$1.36B Operating Budget Proposed By AACPS Superintendent

ANNAPOLIS, MD — With near historic enrollment increases expected, class sizes are important to educators with Anne Arundel Public Schools. To help accommodate for the anticipated surge in student numbers, the superintendent has proposed a $1.36 billion operation budget for fiscal year 2021 that calls for 195 classroom teaching positions and compensation increases.

AACPS enrollment numbers show the district gained 1,700 more students this year than it did just a year ago, the greatest year-to-year increase in about 30 years. According to the district, more than 91 percent of the new positions in superintendent George Arlotto’s recommendation are for employees who will have daily contact with students. The recommendation also includes 20 teaching assistants and permanent substitute positions, 11.2 cultural arts teaching positions and two elementary reading/language arts teachers.

Fifty-seven positions will help staff the new Crofton High School scheduled to open in September for ninth and 10th grade students. More positions will be allocated as the school adds a grade in each of the next two years. Arlotto’s recommendation also funds nine additional school counselors, two additional school psychologists and an additional social worker. It also contains funding for 73.3 special and alternative education positions, 10 English language acquisition teachers, five bilingual teaching assistants and two bilingual facilitators.

“When I think about the obligation that we, as a school system, have to the nearly 85,000 students we serve every day, three words come to mind: opportunity, intentionality and impact,” Arlotto told the education board during his budget address. “It is only through the creation of opportunities, carried out with intentionality, that we can have the positive impacts on children that they deserve and that our parents and community expect.”

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 as part of Arlotto’s recommendation. Positions also would 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.

Arlotto’s recommendation also would add seven prekindergarten teachers and seven teaching assistants 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, it would provide the equivalent of a step increase for all eligible employees, a two 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.

Arlotto also presented to the board a $214.9 million capital budget recommendation that 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.

The board of education has scheduled two public hearings and a public workshop on Arlotto’s budget recommendation. Public hearings will be held on Jan. 7 at Old Mill High School and Jan. 9 in the board room at the Parham Building in Annapolis. Both hearings begin at 6:30 p.m. Those wishing to testify can sign up beginning at 5:30 p.m. Testimony will be limited to three minutes per person.

The board also will hold a public workshop at 6 p.m. on Jan. 14 in the board room at the Parham Building. No budget-related public testimony will be taken at the workshop or at the Feb. 19 meeting at which time the board is scheduled to adopt the budget.