Worcester County Commissioners file PIA request for line item budget from School Board
WORCESTER COUNTY, Md. – The Worcester County Commissioners have requested a line item budget from the Worcester County School Board of Education.
The request covers details such as 5-Year expense trends, salary breakdowns, and what kind of grants are being used in programming.
Members of the Board of Education tell 47 ABC they are working as fast as they can to get what they are asking for.
“We have no problem offering the information to them and making sure that they understand it but there is not just one button to press and send it to them,’ said BOE President Todd Ferrante adding “We’re going to offer the information over to them as much detailed information as we have.”
Worcester County Commissioner Eric Fiori says he is glad to hear the information is on its way, as he says it is crucial for the district to provide the county to help with long-term planning of district finances, and managing expenses as part of the Maryland Blueprint.
“I’m really excited to get some transparency for the taxpayer, so I actually can’t wait for these numbers to come over so we can just dive into them a little bit to the taxpayers, can see what they’re spending their money on,” he said.
Worcester County CFO Vince Tolbert says they need the funding to help keep up with inflation and teacher salary, and if the current deficit created by the commissioners funding the district at the maintenance of effort level is left unaddressed it could threaten programming.
“We try to avoid all costs, any reductions in positions. So we’d be looking at programs, possibly such as after-school programs, and summer school programs. Maybe some materials, some instruction, funding, that kind of things before we’d actually eliminate positions,” Tolbert said adding “It will mean not being able to fund the teacher raises that were negotiated not being able to fund the support staff, salary increases that were negotiated, not being able to fund the bus contract rates that increased unless, of course, we look to cut programs and services to our students.”
Worcester County Commissioner Eric Fiori tells us he disagrees saying the school has ESSER grants and other options to prevent that outcome, however, Tolbert says that’s not the case
“We are getting additional state money this year, but the majority of it is set aside for health insurance increases, for blueprint mandates, and for other items. It is not taking into account our salary increases for our employees, the rate increases for our bus contractors,” Tolbert said.
“We don’t have the money to fund all those salaries and if we did have the money, we would certainly do it,” Ferrante said.
What both sides can agree on- is the need to sit down and find a way to move forward.
“I think the best way is for us to let them have the numbers, let them take a look, and we will all get together. And if they have any questions, we will provide them with the answers,” Ferrante said.
“The transparency is a great start., when we get our full financial reports and we let our financial team look at them, that’s when we’re going to do our five-year projections out,” Fiori said.
Worcester County Commissioner Eric Fiori says they have already voted to fund the minimum required, But the final budget vote isn’t until June 6th, when they could still add some of the requested funding back in.
