SUPERINTENDENT GEORGE ARLOTTO TO DELIVER FY2016 BUDGET RECOMMENDATION TO BOARD OF EDUCATION; BOARD ALSO TO RECEIVE RECOMMENDATIONS ON REDISTRICTING PORTION OF ANNAPOLIS CLUSTER SCHOOLS

Superintendent George Arlotto will present his recommended operating and capital budgets for Fiscal Year 2016 at the next meeting of the Board of Education of Anne Arundel County, scheduled for 10 a.m. on Wednesday, December 10, 2014. The meeting will be held in the Board Room at the Parham Building, located at 2644 Riva Road in Annapolis.

The budgets chart the course for the school system for the coming fiscal year, which begins July 1, 2015. The Board will conduct two public hearings and a public workshop on the budget before adopting a recommendation to forward to County Executive Steve Schuh in February. The County Executive’s proposal will be considered by the County Council before it adopts a budget that allocates funding within prescribed state categories in June. The Board may shift funding within operating budget categories before it approves a final school system budget no later than June 30.

REDISTRICTING

Also at the meeting, the Board will receive Dr. Arlotto’s recommendations on three redistricting issues studied by a citizen Annapolis Area Redistricting Committee earlier this year. Dr. Arlotto charged the committee with examining:

  • Options to allocate all students living on the United States Naval Academy campus located south of the Severn River to either Annapolis Elementary or West Annapolis Elementary.
  • Options to adjust the boundary between Mills-Parole Elementary and Edgewater Elementary to possibly reallocate properties along Admiral Cochrane Drive (including Knights of Columbus property) to Mills-Parole Elementary.
  • Options to alleviate, to the extent possible, overcrowding at Tyler Heights Elementary School by utilizing capacity increases through future construction projects at Eastport and Georgetown East elementary schools.

Dr. Arlotto is recommending no changes with regard to Naval Academy students or properties along Admiral Cochran Drive. Those recommendations are identical to the ones arrived at by the committee, which was made up of parents and community members of 12 potentially impacted schools.

With regard to reducing overcrowding at Tyler Heights, Dr. Arlotto is recommending a plan examined and narrowly rejected by the committee. It would shift approximately 150 students from the Reserve at Quiet Waters neighborhood from Tyler Heights to Georgetown East, and approximately 48 students from the Harbor House neighborhood from Tyler Heights to Eastport. Those shifts would take effect in August 2016, after additions at Georgetown East and Eastport are complete.

The changes, if approved by the Board, would mean that Tyler Heights would go from its current 37 percent over capacity to 6 percent over capacity in August 2016, while Georgetown East and Eastport would remain under capacity.

Additional redistricting measures will be considered when renovation projects at Hillsmere and Tyler Heights are completed. Both are in the current six-year Capital Improvement Plan.

Dr. Arlotto’s recommendation differs from that narrowly approved by the committee, which suggested moving the aforementioned students from Tyler Heights to Georgetown East and Eastport in August 2015 in addition to approximately 42 students from the Bay Ridge Avenue/Tyler Avenue, The Landings, North Green, and Regent Street communities from Tyler Heights to Georgetown East in August 2016. That move would have created a non-contiguous attendance area for Georgetown East, however, and resulted in some students being bused past Tyler Heights to get to Georgetown East.

The Board will consider Dr. Arlotto’s recommendations and any other alternatives and decide which options to take to a public hearing in January 2015. Under Board policy, a redistricting plan must be adopted by April 30, 2015.

Dr. Arlotto’s recommendation, along with that of the committee, can be found here.

The Board will meet on Wednesday at 8:30 a.m. to vote to go into closed session, during which time it will discuss confidential matters as permitted by the Maryland Open Meetings Act including, but not limited to, legal advice, personnel, and negotiations. Closed session is not open to the public. The general session of the meeting, which is open to the public, will begin at 10 a.m.

A complete agenda for the meeting accompanies this news release. More information on agenda items will be posted on the AACPS website in the Board Docs section under the Board of Education tab.

Dr. Arlotto’s’ budget address and complete information about the budget will be posted on the school system’s website after Wednesday’s meeting.

The general session of Wednesday’s Board meeting will be broadcast live on AACPS-TV, which can be found on Channel 96 on Comcast and Broadstripe, and Channel 36 on Verizon. High definition broadcasts can be seen on Channel 996 on Comcast and Channel 496 on Broadstripe. Rebroadcasts are scheduled for 7:00 p.m. the day after the meeting and 2:00 p.m. on subsequent Sundays.

The meeting can also be viewed live on the Internet here.

Archived videos of Board meetings can be found online here.

Download the 12/10/14 agenda here

BUDGET HEARINGS, WORKSHOP

The Board of Education has scheduled two public hearings and a public workshop on Dr. Arlotto’s budget recommendation. Public hearings will be held on Tuesday, January 6, 2015, at Old Mill High School, and Thursday, January 8, 2015, in the Board Room at the Parham Building in Annapolis. Both hearings begin at 7 p.m. Those wishing to testify can sign up beginning at 6 p.m. Testimony will be limited to three minutes per person.

A public workshop on Dr. Arlotto’s budget recommendation will be held at 6 p.m. on Tuesday, January 20, 2015, in the Board Room at the Parham Building. No public testimony will be taken at the workshop.