Frederick County’s Board of Education reviewed the Superintendent’s proposed $1 billion budget at a meeting Wednesday night.
Frederick County Public Schools is facing the tough choice to tighten its belt even as they prepare a $1 billion budget, nearly $40 million more than last fiscal year.
Heather Clabaugh, Associate Superintendent of Fiscal Service at FCPS, said the school system has to keep the lights on, programs operational, and — importantly — teachers and other faculty paid. If employee salaries and benefits are the only thing accounted for, that still means $0.86 of every dollar is locked down before anything else is considered.
Once everything is said and done, Clabaugh says FCPS usually only has around 1-2% of its budget left over at the end of a year. While most people would be happy to have $10 million left in the bank, she explained that number can get gobbled up quickly when changes come down from the federal and state level.
In a letter to the FCPS community, Dr. Cheryl L. Dyson, Superintendent of FCPS, highlighted concerns over the continuance of the Department of Education (USDE). With President Trump signing an executive order in 2025 to begin dismantling the organization, it’s turned federal funding into an uncertainty.
Clabaugh said much of that funding comes from Title 1 and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, also known as IDEA. Title 1 helps to support Frederick schools that have a substantial population of students who access the Free and Reduced Meals program, also known as FARM.
While Clabaugh acknowledged there can be a stigma around signing up for FARM, she explained the more eligible families that enroll their children, the more it helps FCPS’s funding formulas.
Alternatively, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act is intended to account for 40% of FCPS’s special education budget. While presently, the IDEA is only funded at 13%, the loss of that support could mean a reduction in tens of millions of dollars for special education.
While FCPS plans to request an additional $5 million in state funding, the Superintendent pointed out in her letter that Maryland is projected to face a $1.5 billion deficit this next fiscal year. Once inflation is taken into account, Clabaugh said even a snowy day becomes a difficult fiscal decision. “To salt our parking lots is approximately $80,000 every time,” Clabaugh explained. “But that doesn’t include overtime for our facility service workers, that’s simply to pay the contractors to provide the salt.”
In order to find funding wherever it may appear, Clabaugh explained FCPS’s central office currently has a hiring freeze. Any time a position becomes vacant, she says officials are reviewing if the role is still needed, if it can be repurposed, or if it's simply time to get rid of it.
These reductions serve to open up roles in schools as federal funding for an elementary literacy program comes to a close. Clabaugh explained FCPS saw serious results from the initiative and wanted to ensure the funding remained to keep those positions active. “Our goal is to ensure that we put as many resources in the school as possible,” Clabaugh said. “If that means we have to make some changes at central office, we are doing that.”
FCPS is also engaging in conversation with its staff to determine where cuts can be made to better use funding. Clabaugh explained high school principals across Frederick County have advocated for the ending of school-day SAT testing. “They felt like it was disruptive and there were other things that we could do to support students,” Clabaugh said.
The majority of school funding comes from enrollment, but the formula has a delay. The enrollment numbers from the previous school year are used to determine the next year’s budget. That means as FCPS remains the fastest growing system in the state, it has to work hard to provide for everyone.
FCPS estimates that enrollment for the coming school year will remain relatively level, but argues that this won’t give schools room to breathe. While it could allow schools to stabilize their staffing, Clabaugh said inflation needs to be considered. “That maintenance of effort doesn’t allow for you to provide any raises or steps to your staff,” Clabaugh clarified. “So every year the costs go up, even if you keep the exact same workforce.”
FCPS families will have a chance to speak on the budget at a public hearing planned for next Wednesday, January 28.
