DENTON — Although Caroline County Public Schools Superintendent Derek Simmons told county commissioners Tuesday morning that increases in the cost of business are driving the district’s fiscal year 2025 operating budget, he said the district feels that it is in a “good spot” when it comes to the budget.
“We feel like we’re in a good spot, budget-wise, to move forward,” he said about the $94.48 million balanced operating budget at a commissioners meeting on Tuesday.
At the meeting, the commissioners unanimously voted to approve the proposed CCPS budget summary, which the Caroline County Board of Education had approved at its work session last week.
The budget is an increase of nearly $4 million from the fiscal year 2024 budget. Simmons pointed to a $185,000 increase in miscellaneous revenue, interest revenue and non-resident tuition.
“We had a good year with interest revenue,” he said.
Revenue from the county totals $18.49 million, an increase of $2.4 million over the previous year, and revenue from the state totals $75 million, an increase of $1.38 million over the previous year.
Simmons talked about rising expenditures, such as budget adjustments for Blueprint for Maryland’s Future programs, a 5% increase in health insurance costs and increases due to the cost of doing business. Those cost of business increases include Maryland Association of Boards of Education insurance costs and transportation costs.
When it comes to Blueprint programming, unrestricted career ladders and unrestricted transitional supplemental instruction — which had both previously been restricted — will cost the district $559,688.
Simmons said teacher pension costs continue to increase a little every year.
Simmons also talked about the need to fund positions that were previously funded through COVID-19-related Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief funding and Maryland Leads grants, which will both expire in September. Those positions include a third assistant principal at North Caroline High School and three technology support positions so the district can continue to have those employees in each building.
“We’ve learned that having tech support in person available at every campus was a much better model than having a centralized model and literally sending people out to the buildings,” Simmons said. “The mileage was killing us.”
Simmons said the district was able to save money from salary lapse, which is when new employees that are hired to fill the positions of people retiring. Because the new hires often have less experience than their predecessors, their salaries aren’t as high.
“So you get some savings there,” Simmons said.
After Simmons’ presentation, commissioners asked questions related to the Blueprint, a state plan to improve student outcomes and the quality of education through increasing education funding by $3.8 billion over a 10 year period.
Commission Vice President Larry Porter asked Simmons how close the district is to reaching a $60,000 starting salary for teachers, which districts must do by 2026, per the Blueprint.
Simmons said starting teacher salaries for next year are over $55,000, and he believes the district will reach the $60,000 mandate by 2026.
There are two scales for teachers: the traditional scale and the career ladder. The career ladder is a part of one of the five pillars of the Blueprint.
Teachers on the career ladder are encouraged to pursue National Board Certification, which is a process that teaches teachers to reflect on their craft. An expenditure of $70,000 in the fiscal year 2025 operating budget will go toward increasing salaries for teachers who receive that certification.
Simmons said the district will reach the $60,000 salary minimum by 2026 for teachers who are on the career ladder, but not for teachers on the traditional scale. He said current teachers have the option to stay on the traditional scale or move onto the career ladder.
“But all new hired staff will start on the career ladder,” he said. “So that will be the scale that we get to ($60,000).”
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