The Howard County Government already funds HCPSS above the required Maintenance of Effort and has for many years. As such, it is unrealistic to expect the County to fully fund the $103.8 million gap faced by the school system.

In years past, the budget put forth by the Superintendent and the Board of Education included a large ask of the County. When the County approved budget amounts in May and provided a lower amount of funding than was requested by the Board, the Board would then have to make budget reductions towards the end of the process to align with available funding.

Throughout the budget process, additional reductions may be discussed and/or adopted that could impact additional non-mandated services and existing positions associated with those services, particularly as revenues shift and if additional expenditures are added to the budget. 

The Superintendent’s FY 2025 Proposed Operating Budget includes $46.6 million in reductions to existing services and a reduction of 347.85 existing positions. Part of these reductions are categorized as Programmatic Non-School-Based reductions, which impact Central Office services and systemwide costs that support students, staff, and the operation of schools and total approximately $22.0 million and 102.05 existing positions. 

The Superintendent’s FY 2025 Proposed Operating Budget includes $46.6 million in reductions to existing services and a reduction of 347.85 existing positions. These proposed reductions help offset some of the cost increases related to the budget additions and put forward a County funding request that is consistent with last year’s new funding amount of $47 million. The reductions fall into two major areas:

There are requirements that HCPSS must meet that drive new expenditures. The proposed budget adds $71.7 million and 132.3 new positions which fall under three categories: 

The FY 2025 budget proposal totals $1.13 billion, representing an increase of $25 million, or 2.3% over FY 2024. The proposed budget includes making a request of the County for $47 million above Maintenance of Effort, using $10.2 million in anticipated available fund balance and making $46.6 million in budget cuts to existing non-mandated services, including a reduction of 347.85 existing positions. The total request from the County totals $761.6 million, a 5.6% increase over FY 2024.

The FY 2025 Operating Budget webpage provides supporting documents and information regarding the FY 2025 Operating Budget. The page includes: 

While State funding will continue to increase each year to meet their Blueprint related requirements, County funding is not subject to the same requirement. Counties are only required to provide funding in an amount equal to or greater than its prior year per-pupil funding. This is called Maintenance of Effort (MOE). 

As part of the equation to balance the budget, the Superintendent’s proposed budget includes the use of $10.2m in fund balance. Fund balance is the money that hasn’t been spent by the end of the prior fiscal year and reported on our annual audit for that year. There are several reasons why money may not be spent, including position vacancies, budget freezes and or in some cases where contracted costs end up coming in lower than the budgeted amount. 

Maintenance of Effort (MOE) law states that each county must appropriate an amount equal to or greater than its prior year per pupil appropriation. This calculation does not address the cost of negotiated agreements, benefits, Pre-Kindergarten students, non-public placement students, inflation, and funding for quality improvement initiatives. The law ensures that additional state aid will not supplant local revenues.