The Board of Education of Anne Arundel County will discuss and adopt its Fiscal Year 2018 operating and capital budget requests at its next meeting, scheduled for 10 a.m. on Wednesday, February 15, 2017. The meeting will be held in the Board Room at the Parham Building, located at 2644 Riva Road in Annapolis.
Superintendent George Arlotto has recommended a $1.16 billion Fiscal Year 2018 operating budget and a $238.6 million capital budget to the Board. The operating budget includes $15.6 million for compensation enhancements, an amount that would provide full step increases for all eligible employees as well as modest increases for all employees who would otherwise be ineligible for steps. It also includes $3.3 million for 43 additional general education teachers across the system to address a continuing rise in enrollment and help reduce class sizes, as well as $3.3 million for 35.4 positions to help address increasing issues related to the social and emotional wellness of students.
Dr. Arlotto’s capital budget recommendation would allocate more than $176 million in construction and/or design funding at Manor View, High Point, George Cromwell, Jessup, Arnold, Edgewater, Tyler Heights, and Richard Henry Lee elementary schools, as well as for the new Crofton Area High School.
Details about Dr. Arlotto’s budget recommendation, a Budget in Brief, a video of his budget address, and the text of his remarks to the Board can be found here.
Public testimony on the Superintendent’s Recommended FY 2018 Operating and Capital Budget was taken at Board of Education public hearings on January 10 and 12, 2017. Accordingly, no public testimony on the recommendation will be taken at Wednesday’s Board meeting. If amendments are offered by Board Members, public comment will be taken on those amendments only.
The Board’s requests will be forwarded to County Executive Steve Schuh, who will present a proposal to the County Council in May. The County Executive’s proposal will be considered by the County Council before it adopts its budgets no later than June 15. The Board may adjust operating budget funding within state categories before it approves a final school system budget by June 30.
ANNAPOLIS PENINSULA REDISTRICTING
The Board will also receive Dr. Arlotto’s recommendation to adjust the attendance boundaries for schools on the Annapolis Peninsula to best utilize space at those schools.
A committee of parents and community residents studied the possibilities with regard to redistricting schools in the area that includes all schools in the Annapolis cluster as well as those students who live north of the South River but attend Edgewater Elementary School, Central Middle School, and South River High School. It also considered the impact of enrollment at the new Monarch Annapolis Public Contract School, which is scheduled to open in August.
The 32-member committee unanimously recommended a single plan that would move 392 elementary school students by adjusting boundaries for elementary and middle schools in the Annapolis cluster. The plan would also shift Mills-Parole Elementary School so that it feeds into Annapolis Middle School instead of Bates Middle School. Those changes would take effect in the 2017-2018 school year.
The plan would also redistrict one additional neighborhood from Annapolis Elementary School to Arnold Elementary School and one neighborhood from Germantown Elementary to Annapolis Elementary once construction at Arnold is completed in the 2019-2020 school year. That shift would impact 94 students.
Dr. Arlotto’s recommendation to the Board aligns almost entirely with the recommendation of the committee, but redistricts three additional students for logistical and transportation reasons.
Neither the committee nor Dr. Arlotto recommended moving those students who live north of the South River but attend Edgewater Elementary School, Central Middle School, and South River High School into the Annapolis cluster.
The Board will consider Dr. Arlotto’s recommendation and any other alternatives and decide which options to take to a public hearing scheduled for April 3, 2017. Under Board policy, a redistricting plan must be adopted by April 30, 2017.
The Board will meet at 8:30 a.m. Wednesday 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, www.aacps.org, in the Board Docs section under the Board of Education tab.
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.
Board of Education Meeting Agenda, 2-15-17