The Board of Education of Anne Arundel County will discuss and vote on the adoption of its Fiscal Year 2021 operating and capital budget requests at its next meeting, scheduled for Wednesday, February 19, 2020.
The meeting will begin at 7 p.m. in the Board Room of the Parham Building, located at 2644 Riva Road in Annapolis.
Dr. Arlotto’s recommended $1.36 billion operating budget for Fiscal Year 2021 includes 195 additional classroom teaching positions to address near historic enrollment increases and reduce class sizes as well as compensation increases for employees.
More than 91 percent of the new positions in Dr. Arlotto’s recommendation are for employees who will have daily contact with students. The recommendation also contains 20 teaching assistants and permanent substitute positions, 11.2 cultural arts teaching positions, and two elementary reading/language arts teachers.
Fifty-seven positions will go to staff the new Crofton High School, which will open in September for students in grades 9 and 10. More positions will be allocated as the school adds a grade in each of the next two years.
AACPS is educating approximately 1,700 more students this year than it did just a year ago, the greatest year-to-year increase in about 30 years.
Dr. Arlotto’s recommendation also funds nine additional school counselors, two additional school psychologists, and an additional social worker to help meet the social and emotional needs of students. It also contains funding for 73.3 special and alternative education positions, 15 English Language Acquisition teachers, five bilingual teaching assistants, and two bilingual facilitators.
Elementary schools in the four clusters still without the innovative Triple E program – Arundel, Old Mill, Severna Park, and South River – would receive staffing and funding for the program under Dr. Arlotto’s recommendation. Positions would also be allocated to implement the program at Richard Henry Lee and Oakwood elementary schools, which could not begin the program this year due to constructed-related constraints.
Dr. Arlotto’s recommendation also would add seven prekindergarten teachers and seven teaching assists to increase the number of full-day prekindergarten programs across the county; fund seven positions in the Transportation Division to enhance bus routing and communications with families and bus drivers; and add four custodial and two preventative maintenance technicians in the Facilities Division.
More than $34.4 million in Dr. Arlotto’s recommendation is dedicated to employee compensation increases. Pending the completion of negotiations with employee bargaining units, that is sufficient to provide the equivalent of a step increase for all eligible employees, a 2 percent cost-of-living increase for all employees, and a back step for all eligible employees who were in an eligible bargaining unit or position in the 2011-2012 school year.
Dr. Arlotto’s $214.9 million capital budget recommendation includes $139 million for ongoing construction projects at Edgewater, Tyler Heights, Richard Henry Lee, Quarterfield, Hillsmere, and Rippling Woods elementary schools; as well as Old Mill West High School.
The capital budget recommendation also contains:
- $9 million for full-day kindergarten and prekindergarten additions at Sunset and Van Bokkelen elementary schools.
- $11 million for a classroom addition and cafeteria expansion at Arundel Middle School.
- $3 million for the design of a new elementary school in west county, to be constructed on the west side of Route 3 in the vicinity of the Two Rivers community.
- $4 million for the feasibility study and design of a new Old Mill Middle School South, to be built on the current Southgate/Old Mill Park.
Public testimony on the Superintendent’s Recommended FY2021 Operating and Capital budgets was taken at Board of Education public hearings on January 9 and 24, 2020. Accordingly, no public testimony on the recommendation will be taken at the February 19 Board meeting. If amendments are offered by Board Members, public comment will be taken on the content of those amendments only.
The Board will meet in a public session at 5:30 p.m. for the sole purpose of voting to immediately 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 public session of the meeting will resume at 7 p.m.
PUBLIC TESTIMONY SIGNUP PROCESS
Members of the public wishing to testify before the Board can sign up in advance online or by phone. Signups will open when the agenda for that meeting is published and will close at 4 p.m. on the day before the meeting. Members of the public can sign up here or by calling 410-222-5311.
The Board will continue to hear testimony on agenda items when those items are before the Board. Testimony on items not on the agenda will be heard during the Public Comment portion of Board meetings.
Regardless of whether the testimony is offered on an agenda item or during Public Comment, student-specific concerns, personnel issues, and items under appeal or pending appeal cannot be discussed before the Board.
Members of the public may only sign up themselves to testify before the Board.
Testimony can also be submitted to the Board of Education via email at any time at BoardOffice@aacps.org. Signups for those wishing to testify at Board meetings will not be accepted by email.
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. The Board may choose to change the order in which agenda items are heard to meet the Board’s needs. Unless changed by the Board, items will be heard in the order in which they appear on the agenda.
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, Channel 496 on Broadstripe, and Channel 1961 on Verizon.
The meeting can also be viewed live on the Internet here.
Archived videos of Board meetings can be found online here.