School superintendent proposes FY25 budget

CHESTERTOWN — During this year’s budget planning session for FY25, Superintendent of Schools Dr. Karen Couch has been tasked again with balancing a budget that meets the needs of not only students but also the Maryland Blueprint for Education, commonly known as Kirwan.

According to Couch a snapshot of this proposed budget looks like this:

A total budget request of $32,175,451 for FY 25 from all revenue sources

Of which $246,969 is the required increase in county funding (formerly referred to as Maintenance of Effort)

For an enrollment of approximately 1,713 students

With approximately 85%-88% of the budget dedicated to salaries.

With a budget of approximately 32 million, Couch said they propose to use $800,000 of the school district’s fund balance, but will still need to ask the county for an additional nearly 1 million above the county’s required contributions totaling approximately 19.9 million.

“I will not see Kent County go broke over our taxes going up over this Kirwan plan…”, board member Frank Rhodes said during the April 8 board meeting at which Couch presented her budget proposal.

Rhodes lobbied for using more of the fund balance to keep the pressure off the county.

“We have to ask the county for what we need,” Board President Joe Goetz contended.

It becomes a matter of budget priorities and including what is required by the state mandated Blueprint, Couch said. Foremost, salary increases, with the next priority to address health insurance cost increases (approximately 8%), and an increase in utilities; adjusting for what was also an increase in FY24, and subsequently adjusted for in FY25.

“It was a very tight and very concerning push and shove…for coming up with the budget,” Couch said.

Adding to the challenge, everything is placed in designated line items now, Couch said, referring to the requirements coming from the Accountability and Implementation Board (another component of the Blueprint) that dictates how funds are allocated and prevents the transfer of funds among categories.

“Right now we can’t see how it’s going to work and its going to be very muddy and its going to be devastating I think unless something changes,” she said, The AIB consultant is very much aware of this problem and can help us try to figure it out.

Of the proposed budget, “This is what I believe what we need to operate our school system,” Couch said. “If we don’t get the money to make this budget, we will need to figure out what we can do without.”