Let me start with the BAD news... A "911" has gone out that the County Executive is planning a surprise maneuver at Monday night's County Council Meeting that will rob the School System of critical monies for SY11-12, including the MAGNET PROGRAMS. I don't pretend to understand the intricacies, but here is a snippet from a memo sent out by Dr. Maxwell:
A cut of the magnitude being suggested by the County Executive makes furloughs and layoffs a real possibility. Approximately 83 percent of our budget is made up of salaries, health care, and other benefits for employees. With the kind of substantial reductions the County is projecting, impacting present employees is all but unavoidable.
In addition, such cuts would adversely impact magnet programs and charter schools, key programs of choice which I believe have enabled us to enhance the quality of education we provide our 75,500 students every day. We would have to re-examine every available option, and no discussion would be off the table.
I believe we have been good fiscal stewards of the funding provided to us by the County Council. We have tightened our expenditures and aggressively renegotiated contracts to accrue savings to put toward health-care costs. We have used repeat prototype designs for school construction, saving $2 million in the last three years alone. And, despite the addition of approximately 2,000 students over the last two years, we have not increased the number of general fund positions across our system. Our rolling hiring freeze has been in effect for four years....
I have been promised more details soon, but I wanted to get the word out soon, so that as many of you as possible could come to the County Council Meeting on Monday night at 7pm at the Arundel Center. If you would like to speak, great - if not, just a show of bodies to stand up in support of our speakers can make a big impact!
The good news? Other than we have a great group of parents who I know will rally to this cause? Dr. Bragdon has agreed to move the "shorts allowed" date up to the first day after Spring Break!
