Anne Arundel County Schools Approves $1.27 Billion FY2020 Budget

ANNE ARUNDEL COUNTY, MD -- The Anne Arundel County Public Schools board of education has approved $1.27 billion fiscal year 2020 operating budget for the upcoming school year that allows for the hiring of an additional 223 teachers and increases the district's mental health resources by hiring 35 staffers to assist students with their social and emotional needs. The plan also increases compensation for eligible employees.

Board members approved the budget with an 8-1 vote. It aligns funding in 14 state categories. Of the 223 teaching positions, 109.5 are targeted for class-size reduction and 35 more are intended to address enrollment growth. The budget also funds the expansion of the Enhancing Elementary Excellence (Triple E) program to elementary schools in the Broadneck and Glen Burnie clusters except for Oakwood and Richard Henry Lee elementary schools, which cannot accommodate the program next year due to space reasons. Those schools are proposed to receive Triple E in the 2020-2021 school year, the school district reported.

The budget includes 18 additional school counselors, eight additional school psychologists, six additional social workers and three additional pupil personnel workers. It also includes more than $2.7 million for 25 English Language Acquisition teachers, 10 bilingual teaching assistants, three bilingual facilitators and a three-person bilingual special education assessment team.

Also included in the budget is funding for six assistant principal positions. Three of those will create full positions at six elementary schools – Lothian, Millersville, Oakwood, Severn, Shady Side and Woodside – which currently share assistant principals. The other three will fund full-time assistant principal positions at Jessup, Quarterfield and Linthicum elementary schools.

The $48.1 million in compensation enhancements will be distributed among all eligible employees. The board approved an agreement with the Teachers Association of Anne Arundel County (TAAAC) that aligns with previously approved agreements with the Association of Educational Leaders (AEL) and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, Local 1639 (AFSCME).

Employees represented by those three bargaining units will receive the following, effective July 1, 2019:

• One full step increase to all eligible employees.
• A 2 percent cost-of-living adjustment to all employees.
• A back step for all eligible employees who were in an eligible bargaining unit in the 2008-2009 school year, have not changed bargaining units or have changed units without an appropriate placement on the salary scale per a bargaining unit agreement, and have not reached the top of the salary scale.
• A back step for all eligible employees who were in an eligible bargaining unit in the 2009-2010 school year, have not changed bargaining units or have changed units without an appropriate placement on the salary scale per a bargaining unit agreement, and have not reached the top of the salary scale.

The board has been unable to reach an agreement with the Secretaries and Assistants Association of Anne Arundel County and instead approved terms of employment for those employees at the meeting. SAAAAC employees will receive no step, longevity or any other compensation increases until such time as an agreement is reached, the board stated.

The board unanimously approved a $165.9 million FY2020 capital budget that includes funding for nine major school projects, including the first round of funding for a new Old Mill West High School. The budget request also contains funding for classroom additions and additions for kindergarten and prekindergarten. Additionally, it allocates nearly $101.6 million to the following existing major projects, in priority order:

• George Cromwell Elementary School renovation (construction), $4.7 million
• Edgewater Elementary School renovation (construction), $24.0 million
• Tyler Heights Elementary School renovation (construction), $19.3 million
• Richard Henry Lee Elementary School renovation (construction), $16.3 million
• Crofton Area High School construction, $24.4 million
• Quarterfield Elementary School (feasibility study), $947,000
• Hillsmere Elementary School (feasibility study), $784,000
• Rippling Woods Elementary School (feasibility study), $1.2 million
• Old Mill West High School (design), $10.0 million

In addition, the request includes $11 million for prekindergarten and kindergarten additions at Millersville and Linthicum elementary schools and $6 million for classroom additions at Solley and Crofton Woods elementary schools. It also includes $4.3 million for athletic stadium
improvements and $430,000 for playground equipment improvements.

Complete information on the approved FY2020 operating and capital budgets can be found here.