Teacher raises out of final Harford school budget, but no job cuts planned
By David Anderson, The Aegis, Bel Air, Md. | |
McClatchy-Tribune Information Services |
Superintendent
"Nobody loses a job, nobody," she told members of the
In addition to killing any proposed raises for teachers and other employees, Canavan offered other cost cutting measures, such as eliminating some summer school programs, and revenue boosting measures, such as charging tuition for summer programs that remain and a fee to participate in interscholastic athletics.
After a lengthy debate, however, the board voted, 6-3, to table final action on the budget until its next scheduled meeting Monday night.
The budget session lasted slightly more than three hours and included about an hour of public comments, as 16 parents and teachers urged board members to raise teacher salaries.
Teachers, whose bargaining unit includes about 2,300 of the school system's 5,300 employees, had earlier negotiated a 1 percent cost of living increase and a step raise which equates to an additional 3 percent, depending on an employee's seniority.
That deal and similar ones negotiated by some of the other employee unions were, however, in jeopardy once county officials acted on their own budget, whose funding for the school system is far less than what school officials had requested.
"I believe in my heart with the utmost sincerity that we can work together with our elected officials and our community to put
Many revisions
Canavan and her staff spent the past week revising their original
The county budget allocates
In addition to the local funding, state funding stands at
The school system will also receive
School officials will use
"We're using
Jewell noted the increased county funding would go toward teacher pension obligations and to cover
While school officials were able to preserve most of their current workforce, several board members said they regretted not being able to provide raises, something they said they would love to do if the money was available.
Reductions include
Canavan proposed ending summer school programs for elementary and middle school students, which will save
Transportation will be ended for the remaining high school summer school programs, which will save
Canavan also proposed charging
More 'pay-to-play'
The proposal to re-institute a sports activity fee did not address how much the fee might be, or if it would apply to clubs and other non-athletic extracurricular activities.
The fee that was put into effect this school year was
School board members who supported postponing a final vote on the budget Wednesday --
"Part of me does want to make the decision today and get this decision over and done with, but there is great value in transparency," Kaff said.
Board President
Fitzpatrick noted the public would only have a few days anyway to review amendments proposed by Canavan and her staff to close the
He said school officials have been soliciting community input on the budget since September.
"I think we know everything that we need to know to vote on this now," he said.
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