Budget Update from the Superintendent, May 13, 2025

May 13th, 2025

The following was issued by Howard County Public School System (HCPSS) Superintendent Bill Barnes on May 13, 2025:

Yesterday, Howard County Executive Calvin Ball announced that he filed emergency legislation with the Howard County Council to provide up to $14.5 million in additional funding to the Howard County Public School System’s Fiscal Year 2026 Operating Budget. This emergency budget legislation will authorize Howard County to draw upon one-time funding from the County’s excess surplus revenue to direct toward the FY26 school system budget. The County Council will now consider this budget legislation as they finalize their budget on May 21. Pending the final budget adoption by the County Council, the Board of Education will hold a work session to consider ways to close any remaining gap and balance the budget.

I want to express my appreciation to County Executive Ball for continuing to be a tremendous partner with the school system. He recognizes the challenges before us and is committed to finding solutions to fund many of our mandates and commitments while limiting the impact on existing services. The Board of Education, County Council, County Executive, leadership from our bargaining units, myself, and many members of our school system community have been working together, as a team, to close the substantial gap between new revenue and our anticipated funding needs. Yesterday’s announcement was the result of that collaboration.

Since the announcement, I have received questions from several staff and community members about what this means and next steps. In short, yesterday’s announcement provides the Board of Education with more viable options to balance the FY2026 operating budget. At this point, the difference between anticipated new revenue and the amount needed to fund our existing service commitments and the compensation and benefits requirements is $14.7 million. The budget balancing options we consider will reflect recommendations detailed by the County Executive in a letter to the Board last week and include the use of fund balance, a reassessment of investment income projections, scrutinizing budget additions, and exploring operational efficiencies.

More information will be provided as the budget development process continues to ensure all students, staff and families can remain informed of process updates. Thank you to our full community for your support for educational excellence in Howard County.