Frederick County’s Board of Education approved a $1 billion budget request Wednesday evening. The budget represented a 3% increase from the previous fiscal year.
Ultimately, the board decided to reduce the number of media specialists. They also combined several behavioral support specialists (BSS) and board certified behavioral analyst (BCBA) positions due to alleged overlap.
This marks another year of tough choices for Frederick County Public Schools (FCPS) according to board member Janie Monier, who pointed out the 2025-2026 budget was quite lean. At the time, the school system emphasized a message of maintenance, ensuring it held onto what funding it had, even as teachers called for greater pay.
This year’s reduction in front-line staff compounded families' concerns from when the board chose to increase class sizes in the 2024-2025 school year to address a $50 million deficit.
In light of conversations had among staff, Monier says this may only be the beginning. “We also knew from those conversations that this was going to be one of our more difficult years, and it would probably be the first in a string of years that is going to be extremely difficult,” Monier explained.
Media Specialists
In order to save on costs, the board approved the reduction in the total number of media specialists positions. As the name would suggest, media specialists work in a school's media lab.
They do more than just check out books, helping students with their research and making recommendations for new things to read. They can also lend a hand to teachers who are planning out their lessons.
Based on internal formulas, certain schools were picked to have their total media specialists reduced. This means a media lab could be closed 1 day out of the week. Media specialists could also find themselves being sent to work at multiple schools throughout the week.
Dr. Katherine Gull, FCPS’s Curriculum Director, explained the students will still be able to go to the library before and after school and self check-out will be an option for older students. Where further needs arise, teachers will have access to media labs and can schedule times to bring their students. “If that’s not a possibility now, that would be one of the problems we’d have to solve,” Dr. Gull said.
She went on to say that the positions being cut were not currently filled by permanent staff, instead being held by long term substitutes.
Board of Education Member Chad Wilson found the cuts hard to stomach, in light of concerns he raised over equity. If different schools have different levels of access to media labs, he worried that could produce significantly different outcomes from students. “If they’re filled by long term subs, for me it seems like there’s a need for them inside the schools,” Wilson explained. “A reduction is detrimental to the student.”
Daniel Long, Myersville Elementary School’s media specialist, says he knows the impact his absence will have on his students. He says that if FCPS’s goal is to have a full time media specialist in each school, then this decision moves them in the wrong direction. “Knowing the size of our school…there isn’t anybody in our building that can take on the role of media specialist on the day that I’m not there,” Long argued. “It’s not realistic.”
Special Education
The budget recommendation also included the decision to combine several behavioral support specialists (BSS) and board certified behavioral analyst (BCBA) positions. In response to board questions, it was explained that a BCBA is a certified position that offers advanced expertise at a system wide level.
BCBAs have the ability to “assess, design and monitor evidence-based interventions that improve outcomes while reducing risk and reliance on reactive supports.” Conversely, a BSS plays a critical role in “providing direct, intervention support to students and responding to immediate behavioral needs at the school level.”
In the same document, it was explained that many of the responsibilities of a BSS overlap with a BCBA, while the latter has a higher level of certification. Despite this, Laura O’Neill, secretary for the special education citizen advisory committee in Frederick County, warned the outcome will be different than expected. “When these two positions are combined into one, or lessened, the result is not efficiency, it’s overload,” O’Neill said.
Grant Keimig, a BSS who works at Governor Thomas Johnson High School, urged the board to reinstate the cut roles. He argued the definitions provided to the board clearly showed the key differences in the respective roles. “Suggesting that the BSS and BCBA roles are interchangeable is like suggesting that a language arts teacher and a media specialist are interchangeable,” Keimig argued.
While he acknowledged the overlaps the roles possess, he maintained the daily boots-on-the-ground actions of each role were distinct. Further, he raised concerns over how this decision was made, pointing out that the people in the positions up for being cut were not consulted.
In the face of these cuts, he said the special education teams will adapt and students will get by, but asked if that was the standard the school system wanted to set.
The next step for the budget is the county executive’s desk, where the school system’s budget request will be reviewed.
