School officials discuss budget for 2016 fiscal year

The 2015 school year is not over but a number of Wicomico County school officials already have their eyes on what can be done next year, especially in terms of the school budget.

At their first budget hearing of the year on Thursday, school officials reached out to parents, faculty, and community members to weigh in on what they need before drafting an actual proposal.

For the fiscal year 2015, the school district got 40 million dollars which is almost one-third of the county budget. Superintendent Dr. John Fredericksen explains there may be more needs than there will be dollars to cover.

“We basically have less money coming in than what would cover our needs in terms of covering inflation and new requests for services just to maintain services for kids.” explains Dr. Fredericksen.

A heavier emphasis on technological advancements in schools was a pressing request many parents and school officials addressed at Thursday night’s budget hearing at the Board of Education. Shannon Webster is the mother of two students in the school systems: a first-grader at Westside Primary and a fourth-grader at Westside Intermediate. According to Webster, parents and community members have raised enough funds for 11 smart-boards at Westside Intermediate. She tells 47 ABC, the school needs 17 more.

“The concern I have as a parent is my first grader who is a student at the westside primary school has the smartboard capability in each of those classrooms but when he goes to the intermediate schools, he may not have that because we don’t have the school fully filled with the smart boards” Explains Webster.

Another request raised was the hiring of more teachers qualified to address students with special needs.

Dr. Fredericksen admits it’s not an easy task to grant every request, especially considering the fact that funding has shown a downward trend over the past five years.

“When the state is facing a 50 million dollar budget deficit…the likelihood of them addressing that and being able to give us more money is pretty low.” He says.

Despite the dismal outlook, Dr. Fredrericksen says all requests will still be considered.

The board is expected to adopt a proposed budget by March 10th. The proposal will reportedly be sent to the county executive by the 15th.