Worcester County Public Schools officials and board of education members continued sifting through details of the Fiscal Year 2025 budget at a work session last week.
File photo
By Tara Fischer, Staff Writer
Worcester County Public Schools officials and board of education members continued sifting through details of the Fiscal Year 2025 budget at a work session last week.
Chief Financial Officer Vince Tolbert went over the expected figures for the coming year.
The estimated numbers are based on Gov. Wes Moore’s (D) budget. Tolbert explained that there is a roughly $800,000 increase in unrestricted money, including $354,000 for special education, $62,000 for transportation, and $180,000 in compensatory aid, an extra amount for each child living in poverty. Another $107,000 will be used for English as a Second Language students.
The county also receives restricted funding for the Blueprint for Maryland’s Future. Poverty grants from the state will increase by $620,000. Last year, four county schools qualified as economically disadvantaged, including Pocomoke Elementary School, Pocomoke Middle School, Pocomoke High School, and Cedar Chapel Special School. Snow Hill Middle and Buckingham Elementary were added this year. The grants will be limited to just those schools, and part of the money must be used to hire a community connection person.
Tolbert said support for College and Career Readiness is going down by about $42,000. Many school officials fear the impact it will have.
“The state took away multiple options for CCR, which are very impactful for our students because not all choose to go to college,” Chief Operating and Academics Officer Annette Wallace said. “Many of our students leave Worcester Technical High School to become a welder and are making three figures. That got taken off the table.”
Transitional supplemental instruction, which will affect what supplies and materials the county can buy for reading lessons, is also decreasing by $49,000. At the same time, the budget for national board-certified teachers will go up by $2,284. Total restricted state funding is expected to increase by $689,000.
Tolbert also presented revenue sources for the school systems. Worcester’s percentage of state money received is the lowest off any county at 26.3%, while Somerset and Wicomico receive over 80% of their budgets from the government. Alternatively, the local system receives the highest amount of local funds.
The reason for low state financial support in WCPS is the wealth-based aid funding formula based on property assessments and income tax. Because of Ocean City and the money in the north end, Worcester is considered the wealthiest county in the state on a per-people basis, with over $1.4 million per person.
“We have very little chance of getting additional state funding because of that wealth-based formula,” Tolbert said.