The Montgomery County Board of Education approved an operating budget of $2.3 billion for next year — about a 2 percent increase from the current year — as officials for the top-rated school system attempt to navigate through the county’s fiscal woes.
The budget, passed Wednesday, includes about $870 million for teacher salaries, $290 million for special education, and $34 million for textbooks and instructional supplies.
State law mandates that the county fund the school system at at least the same level as the previous year. The schools would face a penalty of up to $51 million if the county does not comply, according to Superintendent Jerry Weast. The State Board of Education last month authorized the comptroller to withhold $23.4 million from the county for not obeying the law last year.
“The last thing we need to do is trip the state law,” Weast said. “We can’t have that two years in a row.”
Board members said that despite the brutal economic times, they had a responsibility to pass the superintendent’s recommended budget, lest they face any further penalties from the state.
“I don’t think we have any choice,” said school board member Philip Kaufmann.
But Montgomery County Councilman Phil Andrews said Weast’s proposed budget was “not affordable,” as the county faces an estimated $690 million budget shortfall in the coming fiscal year.
“Every agency is going to have to find savings from what was spent this year,” Andrews said.
School board President Patricia O’Neill said there is a “great deal of uncertainty and fiscal alarm” in the county, and that cuts could come as the County Council deals with its own budget.
“We will do it with a scalpel, and not an ax,” she said, adding that the process would be “like having surgery without anesthesia.”
The school budget now will be sent to the County Council. Montgomery County Executive Ike Leggett is scheduled to submit his proposed budget March 15, which will include a suggested amount for the schools.
Examiner Staff Writers Alan Suderman and Leah Fabel contributed to this report.
