The Harford County Board of Education reduced the school system’s request of $53.8 million from the county to $37.3 million.
Within the decrease, they reduced the total number of additional positions from 91 to roughly 60, as a way to “preserve the positions they have,” according to board president Lauren Paige.
In the school system’s original budget proposal, they asked for an additional 20 teachers for pre-kindergarten to second grade. Paige motioned to eliminate all 20 of the additional positions, but the motion failed. Elected member for District C, Carol Mueller, followed with another motion to remove half of the additional positions, taking the total to 10 new teacher positions, instead of 20. That motion passed unanimously.
Paige then made a motion to reduce the ask of eight multilingual learner teachers, but that motion failed as well.
Vice president Wade Sewell said the reduction of additional multilingual teachers was painful for him but understands why it has to be done. Mueller made a motion to reduce the number of additional multilingual teachers from eight to three, in which that motion passed unanimously.
Student member James McVicker III voted on these motions, but his vote is preferential. Elected member for District A Denise Perry and appointed member Mark Korn were both absent from the meeting. District D elected member Melissa Hahn was present for most of the meeting but was dealing with technical difficulties.
Additionally, the board reduced nine Title I overstaff positions. Deborah Judd, the assistant superintendent for business services, said these are positions of current staff members who will be retiring; no individual will be losing their job.
The proposal also featured teacher positions designated for the newly added Early College program at Swan Creek School. Paige stated, after further discussion, that the board had decided now is not the right time for it. The reduction included six full-time positions for the program.
Appointed member Liliana Norkaitis stated as a taxpayer, she did not feel comfortable sending the budget to the county in its current form. She proposed a motion to reduce its ask to $25 million, by reducing non-salary spending without touching teacher or faculty pay.
Her motion failed 3-4, with Mueller, McVicker, elected member for District E Carol Bruce, Sewell and Paige casting dissenting votes.
Sewell felt the school system’s modified request was manageable and absorbable by the county, but added they are reducing things to “play nicer with our county executive.”
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