Baltimore County Public Schools Superintendent Myriam Rogers presented a $2.98 billion total operating budget to the school board Tuesday night, asking it to consider adopting a 6.5% increase over the previous year’s budget.
Rogers first described the budget during a Monday presentation to the community at George Washington Carver Center for Arts and Technology as prioritizing employee recruitment and retention and maintaining class sizes. She said the budget was “no frills,” and later explained that spending on just five must-haves (union compensation agreements, an extended school day , special education, employee benefits, and gas and electric bills) topped $100 million in increased spending.
The school board is now reviewing the budget, which would provide an increase of $126.4 million in funding for the district. Next month, the board will have the opportunity to approve the budget, at which point it will go to the Baltimore County Council and County Executive Kathy Klausmeier for final approval in May, Rogers explained to the board Tuesday. The county would be responsible for over $100 million of the school’s budget, a 10.4% increase from last year.
The largest component of the budget proposal was $81.4 million for increased compensation and benefits for the school district’s over 20,000 employees. But gas and electric costs have also increased, leading to $8.7 million in additional costs for the district just to keep the lights on in fiscal 2026. Rogers said total costs for gas and electric in the next fiscal year would exceed $9 million.
Board member and former chair Tiara Booker-Dwyer said at the end of Tuesday’s meeting that the board should consider getting utility providers to come in and discuss possible discounts, fee waivers and student apprenticeships in the future to offset the increased costs.
In terms of cost reductions, the budget also proposed $26.3 million in cuts for fiscal 2026, with a little less than half of those coming from a net reduction in positions. Combined with the $104.1 million in cuts made in fiscal 2025, the reductions total $130.4 million across the two fiscal years, according to the presentation.
Though Rogers reminded the audience during both presentations that it typically takes three years to see results from district-wide changes, she said Baltimore County schools had already made some progress.
“What we know is if we continue to progress at this rate, we will have reversed a decade of academic decline three times faster than expected. And that is if, and only if, we continue to invest in Team BCPS, invest in the adults that make it Team BCPS and invest in our students,” she said Monday.
The budget provided $830,000 for creating seven new sections of full-day prekindergarten to the school district, which fulfills part of the Blueprint for Maryland’s Future’s early childhood education requirements. Special education would receive $23.2 million.
Last year, Rogers proposed a budget 2.2% greater than the year before.
The public will have a chance to comment on the budget at a virtual hearing next Tuesday at 6:30 p.m.
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