build a new school on a floodplain and next to the Amtrack expansion project.
She doesn’t care don’t bother going. Claims access to technology in schools is fair when its in no way close. Will start the meeting saying “lets not sling mud” and then follow up with some blah blah about how we don’t do this job for the money driving home in her nice car after your school spends money it doesn’t have buying her and her followers a fancy lunch. Between the last two people to do this job you have to wonder how you can get to the top without the slightest bit of leadership ability.
They better not close the pools!
I believe that they already have… Are all 3 pools open right now? They weren’t at the beginning of the year. BC&co. has a way of getting what she wants no matter what the parents or Board says. It’s her school system, not yours. Get over it.
Nickles and dimes, while the big dollars are ignored. For an organizations the size of HCPS the largest expense should be employee wages/salaries and it is. You would expect Capital expenditures to be next, renovating, replacing and maintaining buildings…but that’s only the third highest expense. The second largest expense for HCPS is health care costs for current teachers, staff, and administration, as well as a group of retired employees (who I presume receive this benefit under a prior contractual arrangement).
HCPS needs to take a serious look at its health care costs and consider alternatives that will incentivize all stakeholders to reduce those costs. While one can guess that a pool over over 8000 present and former employees probably has “average” health care needs, an in-depth study could be conducted to determine if there are specific areas of healthcare that HCPS use more than others. HCPS should set up and annually fund health savings accounts for each employee to cover preventative services such as annual physicals, dental cleanings, eye exams, etc. plus a portion of other medical expenses (many accidental injuries, some less severe illnesses, etc).Then HCPS might consider “self-funding” a large portion of “catastrophic” or extraordinary health care such as cancer treatments, then purchasing high-deductible catastrophic care for any amounts above and beyond what is already covered. A small percentage savings in this budget item will more than offset all pool, drama, and athletic fees and put more control of this critical budget items in the hands of the School Board and the dedicated people who work for HCPS.
The health care provided to employees is ridiculous! Extremely cheap and excellent coverage! Tax payers shouldn’t have to pay for this, especially when our benefits continue to be cut and premiums increased due to Obamacare.
Because healthcare premiums never increased prior to Obamacare.
Maybe you should consider a teaching job – cheap health benefits and shitty pay. Sounds like a good solution for you. Duh!