Board of Education Approves Budget

February 26th, 2014

The Board of Education of Howard County approved the Board’s Requested Fiscal Year 2015 Annual Operating Budget in their February 25, 2014 Board meeting.

The Board’s requested budget aligns programs and resources with the school system’s five-year strategic plan, Vision 2018: Fulfilling the Promise of Preparation (Vision 2018), launched in July of 2013 to build an educational program that is among the best in the world. Totaling $758.8 million, the approved budget is an increase of $33.5 million over the prior year, which is a 4.6% increase.

Superintendent Renee Foose shared that the school system’s budget strives to protect gains made over the last several years in student achievement while making strategic investments to fulfill the promise of preparation for every Howard County child. To facilitate this process, zero-based budgeting (ZBB) was implemented for the first time with this budget. All proposed annual expenditures were evaluated on the basis of strategic priorities rather than history. Among first year results of this process are the alignment of all programs and activities with Vision 2018 as well as ZBB savings of $3.4 million redirected to fulfill priorities of the strategic plan.

The Board’s requested budget includes 25.6 new positions and $1.2 million of funding for expected enrollment growth and 31.2 positions and $2.4 million of funding to open the new Thomas Viaduct Middle School. New initiative requests were prioritized based upon their contribution to outcomes in Vision 2018. Highlighting the initiatives in requested budget is the Model Elementary School initiative, which expands the elementary world language program and the Pre-K program at Title I schools. The Board requested budget includes 35 positions and $7.3 million in funding to support this and other new initiatives.

The most significant addition made to the budget request by the Board was the addition of a placeholder of $21.4 million for employee salary increases, an amount that allows for a salary increase of up to 5% for all permanent employees. Board members and Superintendent Renee Foose note the importance of investing in the school system’s greatest asset, its employees, to propel the school system forward in providing the kind of educational program that our students deserve and our community expects. While this placeholder shows the Board’s intent to support salary increases, the exact amount of an increase will be determined through the negotiations process, which is ongoing.

In addition to approving the operating budget request, the Board approved the FY 2015 Capital Budget which includes a request of $97.3 million in FY 2015 for a total capital budget of $523.3 million. The Board’s requested operating budget and capital budget are subject to approval by the Howard County Council followed by final approval by the Board of Education in late May 2014.