The Harford County Board of Education on Monday voted to pass a budget for next year that includes cuts to an undetermined number of classroom teacher positions, and millions of dollars’ worth of cuts to line items that were not publicly disclosed. The cuts were made to the school board’s original budget proposal and were necessary to align the final budget with available funding, and to fund salary increases that were tentatively negotiated for the year that begins on July 1. The $427,768,507 unrestricted operating budget for the fiscal year 2013 was unanimously approved.
Superintendent Robert M. Tomback said later that cuts to 66 positions approved by the school board to help pay for the wage package, which he characterized as cuts to “classroom or related positions”, would be absorbed through attrition and would not result in layoffs. Tomback stressed that the cuts were to a dollar amount associated with 66 positions and that the actual number of classroom teacher positions cut among the 66 would be determined at a future date, and after meetings with school principals.
Seeking to preserve teaching positions, Board Member Bob Frisch proposed an amendment prior to the passage of the budget on Monday that would have replaced teacher mentor positions, currently designated as full time employees, with contracted positions. Frisch said that the move affected roughly 30 teacher mentor positions and could save $1.2 million, which he said translated into approximately 16 teacher positions.
Superintendent Tomback pushed back on Frisch’s proposal, citing state requirements regarding mentors and potential violations of the contract with the teachers’ union. Tomback said the idea required further study and Frisch’s proposal failed to win a majority vote.
Undisclosed Line Item Cuts
Two sets of cuts containing undisclosed line items were among a total of 14 amendments recommended by Superintendent Tomback and approved in the budget action Monday. A total of $6,101,404 in unnamed line item cuts were made to help balance the budget with available funding (“Amendment 4”); and a total of $3,300,000 in unnamed cuts were made to help offset the $10 million cost of salary increases for all employees (“Amendment 13”). Both amendments were unanimously approved by the school board.
While the individual line items comprising Amendments 4 and 13 were not made public during or after the meeting, Teri Kranefeld, HCPS manager of communications, said that board members knew what they were prior to the budget vote.
In response to a request by The Dagger, Kranefeld provided the individual line items comprising the two amendments, which appear in the tables below.
The tables provide details on additional position cuts, including a total of eight paraeducator positions cut: four in special education and four under the heading of “Intervention”. Kranefeld said that there would be no layoffs and paraeducators would be moved to open positions in other areas.
Along with the many line items cut, with dollar amounts ranging from less than $500 up to nearly $1 million, several line items in the tables appear to have actually been increased: $40,000 for Department of Juvenile Justice contracted instruction; $118,015 for two special education teachers (made possible by the reduction in special education paraeducators); and $31,200 for legal fees, conferences and professional dues for the school board.
Cuts to Help Balance Budget With County Funding Level (Amendment 4)
Cuts to Help Fund Negotiated Wage Proposal (Amendment 13)
Below is an overview of all 14 budget amendments as they were publicly recommended by Superintendent Tomback and approved by the school board on June 11, 2012:
Reacting to the cuts to 66 positions to fund the wage package, the teachers’ union issued the following press release on June 13, 2012:
Teachers Oppose Cuts that Impact Classrooms
“The Harford County Council put the Harford Board of Education in a difficult position when it shrugged off its responsibility to adequately fund county schools,” said Randy Cerveny, president of the Harford County Education Association. “We believe that classrooms should be the last place any cuts should be made.”
Cerveny was commenting on the Board of Education’s announcement of its decision to cut 66 teacher positions for the 2012-2013 school year. “The County Executive and Council’s refusal to support public education has forced the Board of Education to make difficult choices,” he said. “The most important thing in education is the teaching professional in front of the classroom, interacting directly with students.”
“Harford educators fought very hard for adequate school funding this year,” according to Cerveny. “We hope that everyone in the county will join with us when we return to school in August to take up the funding fight we’ve begun. If we don’t stand together to support our schools, there will be more of these difficult decisions in the future, many of which will be disastrous to quality education in the county.”
HCEA reports that the Harford Board of Education had other options in terms of cuts. “Unfortunately,” said Cerveny, “they chose to take so much out of school level staffing. Our preference would have been to make cuts that didn’t directly affect the students.” State law gives an employee representative such as HCEA no authority on specific budget issues, such as which programs or positions are funded or cut. The Superintendent makes a budget recommendation to the Board of Education, which has the ultimate responsibility for budget matters.
During the process of negotiations for the teachers’ 2012-2013 contract, HCEA made the offer to sit down with representatives of the Board of Education to look for possible cuts that would be least detrimental to classroom instruction. “In light of the fact that the Harford County school population has decreased by 2000 students over the last five years,” said Seleste Harris, HCEA staff person and negotiator, “we expect the board to implement any necessary staff reductions in a way that will not effect class size or decrease curriculum offerings to students.”
The Association intends to continue its efforts to do whatever is necessary to advocate for a quality education for students and fair treatment for education employees and its members.
Perhaps they could start by cutting some Central Office positions.
Don’t you pay attention, they did.
Did you see what they cut? Seriously? That’s just the tip of the iceberg as far as waste at central office goes. Find out what impact most of the head honchos (and $ suckers) has on kids at schools. You will most likely find it minimal considering they spend a miniscule amount of time in the actual schools that they make decisions for. Most of the time they come into the main office for a meeting and leave without any contact with teachers or students. The people that do the real work that HCPS is all about – who deal with your kids daily and those that really make a difference – are getting slammed for wanting what they were promised. You should be angry with all of the waste. (I recommend that you also explore where all of the Race to the Top $ went to. It wasn’t schools.) Changes need to be made.
It’s it shocking how much came from school libraries? My schools librarian was in tears when she found out over 50% of the school’s library budget was cut and was told all new programs were cancelled for next year. Why would they cut the one area in the building that serves every single student, teacher and staff member? We’ll see if parents will be as upset with this as the would be if music and sports were cut so heavily. As a teacher I’m concerned on the impact this will have to all kids, but especially our poorer areas whose chilren’s only chance to get a book is at their school library!
You can thank David R. Craig for that. There isn’t enough money.
Ryan Burbey: Could it be that HCPS has added 453 new positions over the last five years while school enrollment has decreased and the CE thinks this is not a wise use of tax dollars?
Anyone read Craig’s political position paper in the morning Sun today. The guy is off his rocker and he wants to be the Gov. ??? What a joke although we have a new term to use……WE GOT CRAIGED !!! worse then being punked……The poor man was born on third base and thinks he hit a triple.
Mike, I thought Mr. Craig’s op-ed was very well done and raises a number of good questions. I’m curious as to what you found in it to be so objectionable.
Most of the functions that the CE identifies for merger (and takeover by county government) are already done by the school system on a larger scale then that done by county government. If the CE really wants efficiencies through economies of scale then he should turn over all the personnel and their respective budgets to the school system. Of course this will not happen because this is really about the CE trying to have completer control over the school system. If he had such control now a new HdG hs would already be built. This is nothing more than political posturing. The CE wants to be the next gov. but if he keeps pissing people off (including many elected Republicans) he won’t even win Harford Co.
Aberdeen, Havre de Grace and Edgewood all have public libraries in the center of town, so I’m not sure why the poorer areas are your concern. Its Churchville, Fallston, etc, where kids are completely unable to walk to their local branch that should be the focus.
How many kids check out books from the school library vs searching Wikipedia and copying the sources cited?
Wikipedia, are you kidding? First of all any idiot can add to Wikipedia, and publish it as fact. The internet is not the be all end all, it’s use is taught by the school’s librarians and databases are bought by the libraries for safe accessible content, just as it is in colleges. Plus, in terms of reading, students who read books, not necessarily the Internet have higher SAT scores.
I am a school librarian for the system and I would rather lose money any day of the week then lose staff. The books and library will live to function another day, but the staff who support students is what it is all about. I would much rather lose a good chunk of my budget so we can fund a step and COLA for our hardworking teachers and staff.
That is a false choice. We can do both. There must be a greater focus on public education!
Okay, I will.
Thanks to County Executive Craig and to the County Council for being fiscally responsible. It’s a hard job and somebody has to do it. That’s why we elected you. Keep on doing it.
Well said Alex!
This is what Craig has been saying all along, but the hard headed teachers just would not listen. The money has been there all along to fund the step increases that they were owed. Instead of bashing the County Executive, who is running things like a business, the teachers should be bashing the fiscally irresponsible Board of Education.
Thank you David Craig and the County Council.
The Board may be to blame for many of the budget concerns, but the County Council and CE have CONSISTENTLY put education at the bottom of their priorities for YEARS. Ask anyone in any other MD county. Education is not valued in Harford County as it is in others. Why else would HCPS teachers be ranked 20/24 in salaries in the state for over a decade? That’s not just the Board of Ed….
If he is so “fiscally responsible,” how did he find over 80 million dollars? Didn’t he know it would be there?
The librarian at our school said they would be ok.
What else would the uninformed say or those who didn’t want to “rock the boat”.
More evidence to refute the “there isn’t enough money” claim:
In FY 2006, HCPS employed 5,031 people to serve 39,568 students.
In FY 2011, HCPS employed 5,484 people to serve 38,224 students.
Enrollment fell by 3.4% over those 5 years, while staffing grew by 9.0%. That’s 453 more personnel to serve 1,344 fewer students.
C’mon, Mike, stop bringing logic and actual numbers in to this. When we look at the cold facts of 3.9% drop in enrollment while a 9% increase in staffing over the past 5 years it makes your critics look like numbskulls. Maybe your critics are mostly just the English and Social Studies teachers because the math teachers know better. No wonder there wasn’t money to fund actual increases. It all went to hiring new staff. I don’t recall the HCEA complaining about that.
Alex!!! Do you ever work? Or do you just sit on the computer reading The Dagger all day waiting for an appropriate comment to bash teachers.
You will find that I have hardly ever (I hesitate to say never) bashed teachers and I could point to numerous specific posts where I have praised the more talented of them and their profession. I have criticized, and will continue to do so, the BOE, the HCPS and the HCEA. They are legitimate targets and have much about them already in the public record that makes them very easy targets for reasoned complaints. I am joined in this by a large number of people on this board that likewise have gathered facts to support that legitimate complaint. If you don’t like it then that is your right. It is summer time and though I am not a teacher, like them, I have time off. Why is that your business?
It would be interesting to know how many of the new positions were teachers/school-based or jobs in central office. Any way to find out?
Yes – the HCPS website has budget detail going back to 2008 (which in turn shows 3 years so you can get info back to 2006). Each budget includes staffing changes by department so you could easily piece this information together.
You simply aren’t looking at the added necessities of staffing. Harford County funds its schools at about $1,000 less per pupil than Baltimore County. That is $38,000,000 this year alone. We need not raises taxes. Our county executive and council just need to prioritized schools over paygo projects.
I don’t see how averaging nearly 100 new positions a year (when enrollment is falling) can be considered “necessity”.
Mike: I wouldn’t hold my breath waiting for Ryan Burbey to answer your logic. It’s pretty evident that he knows absolutely nothing about how to manage finances on a County level.
That’s right, you don’t see it. There are many positions in HCPS which are required to meet both state and federal mandates. Many of the increased positions come from this. Each time you open a new school it increases positions. Many of the increase in positions are the result of opening Patterson Mill Middle and High, New Edgewood High, New Aberdeen High and Red Pump Elementary. There also have been dramatic increases in programing. These include SMA, IB/GS and Natural Sciences Magnet. In addition to this HCPS has significantly increased the number of students taking AP classes. Please don’t think that this is the limit of the new programing. There are also many intervention programs and remedial programs which require increased staffing. I think you can stop holding your breath.
Regarding the increase in class sizes, I was informed yesterday that, at least one of my classes, will be almost 40 students. I was told by my principal that we should expect all class sizes to go up. Larger class sizes won’t benefit anyone, especially not our students. On that note: I will be looking for another job this summer… One that doesn’t involve education!
Very large class sizes do not benefit students and make it harder for teachers to provide the “individualized instruction” that everyone demands teachers provide to each individual student. Smaller classes have been demanded by parents as demonstrated by their complaints when there is talk of increased class sizes. I suspect there are a lot of people posting here that do not have children in the school system and that is why class size is not important or does not matter to them. I can tell you it does matter to parents of school aged children and the students too.
Many of those added positions are also the results of grants the school system gets. They hire people that stay in the school system after the grant runs out. Is this really necessary?
Why is there a bias against >20 student high school classes while 200+ student lectures are common for college freshmen?
It should be the students’ responsibility to learn the material presented, not the teacher’s to force-feed it to them.
That’s how it should be, but that’s not how it is.
“That’s how it should be,” maybe so “but that’s not how it is” is what classroom teachers have to live with because they have NO say in making policy or procedure decisions. If classroom teachers were given a real seat at the decision making table education in Harford Co and across America would look much different.
Try getting a 14 year old freshmen to understand that it’s their responsibility to learn the material. Pedagogically speaking, kids at this stage of development learn best through individualized instruction. I cringe at the thought of trying to manage a class of 200 high school freshmen. You simply cannot compare students at the college level. Not to mention the fact that college students are PAYING for their education. That makes a huge difference in what they acknowledge as their responsibility.
Your view is simply not acceptable in today’s world of K12 education. I think you would find that the expectation is college students were your better high school students and are better prepared academically and mentally to handle that type and size class. In high school your classes are mixed with students of varied abilities and this simply would not work unless you were willing to have class failure rates of over 50% and a significantly higher non-graduate and dropout rate. The public will not tolerate this. Go back and look at other DAGGER articles on AP test results for Harford Co. The success rate is not very good and if you actually include the numbers of students that do not take the exam in the final numbers it is even more disappointing. Again these are supposed to be our best students.
KHARN = CLUELESS!
Kharn,
Really? You can not compare college classes to elementary,middle, or high school classes. These are children from ages 5-18! Can you imagine a class of 200 kindergarteners. If you have kids, you can put them in a class of 200!! Stop bashing the county schools and support the educational system that are shaping our youth!!!
I never mentioned K-8, what makes an 17-18yo senior unable to learn in a lecture hall while he/she can handle AP/IB classes? 3 months after graduating that same kid will be in a lecture hall at College Park or UMBC learning it’s sink or swim time.
I support education reform, looking at schooling in new ways to drastically improve results while ignoring “that’s how we’ve always done it” attitudes. Vouchers, lecture classes, halting inclusion, etc, should be examined and trialed with the successful ideas implemented county-wide. Sticking with the same procedures will only yield the same results.
I would support that if we could focus on those who want an education. One of the main reasons our educational system lags behind the rest of the world is because we educate everybody. If we could somehow focus resources and energies on those who actually want an education at the high school level (no, I am not suggesting elementary or middle school), I could see larger class sizes not being an issue. 40 self-motivated and respectful kids sounds “doable” to me. Unfortunately, it will not work in our country. Try creating a class like that and 100 parents of “average” students will be calling and demanding that their child be in that section.
Kharn,
From your comments you have no idea about the facts of the education system in Harford County. Maryland was ranked number one in the country for education. You do not even have a case! If you are not in education, I recommend you spend a day with a high school teacher and then maybe you may support the teachers of HCPS!!
PS You would not last one period!
Maryland may have been #1 in the US, but where did the state rank when compared to other countries? Top 5? Top 10? Top 20?
Other nations aren’t afraid to tell kids they’re not going to college and to hit the tech school to learn a trade. We still need mechanics, ditch diggers, plumbers, etc, but no kids today want to get their hands dirty, every parent demands their kid be on the college track and the HCPS tech school seems to have become a college prep program.
Kids (and parents) need to accept that there is a bell curve in intelligence, and the smart kids should be in one class, the average in one or two classes and the “special” kids in another. Stop mixing the groups together, let them learn at the appropriate pace and tell parents that its too bad Johnny scored a 85 on his IQ test, but its just the way he is and you’re not putting him in the advanced class because it would slow the other students’ learning.
I support teachers, I fully understand they have a difficult job. But I do not support current HCPS (or state or national) education practices that allow students to receive a high school diploma and then have to take remedial algebra at HCC before they can start working on their degree program. Something needs to change, or America will fall even further behind the rest of the developed world.
Most of what you have listed is either pedagogically unsound or discriminatory. Vouchers result in furhter polarization of schools and disequity. Instead of handing out vouchers, fund schools appropriately, set high standards and create great schools for every child.
@ KHARN
Your June 14 10:22 PM post makes complete sense. That is why it will never come to pass. The liberal bureaucrats that populate the departments of education at the Federal and State levels are destroying the American public education system. Local school boards have little authority to fight the edicts that come from on high in part because funding they desperately need is attached and politicians pass laws to make themselves look good that little semblance to the real world classroom environment.
Mr Burbey,
You call vouchers polarizing, I call them segregating those who want to learn (or at least their parents want them to) from those who just need a babysitter until they reach 18. Level of interest in education is not a protected class.
You are asking the wrong question. the question should be, how can schools better motivate and prepare all students to be active learners?
Gee, if every high school student was respectful, serious, and ready to learn you might have a point. Unfortunately, public high schools MUST teach EVERYONE regardless of intelligence, disability, or behavior issue. I highly doubt the freshman seminars at College Park can say the same. I can’t believe you even made such a ridiculous comment. Usually, your comments are logical.
Then I’ll ask: Why must we educate those that do not want to learn?
It wastes everyone else’s time and taxpayer dollars. Ditch digging and trash collecting do not require a GED or diploma to get the job done, so encourage such problem students to drop out.
Quite simply – it’s the law, whether you like it or not.
When it came time for high school and the grades indicated it, I directed my child into AP and honors classes so the overall class climate would be more about learning than maintaining class discipline. It was more my choice because there was some fussing about “all the work” but, as a senior when my child was a mentor in one of the 9th grade ‘regular’ classes, I was told that directing their path into AP/honors etc. was the best thing I could have done. “The teacher spends so much of the class just trying to keep them paying attention and doing work. I just want to smack some of them in the head and tell them to stop fooling around”. (Obviously teaching is not a career path for my child judging by the low tolerance level for immaturity).
For one thing, all the special education laws that are now in place that didn’t exist “back in the day” require that students with IEP be placed in LRE (least restrictive environment). LRE means that instead of being grouped together and working at the pace they can manage and learn at, they are put in regular classes with instructional assistants and thanks to NCLB, the special education teachers that used to run those separate classes-(because now according to NCLB they aren’t considered ‘highly qualified’ in every subject unless they have a separate degree in English, Math, etc). Sometimes those students with learning disabilities come with behavioral issues as well. So now my class is interrupted with outbursts or immature behaviors that interfere with the rest of the class that the special ed people assigned to my room are supposed to deal with. But an interruption is still an interruption. In the case of a student with an IEP they also have special procedures for dealing with discipline-if their behavior is due to their handicapping condition they can’t be held accountable for it in the same way as a ‘regular’ student.
There were no special ed students in my high school classes “back in the day”. I was in the top class and competition was fierce among us-especially for awards and scholarships. But I have to say, we worked hard for everything we got-there weren’t any feel good, you’re so special self esteem building awards. My classes think I’m mean because I believe my job is to make them is to teach them my curriculum and have them prove back to me that they understand, not make them feel good about themselves. Believe me, there are plenty of princesses and princes in my class whose parents email regularly demanding to know what I’m going to do to get their grade up to an A because “my child doesn’t get B’s”. They are furious when I tell them that it’s up to their child to actually do the work..(.which opens up a whole new discussion about the amount of parents that do their child’s work for them to ensure the grade, and think we can’t see the abrupt change in the quality).
So, since we have mandatory education for everyone, comparing us to other nations that don’t is like comparing apples to hamburgers.
I was told that special education students are a “protected class.” Therefore, their rights are more guarded than those of the students who come to learn and behave. They have to put up with the bad behavior regardless if it interferes with their right to a Free and Public Education. I see this daily and it is really frustrating. This will not change until the parents of those students take action. No one listens to the teachers.
Do you also know that it is virtually impossible to suspend students who have IEP’s? Also, MSDE just put in place some new policy about suspensions. Parents should check it out because it might mean the good kids have to put up with even worse behavior.
Grady,
Yep, public schools must accept all students. But schools don’t have to throw up their hands and change their standards of behavior and performance to make the little malcontents fell like their performance and behavior is acceptable.
Why do a lot of kids do and say stuff that is simply unacceptable? Because they can get away with it. Your job is to change ‘can gat away with it’ to ‘CAN’T get away with it’. Go do your job.
The best colleges and universities seldom have 200+ in lecture hall settings. Why should we implement the worst possible scenario for our high school students?
I love the 200 + comment for college students per class. First of all, we are required to educate all students not just those who apply to college, and to adjust to their needs. In the Best Colleges, the class sizes are 15 or 20, so I’m unsure if if Kharn has ever been to one of those colleges. Even community colleges have a reasonable ratio. I think if Kharn wants 200+ students in a class, he/she needs to move to a less civilized area.
Good luck with looking for a new job! Times are so tough, and class sizes are getting so large….. and with the new high school department shift where they go into classrooms, they are expected to observe and are not all getting the same release time. Some are teaching 2 less, and other schools and departments are teaching only 1 less. All of this will impact students and teachers with their class sizes thanks to Dr.Tomback’s grand master plan. He wants so much, but won’t supply the resources to have it done correctly!
I do wonder if he will be around much longer…..
I think that the majority of parents and teachers are outraged by what is happening in our own school system. In my opinion the problems stem from Tomback himself and the TOP HEAVY Administration in our schools. We need MORE Teachers and LESS ADMINISTRATIVE BS Positions. We need WORKERS that want to TEACH our children. Not 500 people Telling GOOD teachers how to do their jobs. SAME AGE OLD STORY!! Too many chiefs and NOT ENOUGH INDIANS! However – if the media is present – watch all the administration officials FLOCK to the cameras! We need hard workers that don’t mind getting their hands dirty. There are FAR TOO MANY high paying – senseless – positions within our school system. Put those paper pushers to WORK in the CLASSROOM and we will see productive changes and RESULTS. It is not rocket science.
Very well said, HC!
The problem HC is nothing you said is based on facts. Your rant against central office has no basis begind it. Who would you cut? How much would you save if you cut CO positions? Do you cut all of HR? Payroll? All of Technology?
You fail to accept that central office, like any large system or company provide vital servicesto keep you paid, keep the technology running, keep the A/C working,etc.
It is called outsourcing of some of the jobs. The system could save on pensions and other benefits. How about the waste of Traveling to China to observe a Totalitarian Government run schools. We educate everyone, they selectively chose who goes to school. Yes, privatize positions will save a lot of money.
I agree. There are some positions in central office that keep us running logistically. However, what do you say about those charged (and highly paid) with improving schools that never visit them? How do you think it makes teachers feel when they never see those that make policy for them down in their buildings observing how things are really going?
“Like any large system or company” there is waste. Find it and lose it.
HC is correct. The school system has been on a downward spiral since Dr. Tombach’s arrival. He told a supervisor shortly after his arrival that he hadn’t seen a good lesson in HCPS yet. I hope the school board will not renew his contract. We can do better and our students will do better when positive attitudes return to our schools. I suggest we place Dr. Tombach on a Plan of Assistance with one exception. He can be transferred on his Plan out of this county. Hit the road Jack….
Cindy,
Perhaps you can look into what happened to the former principal of J. Archer. Is that individual still collecting a six figure salary while teaching positions are being cut? We would love to know.
I remember watching the CC meeting a month or so ago when this question came up. The principal was not mentioned by name but it was obvious the question was about her. She gets her principals salary for at least two years even if she is put in a lesser paid position.
Last one in is a rotten egg…all 4 new teachers were told to pack and go on the last day and wait for HR to call and ask yes or no for a random placement somewhere else…at a full faculty gathering no private warning
What school?
Well, if one of them is a high school science teacher they’re probably headed to PMHS since they’re short 1 teacher due to the mandated changes Tomback put through for the high school department chairs. The way things stand right now their science department chair has to teach a full course load while also picking up extra administrative duties like teacher observations. The last official word she got was that her planning period would be cut in half and that she would have to make sub plans and find a substitute teacher whenever she has to do observations (which means her classes will get substitute teachers much more frequently than they should have to.) Every other department chair in the county is teaching 2 fewer classes so that they can have the time to perform observations and their other extra duties without negatively impacting their students. As things stand now, that is NOT the case at PMHS and it will potentially have a negative impact on her students since instead of being able to teach her class, she’ll be required to perform observations on her department while a substitute teacher runs her class.
Fantastic way to treat one of the hardest working teachers in the county…
Fortunately the situation was able to be worked out.
This new “Super” Dept Chair position is something people should question. Why do we need them when there are Supervisors for each Dept. Does the public realize they have nothing to do with observations/evaluations? Then these new dept chairs are only in the core areas of now, why to make sure the data comes out looking good. More kids are being told to take AP classes, sorry some of these students aren’t ready or want to be in those classes. So the more we have taking the course the hope is the more take the test and exam scores go up. That is how principals are being evaluated. Just like their suspension rates matter too. As for their schedule, yes they will teach less meaning another staff memeber to take on their classes.
I read too about class size. Why not question the class of seven or ten with at least three adults but then other classes are over thirty with one adult. Both having kids with IEP’s. I can tell you, the one with lower size is a core subject. That is the data collection. And before you blast the county, this is a fed/state thing. Race to Top money has data tied to it. Just like NCLB. Education is broke and needs fixed badly.
More questions need to be asked about the Central Office and how things function. Also Race to Top money created some of those jobs too. Dr. Tomback is good too at demoted people into lower positions. Those who are demoted stick around since they earn their higher salary for awhile. Some of them could retire so why doesn’t he have the same “force out” policy for them that he has for teachers. Teachers who can retire seem to be the ones sweating it out about being on a plan and possible lose of job. So most are choosing to retire so they can hire someone in at less the salary. If these people at Central are not doing their job them why demote them just force them out.
AS for the China trip, not once we were told as a system as to what they found useful or worth looking into. I didn’t hear of any reporting out. So I guess the vacation to China was worth while. Gee teachers could have told them what they would find. Students who want to learn and go to college are in school. Those who are behavioral or have learning disabilities are learning a trade or working the fields. People should have demanded to know the purpose of this trip and what came of it.
Yep, there are a lot of issues and wasted money in HCPS and the vast majority of it is directly a result of Tomback’s policies and him creating bs highly paid positions to give his Baltimore County friends cushy jobs. No one was asking for the changes to the dept. chair position except Tomback (because that’s how BCPS did it…and he wasn’t even implementing it properly even before the latest budget blow up.)
There’s also a demoted principal who will be the highest paid gym teacher in the history of HCPS next year as well (who is stupid enough to brag about it to anyone who’ll listen.) Talk about a waste of money.
yep! And he will get that pay (assistant principal pay) being the elementary gym teacher for 2 years, not just one. That is where they could really “trim some fat” and save money!!! Several schools have been placed with demoted higher up staff who for some crazy contract reason they get to keep their nice 6 figure salaries for 2 years. Their contracts should not allow this. It is an outrage, if you are not doing your job, you should not get the pay as an administrator. What does this say to the administrators that are doing their jobs, and the teachers who work beside these demoted people and don’t make that kind of money, not even close.
In what school will this person be working?
Every one should keep in mind that cuts to the budget, while never a pleasant thing, can be managed in a system as large as HCPS by starting with removing areas of waste or duplication of jobs at central office. The fact that classroom teacher positions are being cut and whether it’s just not filling a spot vacated by a retiree or actually transferring someone…it’s a straight out punitive measure against teachers and is meant to make a point to teachers to not ask for our contract to be followed or we’ll punish you. Once again, the county council and board of ed want to make teachers the scapegoat of their inefficiency.
We in our classrooms have no say in policy making, but we are going to be blamed for it anyway. Harford County loves to hate it’s teachers too much to not blame us.
You are exactly right!!!! Well stated. With my class size of 3rd graders now going up to 27 in the fall, I will continue to work to rule. Teachers still need to fight. It is not over. It has nothing to do with money at this point. It is respect for teachers. We need to start by making sure David Craig does not go any further politically in his career. We need to get rid of Tomaback, as well as a few others on the Board of Education. Shame on them. They must think we are stupid not to see what they are doing.
Bel Air Girl,
Do you spell the name of the HCPS Superintendent incorrectly on purpose or is it because don’t know how to spell it?
His name is Dr. Robert Tomback. I know you don’t like him based on your posts and I have my own issues with him but I always feel like spelling a word incorrectly is a reflection on me and those who taught me when I was a student in school.
Sorry Alex but you are dead wrong!!! I spell it wrong on purpose so that other posters on this site who are teachers know it is me who is posting. We all have our little ways of identifying each other at my school. I could care less what you think about my spelling or how you think my co-workers should identify each other on here. I sure hope my tax payer dollars are not paying you to sit here on this website all day everyday.
biatch
I spelled it wrong on purpose but I’m sure you know my secret code.
Actually it is my tax dollars that are paying you. Believe me, I don’t receive a dime from any government at any level.
And please get off my case. I support you guys and believe you deserve raises. I have legitimately criticized the HCEA for not explaining to members how the collective bargianing agreement (contract) actually works before they asked their members to ratify it. Had they done that many members wouldn’t now believe there is a legal obligation to pay raises. I’m sorry your contract does not require the raises to be paid the increases legally but that is an issue between the HCEA and its members. I do believe there is a moral obligation but that is an issue for another day and involves the HCEA, the BOE and HCPS.
Likewise you have a legal right to work to rule and I don’t criticize you for doing that. You are so angry but it seems to me that you are angry with the wrong people. Perhaps if teachers expressed their anger and disappointment legitimately instead of saying we hate them all (at least thats what it seems to me that many are saying) then teachers would have more support. There are some very legitimate questions being asked. For example, why has funding gone up and student population gone down. Has the extra money gone to bloated overhead? To feel good programs that don’t really educate for life? Mandates by the State and the Feds? If teachers want a more broad based support then informed taxpayers are going to demand more answers than just ‘press releases’ from Cerveny and Burbey.
As a taxpayer, and I can only speak for myself as an individual, I am not going to agree to pay more taxes. I could be convinced to pressure the government to allocate more of what it already collects to education, but I’m not going to willingly pay more. If educators can make a legitimate case as to why they should get more and others less then I am with them. But I can tell you that HCEA is not producing any information that is convincing me.
Here’s a question that I as a taxpayer would like answered: Why has the number of HCPS employees risen by 500 people since 2006 when the number of students has fallen over that same period by 2,000 (40,000 in 2006 to 38,000 now)?
And, why has the county’s financial contribution over that time increased substantially while the number of students has decreased? The state saw fit to decrease their contribution (although I don’t see anybody complaining about that).
Unfunded or partially funded federal and state mandates – NCLB, Thornton, Race to the Top
The biggest cost of all IDEA! Special Ed requirements cost millions and millions of dollars. Inclusion Helpers along have increased from under a 100 to over 300 in the last 5+ years.
correct – alone not along
I already know what you are doing to earn the money you are paid. What are teachers doing to earn respect? Working to rule? Producing students that are required to take ever more remedial courses when they leave high school and go on to college or even trade schools? Students that know how to find a good party on Saturday night with parental provided booze but can’t balance their checkbook? Kids that are adept at handling a condom but can’t properly fill out an applicaion for even a summer job much less college?
I know, I know. It’s not the teachers, it’s the system. As far as parents and taxpayers go, the system begins and ends in your classroom.
May I make a suggestion? This summer, while you are off for a much needed rest, please go in to your classroom and just sit down in the middle of it. Close your eyes and think about the students that you will have this coming year. And their parents – whether good or bad or indifferent. And let this thought grip your mind: “For the students and for the parents that I will have in the coming school year, I am the system. And the future of my students depends on me. What am I going to do about it?”
Not your principal, or supervisor, or the central office, or Tombeck, or HCEA, or the County Council, or Craig. It all begins and ends with you. Scary? Very scary? Pee in your pants scary! Because someone has to not only be a good teacher but they also have to influence what is taught in that limited amount of time you have each day. The best person to do that is you. And the parents that you can influence to help you.
Long ago in another life I was a teacher. I realized that I could teach my students pretty well but I couldn’t live with myself because I couldn’t accept the responsibility and accountability for what I was teaching. And I didn’t know how to change it. So I moved on. My advice to you is to stay where you are and resolve to make a difference.
HCPSTEACHER10,
Did the County Council decide to cut teaching positions? I know you are angry with all of them because you didn’t get what you wanted but I am pretty sure that the County Council did NOT direct the BOE or HCPS which positions to cut. I’m not even sure if the Council decided that there had to be any positions cut. Your anger and disappointment is understandable but why not be angry with the right people so that your views have a higher degree of validity?
Yes, I am also angry with the county council. I am a parent as well as a teacher and their choices affect me personally both ways. The budget starts with the county council. They choose not to fund education properly. That is what I will remember when it’s election time.
HCPSTEACHER10
Sir, Ma’am
Actually you are wrong. The budget does not start with the County Council. The Board of Education submits their budget to the County Executive. The County Executive submits his budget to the County Council. The County Council then effects legislation to pass the budget, and set the property tax rate. In the overall scheme of events the budget ends with the County Council. So your anger is misplaced.
Mr. Burbey,
Sir, you are mistaken. Please review the Harford County Charter and Code for duties of both the executive and legislative branches. Unless you are using some other reference, it is quite clear that the executive branch formulates and manages the budget, not the legislative branch. For a demonstrated example of just how that works, recall a previous session where the Council decremented the budget in specific lines, only to find that the County Executive had his own ideas on how the budget would be managed.
It is state law John. Once the executive gives the budget to the county, the council can increase it for education, if they choose. They can not increase the total budget. So, an increase to education would mean a decrease to another area. In the case of Harford County, I would suggest needless paygo projects designed to line the pockets of Craig’s cronies and a unwanted, overpriced waste transfer station.
Mr. Burbey,
Sir, you have piqued my interest. Hopefully I will learn something new today. Which particular law woulud that be? Please cite the appropriate section as well
Sorry, I am not a lawyer and don’t know the specific code. Here is an excerpt form the HCPS 2009 budget that explains the process in question though.
“The Superintendent submits the Recommended Budget to the Board of Education during the second school board meeting in December (see schedule on subsequent pages). The Board holds public hearings for stakeholders and work sessions during January to consider modifying the budget prior to submittal of the Board’s Proposed Budget to the County Executive by January 31. The County Executive has until April 1 to establish funding levels for the next fiscal year. Once the Board receives the funding level from the County Executive, the operating budget is modified for submittal to the County Council in line with the projected state and county funding levels. The County Council receives the County budget on April 1st and holds public hearings and work sessions during April and May. The Council may add to the County Executive’s funding level only by reducing the funds for other functions of the County government, or having the County Treasurer revise projected revenues upward indicating that additional funds will be available for the next fiscal year.”
Mr Mallamo is right that the BoE and Superintendent propose a budget but since the county council has repeatedly refused to fund the budget. Therefore, the cuts to positions, salaries, and programs are the result of the county council’s misplaced priorities and poor decision making.
Mr. Burbey
Sir, you are also incorrect. The County Council legislates to enact the budget. They do not have any authority to direct how the money is spent. There are some authorities for the capital budget, but not the operating budget which is of more concern to you and the other teachers.
Ah…that is where you are incorrect. The county council can increase the operational budget for education any time. They just can not decrease it. Also, it is not just a concern for teachers but the entire community. As our schools go so shall our property values and general welfare…
Mr. Burbey,
Sir,
Not quite. They can change whatever they choose to. That does not mean that the County Executive is required to allocate that increase as the County Council might have intended. Nor does it mean that if the County Executive allocates the increase to the BOE, that the BOE is required to allocate the increase as the County Council and County Executive may have intended.
Tag your it.
Your both wrong.
This is Hazzard County where the ultimate deal gets settled behind closed doors in smoky rooms and over bottles of bourbon.
If the county council increases school funding in the budget which they pass, the county executive has no choice but to allocate. It is our of his hands. The BoE can not be mandated to spend the money in any particular fashion but it must get approval from the the county council to shift categorized $$$. The checks and balances work. However, recently, the county executive has been carrying out a personal grudge and politically ideological bent, refusing to increase funding for schools even when he knows it is necessary. The council, with the exception of Mr. Guthrie has been in lock step with this manipulation. Likewise, rather than paying his workers, Mr. Craig has misallocated our tax dollars in a series of sweatheart deals that are anything but sweat for the average citizen and any chance he gets he blames HCEA…
How about Mentor Teachers for one instance? If no new teachers exist in a school- there is NO need for a $60k salary to teach and mentor noone!
Maryland requires mentors for the first three years of a teacher’s employment.
That is why some schools share them!
My school did not have a mentor this past year because everyone had a least 4 years of experience.
The increase for special needs has partly increased due to the drastic increase in autistic students. I was not aware that a mentor teacher was needed for 3 years. However I do believe when positions are cut and no new hires are made in several surrounding schools that the mentor teacher could split duties between schools. I would love to know how long that position has existed? Don’t teachers of the same grade typically help and mentor each other????
Ideally another teacher could be the mentor under the law. The inlying problem is that at some schools, like mine, 27 of the 60 teachers require the services of a mentor. This is due to a high turnover rate!!!
I’m must not understand how Harf. Co. Budgets in general? They have a surplus every year. County employees were given a bonus. But teachers were only given half of their bonus? Seems like discrimination to me. I for one want my children to have the best teachers possible. If that means some positions have to be cut due to lower enrollment…then so be it …but the teachers deserve to get cost of living increases and srep level increases. We expect these teachers to pay to further their education out of their own pockets to keep their job. If Msryland can’t pay their teachers a decent wage then we should expect to lose the good teachers to other states who treat them properly…and this is a shame. Perhaps Harf. Co. Needs to think a little more about the future leaders of our Country and a little less about other items receiving priorities. An analysis of spending is definitely in order. I have seen nothing but negative and conflict since Tombeck stepped into his position…
County employees received half of the bonus. The so called passing through of the teacher pension shift to the county resulted in the other half of the bonus being with held. No cost of living or raises for 4 years for other county employees and no one advocating for us.
“We are just so lucky to have jobs.”
County employees should unionize and demand their wages be funded. They deserve their salaries and deserved the bonus. The teacher pension shift is a red herring, since Craig spent more than $30,000,000 in paygo projects this year alone.
you hit the nail on the head this time Ryan! Yes, by all means have the County employees all join AFSCME so that they too can have binding arbitration. Binding arbitration solves everything. In fact if you think about it we can then reduce the executive and council budgets to zero and just let the union run the whole shebang. Why do you think the voters in Indiana, Wisconsin, San Diego, et al have voted to eliminate the onerous idea of binding arbitration for their public employees. That, of course, will never happen in the Peoples Republic of Maryland. The unions will continue to spread their lies and discontent in order to strip the productive part of the society of as many rights as possible. The only honest quote to ever come out of a unionist’s mouth was Samuel Gompers when asked what his union wanted, answered; “MORE.”
Which is exactly what both Burbey and Cerveny articulated at the most recent council meeting; barely a day after the cola and step increases were agreed to…it’s not enough they want more.
Actually I do not think anyone can be forced to join any union in MD.
HCResident
You are correct he is synonymous with conflict as well as his assistant. Reputation of being bullies. Tell me how that is healthy for anyone and how it doesn’t trickle down to teachers and students.
Let us examine your argument, in small pieces, and see whether it is valid
First you and others are using tems such as, underfunded, not adequately funded etc that are abstractions, i.e. they have no absolute values and cannot be quantified, and so cannot used to formulate a budget. Abstractions like these lead to an open ended debate, which cannot be concluded. Your continued use of the terms may not lead to any measurable success, for the simple reason that determining distirbution of resources is left to those who make those resources available. They determine what is adequate, not the consumers of those resources.
So lets reframe the argument – you want more money. It is your belief that you deserve some as yet unspecified sum more, you are worth that same sum. Your supporting rationale is that more money equals better schools, equals better students, therefore more future success.
You have offered no empiracal data to support this claim, nor any stochastic data either. So here is a proposal to bring some data to bound and structure the debate in quantifiable terms. We can use the Overview of Local Governments compiled and published by the Maryland General Assembly Legislative Services Division and the Maryland Report Card compiled and published by the Maryland State Department of Education. Neither is particularly biased, and both have useful data that is relevant to the State and County.
Regarding money vs quality here is some data to consider.
Anne Arundel County spends $13,005 per student they have 17 schools in improvement (I.e. schools that do not meet standards and need improvement.)
Baltimore City spends 17,001 per student and has 104 schools in improvement
Baltimore County spends $13,690 per student and has 23 schools in improvement
Harford County spends $12,812 per stuent and has 9 schools in improvement
Motgomery County spends $15,308 per student and has 31 schools in improvement
Prince Georges County spends $14,629 per student and has 85 schools in improvement.
Conclusion, your premise is not supported. It appears quite the opposite is true.
I would encourage others to view the data in the references and formulate their conclusions
While PG and Baltimore City are i deffinent stark contrast…..You are misleading as Montgomery, Baltimore County and Anne Arundel have a larger number of schools therefore as a percentage are lower. I might add for the advocates of school choice both are true for PG and Baltimore City
Give the numbers in the proper format for relative comparison, that is, percentage of schools per county.
Your version is just political spin.
lies, damn lies, and statistics
Cptnobvious
Sir, I used raw numbers to make a point. If you elect to use percentages to make another point, that is certainly up to you. Please just make sure to extrapolate so that perecentages are meaning ful.
You used the version of the numbers needed to make your point to people lacking full information, there lies the power of statistical manipulation without relevance.
Without context and frame of reference you are pandering.
for example:
In county A, 1 person is killed.
In county B, 100 people are killed.
Which looks worse?
Now for the frame of reference/context.
County A has a population of 50.
County B has a population of 5,000,000.
chance of being killed:
County A 2%
County B 0.002%
Where do you want to live?
Substitute killed for whatever you want. This is not a treatise on gun control so don’t get your panties in a knot, just use some truth with your numbers or continue to play the political shell game you are currently engaged in.
Cptnobvious,
Sir, Ma’am
Pursuiing you argument then here is a case that may demonstrate that the percentages you seek are not meaningful.
Dorchester 6 schools in improvement 46%
Fredreick 6 schools in improvement 46$
Wicomico 6 schools in imporvement- 24%
All have 6 schools however the percentage is significantly different.
Anyway the information is all on the MSDE school report card and you license to use it as well.
The difference in percentage is precisely the point.
“All have 6 schools however the percentage is significantly different”
You need to compare the percentages and not compare raw data without a reference.
“Dorchester 6 schools in improvement 46%
” Fredreick 6 schools in improvement 46$
” Wicomico 6 schools in imporvement- 24%
and if they only had 6 schools each it would be 100%
Cptnobvious,
Sir, Ma’am to review your discussion. Where would I choose to live given the probability of being killed.
Lets apply that to the discussion on schools in improvement. Where would I choose to live in an area with a lower percentage or a lower number. I believe that I would choose the lower number.
First, without a valid ANOVA, the percentage is not very relevant.
Second, the decision is not based on a static system. The system, i.e. attendance area boudaries, is in translation, or fluid as you would call it. Therefore, if I selected an area with the lowest percentage, but a higher number the probability that the attendance area for my residence would be changed to a school in improvement, would be much higher.
In either case, you are free to interpret the data as you wish.
Obsfucation of the issue does not change the underlying data, it only hides it. You are trying to apply statistical principles in an improper fashion to suit your own purpose.
I can throw around plenty of statistical terms as well but as with you it would be pontification without proof.
I don’t think you could apply ANOVA. There are far too many intervening variables. The analysis would have little or no merit. Besides, John, it was a hypothetical situation designed to illuminate the logical falacy in your arguments.
Lets move along. We have more to cover.
Mr. Spicoli, you are correct that if you determine schools in improvement by percentage, the numbers change. I am not sure of your point about more schools in some counties, I believe that all of the counties have more schools than Harfored County. Without normalizing the data, i.e extapolating the numbers so that each county has the same number of schools, the meaning gets lost in the percentages. The point is still that higher funding does not garuntee better schools. Additionally, the schools in improvement reflect on teachers. Higher pay does not mean better teachers, unless you believe that the schools in improvement have hired the worst teachers in the group and sent them all to the same school.
Mr. Burbey we will get to some of your points shortly and others later on.
Mr Burbey, yes you are correct that total funding was used in this analysis. That is the same figure you have used to state that Harford County is 17 out of 24 in the state. If just the local contribution is considered Harford County ranks 12 of 24, and is below all other counties except Prince George’s and Baltimore City.
To both of you beware Simpson’s paradox.
Now we will consider the contention that Baltimore County spends $1000 dollars more per student than Harford County. To be very accurate, if considering only the local contirbution, the difference is $859. Lets do a very quick comparison between the two counties and we will use raw numbers and statical analysis where appropriate. (The statistical analysis comes from the references in most cases. I will advise when it is mine)
Population Baltimore 805,029 harford county 244,826
Total expenditure Budget Baltimore $3,061M Harford County $1,107M
Per capita revenues Baltimore $3,730, Harford County $4,643
Total expenditures per capita Baltimore County $3,876 rank 17 Harford County $4,566 rank 8
Assessable base per capita Baltimore $104,432 rank 15 Harford County $112,208 rank 14
Percentage of Budget allocated to Education and Libraries. Baltimore County 57.1 Harford County 57.9 (beware Simpson’s paradox)
Per capita expenditure on education and libraries Baltimore County $2,213 rank 21 Harford County $2,645 rank 8
Net taxable income per capita Baltimore 22,213 harford county 21,286
Income Tax per capita Baltimore County $628 Harford County $636
Property Tax per capita Baltimore 1,041 Harford County 1,182
Debt per capita Baltimore County $2,225 Harford County $2,631.
Debt Service per capita Baltimore County $115 Harford County $293
Debt Service percentage of expenditure Baltimore County 3 percent Harford County 6.4 percent
Debt as percentage of assessable base Baltimore County 2% Harford County 2.2%
Per pupil expenditure Local Contribution ranking in state Baltimore County $6581 8 Harford County $5,722 12
Wealth per student Baltimore County $512,923 rank 9 Harford County $434, 535 rank 11
Please note that Howard County wealth per student is $546,509 and it is ranked 8.
So what does all of this mean. Very quickly, Raw numbers Baltimore County is bigger and has more money, and apparently spends more on education. Per capita taxes are higher in Harford County than in Baltimore county. Per capita, Harford County spends more on education than Baltimore County, even though the wealth per student is significantly higher in Baltimore County. Finally Harford County has a higher debt level than Baltimore County, which is a drag on the budget. All of the new schools and rebuilt schools were built on County bonds. State contribution is typically not used to pay down debt on schools. The Board of Education uses that money for other projects.
Do you know what extrapolation means?
Your sentence is as indecipherable as your use of the numbers.
“Without normalizing the data, i.e extapolating the numbers so that each county has the same number of schools, the meaning gets lost in the percentages.”
You continue to play a shell game with the numbers in an attempt to bury logic under an avalanche of pseudointellectual regurgitation.
The percentages are doing the normalization for you.
“Debt per capita Baltimore County $2,225 Harford County $2,631.”
“Debt Service per capita Baltimore County $115 Harford County $293”
This implies that Harford County is paying a much higher percentage rate on its’ debt than Baltimore County.
Debt per capita is 18% higher but the interest on the debt is 150% greater?
Why would that be?
maybe it’s time to refinance
Population Baltimore 805,029 harford county 244,826
Total expenditure Budget Baltimore $3,061M Harford County $1,107M
Per capita revenues Baltimore $3,730, Harford County $4,643
Total expenditures per capita Baltimore County $3,876 rank 17 Harford County $4,566 rank 8
From your own numbers:
Baltimore County has a defecit of $146 per capita
Harford County has a surplus of $77 per capita
Where did the money go?
Where did the money go?
Baltimore County has a defecit of $146 per capita
Harford County has a surplus of $77 per capita
Here is the simple point. Baltimore County make education a higher priority. It has developed its schools overtime and continues to develop them. I would bet, although I have not yet looked, that they spent more than 10% of their capital budget on schools. I would bet that their schools comprise a larger percentage of their overall budget.
2013 General Fund allocation for public education in Harford County = $214,291,627 = appx. $5,639/student.
2013 General Fund allocation for public education in Baltimore County = $709,309,802 = appx. $6,636/student.
5,639 – 6,636 = 997 That is almost $1,000 per student.
These facts are taken from enrollment numbers for Baltimore and Harford Counties located in the Executive Summary of each of the respective school budgets, as well as, the proposed allocations for each county located in their county budgets.
IN NO WAY DOES HARFORD COUNYT SPEN MORE MONEY ON ITS PUBLIC SCHOOLS THAN BALTIMORE COUNTY.
Harford County ranked 17th last year. It will probably be lower this year. Likewise, the per Capita income has climbed so, it probably will be ranked higher.
Where did our money go? Check the paygo section of the Harford County budget….
Mr. Mallamo,
I could provide you with studies and statistical regression demonstrating that lower per student funding definitively impacts schools. This won’t convince you. You have a predetermined mindset and a political rant which state that we can’t spend anymore money on anything. A more compelling argument would be for efficiency. However, efficiency demands investment. I did not get offended or heated with you. You are entitled to appraise my analytical skills however you like. However, your stance just is not supported by facts. Harford County has more $$$ per person and spends less per student on education than most of the state. That is a fact and is inarguable. If it is more efficiency and a more conservative approach you seek, I would suggest criticizing the debt for public projects, the paygo money wasted and the no-bid contracts which the Craig administration has proliferated.
Ryan
Mr. Burbey,
Sir, there are other documents that may show dollar amounts differently. But as I stated, my references are the overview of local governments and the school report card. I would expect that they all come from the same source, and are accurate. Additionally, both referneces reflect prior years, not 2013. Data for 2013 might not have been compiled and published by either agnecy quite yet.
To Mr. Burbey. Sir, I hope that you did not make the bet that you discussed that Baltimore County spent more than Harford County on education and libraries. In fact, Baltimore County allocated 57.9% of its budget to that area, while Harford County allocated 57.1% of its budget. There are multiple ways to look at expenditures and to determine whether and area is funded. If we look at per capita then Baltimore County underfunds its schools by $347M compared to Harford County.
To Cptnobvious, Sir,Ma’am I will get back to you on your statistical analysis. You may follow along or take a break in place. Somke’m if you gotm, if not ask your buddy. Strip your butts and policem when you done.
Let’s look at the Board of Education Budget and make some determinations. Mr. Burbey thank you for providing that excerpt from the Boards budget, but that is not the way the process worked this year. As a result of what may have been a misinterpretation of the Labor Board’s determination, which by the way was much more favorable to the Board of Education then anyone might realize, the Board of education bypassed the County Executive and went straight to the County Council. None the less here is what they requested over and above last years budget
$15M for salary and benefits
$4M to replace the State’s decrement
$4M to replace fund balance
It is important to also highlight the County’s contribution that is not included in the Boards budget.
$5M for teacher pensions.
$29M in debt service
$15M for new capital projects.
These increases might be bearable if they were one time requirements. Unfortunately they are not. In 2012 the request was for $24M over the previous year. 2012 it was $3M not quite as bad. I leave it to the reader to review the Board’s budget and determine whether the County can afford the trend. I do not believe that it can.
The question is really how does the County afford a budget that increases so much every year.
Some have decided that the surplus is the answer. The HCEA hired Mr. Pelicoro to find the money to fund raises. He pointed to the surplus. Unfortunately that surplus is gone. I did not hear the briefing, and so do not know how he explained each of his vugrafs. But the real surplus for Harford County existed when there was a significant difference between the constant yield rate and the tax rate. As that difference shrank, as a result of increased spending, which meant that the County needed more money, the surplus was depleted. Once constant yield met the tax rate, there was no more surplus. For those who wonder how the 3 municipalities are able to fund salary increases, the answer may lie not only in what they do or don’t fund, but also in the difference between constant yield and tax rate. As they spend more, that difference will also shrink.
Those who believe that Harford County now has $90 plus millions of dollars in surplus should understand what that means before spending the money. Fund balances are categorized into different areas. Nonspendable, Restricted, Committed, Assigned, Unassigned. After all of the money is put into the appropriate categories Harford County has @$7M left. Not quite the gold mine people are expecting.
For those that believe that every year Harford County generates more “surplus” here is a very brief description of how it works. As the County is formulating its budget it must estimate revenues. Property Tax revenue is pretty straight forward, since the money goes directly to the County. Income tax is more complicated. The County estimates, but all of the money goes to the state for further distribution. If the County estimates high, and the state provides low, the County withholds/takes back funds from the agencies. If the County estimates low and the State provides high, the county has money to spend. That extra money is not put away in a bottom desk drawer to generate a surplus. Part of the revenue side of the budget is called fund balance. That is the money from the difference between County estimate and State provided. $13M for 2013, $43M for 2012. The one time bonus was generated by that situation.
Finally, and most importantly fund balance is one year money. When it is gone there is no more. Think carefully about whether you would make personal financial decisions on “surplus”
Now others have proposed that paygo be used to fund salary increases. Looking at the budget there is $21M for paygo projects. It appears that most of that money goes to the highway department. Certainly that money could be used. But there is a consequence. The basic philosophy behind government is that it exists to provide services to the residents of an area. Government employs people to perform these services. Government does not exist to employ people who do not perform a service. If there are no paygo projects, then Harford County does not need the people who would otherwise perform any of the functions required to successfully complete the projects. Ask the people in the highway department if they are willing to lose their jobs so that you get a raise.
What is needed then to provide sufficient funds for raises. Very quickly two actions must occur simultaneously. First, government must determine what must be funded and get very efficient in those areas. Second, revenues must increase at an increasing rate.
Finally, looking at the current situation, most economists agree that the recession is over. Good news. Bad news is that most economists agree that the recession is over, and they have no clue how to jump start the economy. None of the existing models or theories is working.
Summarizing then. Can Harford County afford to increase education by millions of dollars each year. Probably not for a while longer. Annual revenues are not increasing at an increasing rate, there is no surplus, and redirecting money is not a viable solution for the long term.
First, Harford County did not allocate 57% of its budget to public education. That number includes libraries and HCC. Those are independent and separate entities. Harford County commits between 30 and 40% of its budget to public schools. The exact number varies year to year and is dependent on the manipulation of budget numbers by the council and executive.
Mr. Burbey,
Sir, I very clearly stated the the numbers I was using were for education and libraries.
Are you that limited in your thoughts that you do not understand the benefits of libraires and Harford Community College to the education of the residents of Harford County? Or would you willing sacrifice their funding to your own benefit.
No, I just don’t want their funding included to inflate the numbers for BoE. It covers up the problem.
Second, no one has stated that education needs to be increased by millions every year. The fact is that programing and facilities have increased. Funding has not. How was this accomplished? Teachers and other employees salary increments were used to fund programing rather then paid as promised. Cant that go on? No.
I believe a viable compromise would be an incremental increase in funding. perhaps $10 million this year would have be appropriate. That might have meant a reduction in paygo but it would have moved us forward rather than making the funding hole deaper.
Mr. Burbey
Sir, The Board of Education budgeet has increased, or been proposed to increase by millions of dollars each year. Please visit there web site for information. The pattern seems to be $3-7M increase for a few years and then $20M. Truly unaffordable with existing revenue streams.
Regarding your estimate for a compromise. The Board asked for a $24M increase this year. $8M was just to fill gaps from the state decrement and the fund balance used to cover last years budget. That left $2M for salary increases.
Please, as the self appointed advocate for all county workers, check with those whose jobs will be affected when paygo is cut. I think you might find that they would not appreciate your efforts. Particularly when you start to compare salaries and see that more county workers would be fired than teachers to fund your raise.
John, As you well know, most of the paygo will go to outside entities contracted to build stuff. It would be great if county workers were doing this but most of it they are not.
Mr. Burbey,
Sir, yes the paygo projects are completed by outside contractors. There are also county employees involved with design review, construction inspections, claims mitigation and a host of other functions. If there were no paygo, these employess would not be necessary.
Third, the much publicized teacher pension shift has offsets. Guess how Harford County can avoid paying the whole bill? Yep…Funding public education!
Fourth, The county council and county executive created the capital project problem. They cut the impact fee in half, reducing the funds available. They passed a comprehensive development plan which does not address the pervasive issue of economic segregation in Harford County. This predicament has lead to many of the social issues which exist here. Why aren’t we building mixed income communities rather than gated fiefdoms? They bullied the previous HCPS administration into building Paterson Mill, a school which was never needed. In fact, Mr. Craig continues to attempt to bully the BoE into rebuilding HdG High, a school which is in good repair and serves less than half the students that any other high school in Harford County serves.
I agree that debt service is a problem. My solution is renovation rather than reconstruction. Fix and remodel the functional super-structures, don’t build new schools. Use your current workforce and expand facilities folks as needed. Use those county road workers to fix the infrastructure surrounding schools. However, you might be surprised at how much of that work is outsourced causing funds to leave the county. Keep county funds working here!
Mr. Burbey
Sir,
The impact fee never generated the funding projected. Cutting it did nothing to affect the viability of the capital program for school construction. Please check the budget sections for how much money was generated and then check the funds generated in the recordation and transfer tax sections. I believe that you will discover that the economy had a profound effect in all of these accounts. But none of them is really large enough on an annual basis to affect the capital program. You might be surprised to note that some of the revenue/money in these accounts is included in fund balance.
As to using the county work force to renovate new schools and make road repairs. Quite simply, even though they are very competent and skilled people and we are fortunate to have them, there are not enough of them nor are they equipped with the proper tools to complete all the projects you envision. Could there numbers be expanded, and they be properly equipped – no doubt they could. Does the county want to get into the construction business I seriously doubt it for a huge number ov very good reasons.
Is renovating schools a good idea. Only when one has to. It is typically more expensive to renovate than build new. Don’t believe it check the cost of the renovated schools vice the newly constructed schools.
As to the rest of your discussion on social issues. Is it really relevant to this thread?
By the way to all of the readers I made a very serious error this morning, when I wished all the fathers of the sons a Happy Fathers day. I should have also extended that to their daughters.
It is more costly in labor not materials. If the labor is in source meaning current employees do the work than you have reduced cost and eliminated profit by not out sourcing to developers and contractors. An alternative to the impact fee would be requiring developers to build schools with new neighborhoods. This I believe is actually a better solution. They would need direction but it would be at zero cost to the county.
Mr. Burbey
Sir, not quite.
The savings that you project by eliminating profit would be more than consumed by all the additional people and equipment it would take to finish only one construction project. In recent past HCPS has had 2 projects in construction and at least 2 more in planning. HCC has also had multiple projects. No savings in the County hiring people and putting all the equipment in place to accomplish these tasks. Additionally, what to do with the people and equipment when the project is over.
As far as materiels not really. New construction, new materiels most off the shelf, no major design changes. Renovation, materiels designed to fit the footprint of the existing structure, custom design. Unless of course “renovation” means leaving just the slab, everything else new.
Certainly, these decisions would need to be well thought and strategic but, I do believe there is potential savings there.
Burbey, I really hope that you’re not a math teacher. I can’t count the number of times you’ve cited incorrect figures, and I’m unable to tell if you are misinformed or just making stuff up. (Probably some of both.)
For example, you’ve said multiple times that Havre de Grace High School “serves less than half the students that any other high school in Harford County serves.” Nevermind that I disagree with the premise that we should deny schools needed improvements because they are relatively small, but you are simply lying about the numbers.
HdG High School has 691 students. Joppatowne has 872. Now I’m no mathematician, but 691 is not “less than half” of 872. In fact, Edgewood, Fallston, Harford Tech, and Patterson Mill HS all have fewer than 1382 students (double HdG’s enrollment).
I am sorry with the exception of Joppatowne, which has an enrollment of 952 on the HCPS website, Havre de Grace, which has an enrollment of 750 on the HCPS website, has a little more than half the enrollment of every other high school in the county. The point is that Mr.Craig has suggested spending more on Havre de Grace than was spent on schools twice its size. Likewise, there is virtually no need to replace Havre De Grace High School. Perhaps, it needs some renovation and repair but it certainly is not in as bad shape as Joppatowne High, Edgewood Middle, Youth’ Benefit or many other schools in the county. It is obscene to suggest that students should continue to endure poor conditions in other schools so that King Dave can build a new school in his home town.
Burbey, Yates is correct. You’re looking at old figures. I’d refer you to the official September 30 enrollment report from the school year just ended (on HCPS website). But regardless, I think we’ve already established that you have a tendancy for using false information, so let’s move past that.
I find it ironic that you would criticize the County Executive for wanting to rebuild the obsolete HdG High School, considering that in a Dagger story about the poor conditions of some county schools you commented on April 1 with the following: “Harford County has pathetically underfunded schools for many years. THe school board fixes what they can with the money they have. If David Craig has his way your children will continue to go to schools that need serious renovations while he builds a $20,000,000 Emergency Operations Center.” — Ryan Burbey
Well, here’s David Craig putting funding aside to rebuild an obsolete school, and you say “how dare he,” and make up numbers to back up your position.
All of this is AFTER the county has spent $300 million of taxpayer funds to build, rebuild, and renovate schools in every part of the county except for Havre de Grace since 2006. And, the state has reimbursed the county for less than 1/4 of that money (and I doubt we’ll see a penny more.)
The serial underfunder here is the state, not the county. On the operating side, the county has INCREASED it’s contribution to HCPS every single year (despite the fact that enrollment is decreasing), while the state’s contribution is decreasing.
@ Sarah
There are other schools throughout the county that are in much greater need to be replaced or significantly renovated before Havre de Grace HS. These decisions should not be based of geography but on objective analysis of the facilities which unfortunately puts Havre de Grace further down on the list.
For those who wonder how the 3 municipalities are able to fund salary increases, the answer may lie not only in what they do or don’t fund, but also in the difference between constant yield and tax rate.
and I’m sure the extra taxes those municipalities charge had nothing to do with it…
I’m not advocating higher rates.
I just want you to stop abusing numbers to further your own agenda.
Here…Here…
We need to simply raise funding through greater real property taxation.
I propose we increase rates on all commercial properties by 100%, residential properties by 50% and means test it so the high income people are forced to pay their fair share.
All the poor homeowners and renters would get real property tax credits.
Highly compensated teachers are the key to our future, because without them are children will suffer.
Also with the extra taxation we could hire more teachers and reduce class size.
It’s worth it and it’s the right thing to do.
Some homeowners can’t afford to pay bills now. Maybe you can pay the taxes for all of us.
Liberal…shocking that’d be your suggestion…you can pay everyone’s 50% residential tax increase share, no make that 150% since your paying the commercial share too. They don’t have money either and still try to employ folks who also struggle to pay their taxes..I bet you think unions are on “your side” too and think they’d be great. How do you live – hmm…are all the taxpayers paying your roof over your head, food, health care, daycare, transportation, utility bills and I’ll bet your child is IEP eligible (but not what it’s intended for)..
No sane person who works hard, pays there own way in these times can afford a 50% (or 100)unless they are clueless on life which suggests you are and have had a free ride all this time. With all the freebies you make more than I do and most folks I know, so sure this increase your willing to pay for everyone is great! it’s also a nice payback for everyone whose paid your bills this long. That’s right, I pay for your freebies..so you have no idea how much life costs..it’s expensive…tax credits for some – hell no, cut their “benefits” during tough times, they are benefits – not requirements.. A safety net – sure a way of life NO WAY !
Why does everyone have the notion that companies have endless money – I struggle daily to meet payroll, play by the crazy # of regulations just to employ people and stay afloat.. My employees have NO idea of the taxes I pay for them and how hard I try to keep them and not lay folks off. All they see is the small hourly rate but have no idea of what it costs me to pay that on top of all my other costs – so to then increase my bills and taxes and theirs too ?!?!?! pay my fair share as a company ??!!? seriously ?!?! you have NO idea of what it cost to live let alone run a business and the responsibility involved…we are not all the big gov’t and banks you hear about and think of…
Instead of paying teachers more money that no one has, how about raising your kids right so they can concentrate on teaching instead of all the disciplinary crap,additional junk you want while you probably don’t do basics with your own child. Restore respect and accountability to the community to be reflected in the schools, jobs and society. Try and fight for the gov’t to enact that English be the official language to stop the insanity of paying people to not teach English but have us learn Spanish..it won’t stop there as they are no longer the majority – could be Chinese in 2-3 yrs..yup, people will be mad by this post but I’m probably more honest than most. Remember liberal what is given..can be taken away..and since your the only one who can afford to pay the 50% residential increase and 100% commercial increase…I must say either you’ve become filthy rich or are stupid…hmm,,
HARFORDMOM
I am here to help usher in the age enlightenment where government at all levels helps the common folk and taxes greed out of the equation.
I am for social justice and income equality. High taxes are useful and necessary to bring order to chaos.
Mr Mallamo,
You have quoted total funding, not county level funding. Likewise, you will notice that the exemplars you purport have far higher levels of poverty and far more schools than Harford County. Thus, they require more funds. Per pupil allocation can not be directly tied to student achievement. However, it is an indicator of how much money is or in Harford County’s case is not available for purchasing materials, paying instructional staff and developing programs. Harford County has historically underfunded its schools. It is also interesting that you don’t mention the higher achieving counties which have similar wealth demographics to Harford County, like Howard County Public Schools which is funded at a level twice that of Harford County and is raked among the best school systems in the country. No one is saying to increase taxes or even to match the higher funded school systems. However, the fact is that the school in our county do not receive sufficient funding.
Harford County is 6th in per capita income and 17th in school funding.
Mr. Burbey
Sir, Please be consistent in your use of data. It is not consistent, nor an appropriate statistical method to use a per capita figure and then a raw number without a careful explanation. Using percapita income and total funding is not a correct analysis. You yourself noted that the figures I used earlier were total funding fiugres not just local contributions.
You were offended/insluted Tuesday when I comented on your analytical skills. That comment was charitable. If you do not understand statistical analysis, or use it with errors, and seek to use it to make a point, you will damage your credibility.
The other case is that you fully understand statistical analysis and deliberately use data to mislead others. In that case you damage not only your credibility, but your integrity as well.
Right back at you. I suppose this qualifies as Simpson’s paradox as well? The use of statistics by different groups yields different results when combined/contrasted?
“The other case is that you fully understand statistical analysis and deliberately use data to mislead others. In that case you damage not only your credibility, but your integrity as well.”
Need to find my tall boots and a shovel.
Between the two of you it sure is getting deep.
I am quoting simple budgetary numbers and facts.
I may not often agree with your approach but I am in agreement with your numbers. Mallamo on the other hand is intentionally or unintentionally misusing the numbers to further an obvious political agenda without regard to the proper use of said numbers.
It is quite intentional. He is aligned with the “Campaign for Liberty”. He is entitled to his beliefs and has some valid points about not incurring more debt, as well as, being more efficient. However, he, like many who don’t have the insiders view of schools, doesn’t understand that we simply don’t have enough money to build a truly quality school system.
and,
where are the references to all these numbers?
website links?
PDF’s
etc..
or are they as fluid as your analysis?
Just because you throw more money at something; doesn’t mean the problems are going to be fixed. Just look at what quantitative easing did for the nations economy.. nothing that would have happened anyway..
Very convenient to always frame demands for more money as “for the children” when just about anyone with grey matter knows it for teachers. It is not logical to suggest paying a firefighter more money keeps houses from burning anymore than to suggest test scores for kids will improve if a teacher gets a cola. In either case the suggestion is tatamount to a public employee shakedown with not so subtle threats of deliberation and non performance.
Considering that HarCo has a volunteer force, paying your fire fighters more might just put out the fires quicker.
We must pay teachers more for the sake of the children.
If we do not pay teachers more money they will begin eating roadkill and contract a virus. Once the virus goes viral among teachers they will become zombies and begin to eat the tasty brains of children.
Were this situation not so dire, your comments would be funny.
How about we frame money for public education as money for everyone. It is far cheaper to educate children than incarcerate adults. It is far cheaper to educate children than to subsidize adults. Yes, some of the increased funding would go to teacher salaries. Should it? Yes. The main point is that the funding situation is reaching a critical mass. If funding levels for education don’t rise, services will decline. There just isn’t enough money to support the current program. We all are obligated both legally and morally to provide a quality education to our children. That can’t happen without sufficient funding.
Ryan, Ryan, Ryan,
When are you and the HCEA going to publish specific budget line items in the current budget, along with the amounts now being proposed by HCPS, that could be reduced or eliminated in order to re-allocate existing funding to better use? Only then, will you be taking a step toward credibility. Until then you are just part of the background noise of a chorus of folks howling that they need more money because it is for the children and they know better than we how much should be funded and where it should be spent. You think of taxpayers as a bunch of poor dumb slobs that don’t understand the noble work that you do and are so tight fisted that we don’t want to help our children. I don’t care what you think. You still have to convince us and your silly mis-use of statistics just isn’t doing it. I believe you are an English teacher, Ryan. Better stick to what you know. There is plenty of money in the budget, Ryan. Why not stop wasting some and starting spending it where it will do more good? And if raises are part of that I’m fine with raises but the money comes from other silly wasteful stuff not more funding.
That is not our responsibility. Our responsibility is to advocate for students and teachers. Three years ago there might have been more money available. However, as can be seen through the reductions and increases in grant funded programing, there is not. The budget is available on the HCPS website. Analyze it yourself. Before you say all the central office positions are the problem, go to GreatSchools and look at the comparisons for how funds are spent. I will let you look at the numbers and reach your own conclusion. Since you feel compelled to discount anything I say, perhaps when you look at it for yourself, you will accept the cold hard facts.
There are no facts in your life. Cold and hard or soft and hot. You deal in a fantasy world of your own creation. Your credibility as somewhere less than zero
Ryan; we know that you have difficulty dealing with facts but here is some interesting food for thought: In a CITIBANK survey the following is revealed.
“Since 2010, I have not received a salary from the company where I’m the president and have worked for 31 years. My business partner, who is vice-president, also does not receive a salary. In addition, we’ve had to lay off a few people. My wife was the first to be let go. Thankfully, we have other jobs. We’ve used some of the profits from our successful businesses to help with the financial shortfall of our struggling company. Here’s what a report by Citibank found:
“Keeping businesses afloat has required sacrifices on the part of both employer and employees, the survey found. Over the past few years, business owners report that they have, at one time or another, taken less profit (78 percent), worked more hours than usual (70 percent), and used their own money to help the business survive (69 percent).
“But what is most revealing is that the majority of respondents — 54 percent — say they have gone without a paycheck in order to keep the business running. And nearly one-quarter (23 percent) have gone without pay for one year or more.
Employees, too, sacrificed finances for their employers. More than one-third of owners (38 percent) said their employees worked overtime without pay; 18 percent said employees either missed paychecks or had paychecks delayed.”
These are the employees and employers who you would like to have pay more tax dollars into the system that has misused our wealth. It isn’t that we don’t want to pay our teachers, the fact is that for the 50% of us who pay taxes, we are against the ropes. You and the union would be doing a service to your constituents if you found solutions to your problems that did not come after us for more money.
The teachers did give up some money and will not catch up on those lost wages. 3 years of steps propagated across the rest of thier careers amounts to a pretty penny. Likely they will lose more steps in the future.
HarCo has run a surplus according to what has been said here and by the numbers given in the comments here. You should be asking where did that money go and was it well spent? or does your antipathy towards teachers extend to the point that you don’t care where it goes as long as it doesn’t go to a teacher?
It is a little more than just some. Right now, I have lost $12,000. That will be compounded to $24,000 next year. So, I agree that the sacrifice argument has worn a bit thin.
I pay taxes. Every teacher pays taxes. Every county worker pays taxes.
You are wrong on this one Ryan. It is everyone’s responsibility to ensure that government (in this particular case the school system) spends tax monies wisely. You spend a great deal of time citing funding statistics about school funding here as well as from other districts. Perhaps if you would exert some of those energies toward examining the HCPS budget for waste and greater efficiencies others would give your comments more credence. Please offer something other than the worn argument that the school system needs more money. When people can see that you are as efficient as possible with the resources made available they are less resistant and even more willing to give you greater funds as long as you can prove the value or necessity of the request. People want reasonable solutions to the funding problems of HCPS. Start looking and offer alternatives and you will get a more receptive crowd. From what I can see there are a few on the BOE that recognize this and are trying to move the school system in that direction. Lets hope they are successful.
“That is not our responsibility. Our responsibility is to advocate for students and teachers.” Also known as bitch and moan.
If you can not provide solutions, you are part of the problem.
Actually the union is the problem.
The mis-use of statistics is coming from all sides.
Moving right along
A few points
First Happy Fathers day to all fathers and to the fathers of the sons reading this. I hope that you all get to spend time with your children and your fathers, or at least their memories.
Second please save all the personal attacks until the very end. There will be enough time for that later.
To Mr. Burbey. Sir, I hope that you did not make the bet that you discussed that Baltimore County spent more than Harford County on education and libraries. In fact, Baltimore County allocated 57.9% of its budget to that area, while Harford County allocated 57.1% of its budget. There are multiple ways to look at expenditures and to determine whether/how an area is funded. If we look at per capita then Baltimore County underfunds its schools by $347M compared to Harford County.
To Cptnobvious, Sir,Ma’am I will get back to you on your statistical analysis. You may follow along or take a break in place. Somke’m if you gotm, if not ask your buddy. Strip your butts and policem when you done.
Let’s look at the Board of Education Budget and make some determinations. Mr. Burbey thank you for providing that excerpt from the Boards budget, but that is not the way the process worked this year. As a result of what may have been a misinterpretation of the Labor Board’s determination, which by the way was much more favorable to the Board of Education then anyone might realize, the Board of education bypassed the County Executive and went straight to the County Council. None the less here is what they requested over and above last years budget
$15M for salary and benefits
$4M to replace the State’s decrement
$4M to replace fund balance
It is important to also highlight the County’s contribution that is not included in the Boards budget.
$5M for teacher pensions.
$29M in debt service
$15M for new capital projects.
These increases might be bearable if they were one time requirements. Unfortunately they are not. In 2012 the request was for $24M over the previous year. 2011 it was $3M not quite as bad. I leave it to the reader to review the Board’s budget and determine whether the County can afford the trend. I do not believe that it can.
The question is really how does the County afford a budget that increases so much every year.
Some have decided that the surplus is the answer. The HCEA hired Mr. Pelicoro to find the money to fund raises. He pointed to the surplus. Unfortunately that surplus is gone. I did not hear the briefing, and so do not know how he explained each of his vugrafs. But the real surplus for Harford County existed when there was a significant difference between the constant yield rate and the tax rate. As that difference shrank, as a result of increased spending, which meant that the County needed more money, the surplus was depleted. Once constant yield met the tax rate, there was no more surplus. For those who wonder how the 3 municipalities are able to fund salary increases, the answer may lie not only in what they do or don’t fund, but also in the difference between constant yield and tax rate. As they spend more, that difference will also shrink.
Those who believe that Harford County now has $90 plus millions of dollars in surplus should understand what that means before spending the money. Fund balances are categorized into different areas. Nonspendable, Restricted, Committed, Assigned, Unassigned. After all of the money is put into the appropriate categories Harford County has @$7M left. Not quite the gold mine people are expecting.
For those that believe that every year Harford County generates more “surplus” here is a very brief description of how it works. As the County is formulating its budget it must estimate revenues. Property Tax revenue is pretty straight forward, since the money goes directly to the County. Income tax is more complicated. The County estimates, but all of the money goes to the state for further distribution. If the County estimates high, and the state provides low, the County withholds/takes back funds from the agencies. If the County estimates low and the State provides high, the county has money to spend. That extra money is not put away in a bottom desk drawer to generate a surplus. Part of the revenue side of the budget is called fund balance. That is the money from the difference between County estimate and State provided. $13M for 2013, $43M for 2012. The one time bonus was generated by that situation.
Finally, and most importantly fund balance is one year money. When it is gone there is no more. Think carefully about whether you would make personal financial decisions on “surplus” to fund your salary.
Now others have proposed that paygo be used to fund salary increases. Looking at the budget there is $21M for paygo projects. It appears that most of that money goes to the highway department. Certainly that money could be used. But there is a consequence. The basic philosophy behind government is that it exists to provide services to the residents of an area. Government employs people to perform these services. Government does not exist to employ people who do not perform a service. If there are no paygo projects, then Harford County does not need the people who would otherwise perform any of the functions required to successfully complete the projects. The Board of Education cut 66 spaces, the number of faces might not equal that number, to fund its budget increase. Ask the people in the highway department if they are willing to lose their jobs so that you get a raise.
What is needed then to provide sufficient funds for raises. Very quickly two actions must occur simultaneously. First, government must determine what must be funded and get very efficient in those areas. Second, revenues must increase at an increasing rate.
Finally, looking at the current situation, most economists agree that the recession is over. Good news. Bad news is that most economists agree that the recession is over, and they have no clue how to jump start the economy. None of the existing models or theories is working.
Summarizing then. Can Harford County afford to increase education by millions of dollars each year. Probably not for a while longer. Annual revenues are not increasing at an increasing rate, there seems to still be room for efficiencies, there is no surplus, and redirecting money is not a viable solution for the long term.
By definition, per capita funding for schools is per student. Why would we fund schools based on the number of people residing in a county rather than the number of students. If your argument is that those without children in school should not have to pay for the schools, that argument was defeated in the 18th century.
Mr. Burbey
Sir, are you absolutely certain of that?
Previously we had established that Baltimore County spent @$6581 per student. If your contention is that per capita funding is per student vice per individual resident, than there is a very serious dixconnect in all data bases and maintenance of effort calculations. I am quite certain that a lot of the counties that sought relief from maintenance of effort will be glad to know that they may now calculate local contributions at a lower level
Funding is based on income base for MOE. relative wealth i.e. per capita income. Budgeting is based on per student. It really is much more simple than you are making it. Harford County has a higher relative wealth, receives less state aid per student and should be contributing more per student. However, it does not.
Yes it is that simple after you remove the political/statistical shenanigans.
Mr. Burbey,
Sir, you are note entirely correct. State funding is distributed on Wealth per Student. Wealth per Student is defined in The Code of Maryland Regulations COMAR Section 5-202 as the sum of a county’s net taxable income, the assessed value of real property, and fifty percent of the assessed value of personal property. The denominator is the September 30 equated enrollment.
In Harford County Wealth per Student is $434,535 and it ranks 11 in the State. Just about the middle.
A big disadvantage for Harford County is that the 4 largest employers, pay nothing in taxes to support the services they require.
Didn’t know the wealth per student equation but 11 compared to 17 is still a big difference. You have mentioned the 4 largest employer argument before but this too is fallacy. Every employee of those employers pay income and property tax if they live in the county. That is a significant amount of revenue. In fact, income tax was up $11,000,000 this year. So if any of this is designed to say that the current funding levels are acceptable, it is only proving the overall unacceptable level of funding.
Mr. Burbey
Sir, here is a point for you to ponder. Every individual who owns property in Harford County does pay some property taxes. People who own property and live here and work here pay some property tax and some Income tax. Each of those people consume services, so at best the county breaks even. The big pay off comes from corporations who pay property taxes on the assessed value of their property, and income taxes on the income they earn here. For example, BGE, the biggest tax payer in Harford County. BGE does not consume as much in service as they pay in taxes. Net gain for Harford County. If Harford County does not have more BGEs then the residents must make up the difference. This is not to say that business should be gouged.
I believe sufficient revenue is generated through property taxes to fund our schools and government. It is a matter of priorities. There is also a cost to corporations and typically they pay a reduced rate as part of the deal for them to come to a locality. I personally don’t want any factories down the street. How about you? Would you like some industry in your backyard. Similarly, there are many, many businesses in Harford County.
No one is asking for raises. What we want is for all county workers, teachers, county employees and school system employees to be paid their contracted wage, which includes yearly salary increments. Responsible conservative governmental principles dictate this. Likewise, salaries put money back into the economy while paygo projects do not.
Last call folks. Time to put this all to bed.
Interesting discussion from all, many good points, all in all a somewhat civil discourse.
The discussion has surrounded funding levels for education in Harford County and whether they are adequate. No consensus has been formed based on the discussion so, let’s introduce a third reference, the fiscal notes for SB 848. In those notes there is a calculation that measures the extent to which counties use their local tax bases to support education. Harford County’s five year average (08-12) effort was 1.41% not bad. Mr. Burbey, you and Cptnobvious are left to conclude what you will. I will tell you that Baltimore County effort for the same period was 1.36%.
We made some comparisons with Baltimore County. Lots of numbers again no consensus.
Some vilification of people/agencies on who is to blame.
Very few proposals on how to solve the situation.
Who is to blame for this situation? County Executive? County Council? Board of Education? Harford County Public School System? Not really. They are stewards of the resources provided to them. They do not generate any of those resources themselves. In truth, I am to blame, because I do not earn enough to pay more in income taxes, nor is my property value higher to pay more in property taxes. So are all the people who could live here and pay taxes, but choose not. So are all the teachers who want more. So are all of the county employees who also want more. So if we are all responsible maybe none of is individually. Maybe we should all work to find a solution, and stop trying to find blame. Blame never paid for anything
Is education adequately funded? I believe that today it is. Is that a static condition, not really. Is it comparable to other counties? I believe the review of all the numbers demonstrates pretty conclusively that comparing Harford County to any other county is not a productive pursuit. Will Harford County have to increase its funding levels in the future. Undoubtedly. The question is how to quantify and fund those increases, not only for education but for all the other agencies as well. Simply stating that the situation is inadequate and demanding more will not work.
Some very simple proposals to move forward with.
First is education the number one priority. Yes. Is the sheriff’s office the number two priority. No it is number one as well. Public works number one. Libraries number one. Quickly apparent that everything is number one and that as Councilman Slutzky asked at the Pelicoro briefing (no that is not the one with Julia Roberts and Denzel Washington) what don’t you want. Point is Harford County finances are at a point today where we cannot have it all. We have to make choices.
Can we pay for increased government expenditures. Mr. Burbey pointed out that Harford County ranks 6 in the state in per capita income, maybe not the corrrect number but a starting point. Good number, but not enough people in the group to make a difference. Still not enough to have everything. Choices and hard decisions required.
Almost everyone agrees that government should be more efficient, reduce unnecessary expenditures. Who best to do that. Everyone. Perhaps each agency could establish an efficiency tab for suggestions on its web site.
Leverage the money we spend. Case in point. Harford Community College is building a new allied health facility to educate health care personnel. Towson State University is building a new facility for Harford Community College students to complete a four year degree. Degrees offered are business administration, primary and secondary education and psychology. All good areas of study, but no leverage with the money Harford County is spending on the allied health facility.
Adjust salary schedules to today’s economy. Unfortunately, Harford County finances won’t improve for some time and will more closely follow the national economy. It may not be realistic to use schedules from a previous economy.
Publish revenue projections so that everyone has a basic idea of what to expect. Those who believe that they have better opportunities elsewhere may use these projections and the salary schedule to determine if they might be better served by working somewhere else. At least they would know what to expect.
There are many more suggestion. Others far more capable than I could and should propose them.
Is this all doom and gloom. Absolutely not. These are exciting times. Times for real solutions. Not more business as usual
Finally, this has been a real adventure. Thank you all for your civility and participation. Hopefully more people will be inspired to find solutions without trying to find blame.
You said it best in your first paragraph. Now will you and Ryan both please go away?!
You can probably expect to see a lot of Mr. Mallamo and I. Our priorities and civic responsibility demand it.
The endless pontification from both of you drowns out your message and turns people off thereby undermining the very thing each of you want to accomplish.
“You can probably expect to see a lot of Mr. Mallamo and I.”
Really, Mr. Burbey? Don’t you think that “Mr. Mallamo and me” would be more appropriate? (“More appropriate” is my polite way of saying “less incorrect”)
Perhaps you could get assistance with your posts from the chair of the English Department at Aberdeen Middle Sch… ah, never mind.
Hope this helps,
Phil
“Who will teach the teachers?”
You are right. I would have got that in the second draft. I think you got my meaning…
John,
You finally hit it. However, the County Council and County Executive are to blame. They were elected to lead. They have not. Instead they have sought to blame others and maintain status quo. They have the power to address the problems but have punted. I appreciate the polite discourse.
Ryan
I am not a teacher…i work outside of the school system. We each choose our own careers. If you areself employed and took yourself off the payroll to save your company then that is your choice to do so. These teachers have pathetic salaries to begin with…along with ungodly hours. If anyone thinks that GOOD teachers don’t. Spend countless hour over the summer preparing for the new year…then they are fools. Most teachers ( especially those that are a one income family ) work summer jobs just to make ends meat. Society does not give enough credit to the teachers who are educating OUR children. They deserve cost of living increases even if the rest of us take a small hit. If it is in your contract it should be paid before other items are paid. It is a debt not a choice
What I would like to know is what type of professional development will be cut since the cuts came about last week. My principal was reading off the list of items that would be drastically cut and professional development was one of them. What exactly does this mean? I also would like to know why we have off the 3rd Friday of every October for the teacher convention in Ocean City. I say that the teachers that want to go should go. The rest of us could work that day as a professional development at our schools or work in our classrooms. To be honest, it is a waste of a day off for teachers who do not attend the conference or any other conference that day. Baltimore City Schools do this. The teachers have to bring back a signature of some kind to let the principals know they attended. There can be some accountability we could think of.I would gladly work that day in my classroom if it meant I didn’t have to sit through a waste of my time inservice right before spring break. In the 17 years I have been a teacher I can name on my one hand only the amount of meaningful professional development I have had. I also have an IF who meets just for the sake of meeting and makes us do waste of our time crap. Sorry ahead of time for any words not spelled correctly. I am typing from my phone.
I think it is mostly summer work but we will see.
I’m sure the “association” as it is called now caved in more of our time during the professional development days. Instead of those days being used to self reflect, plan and talk with teachers who teach the same subject we are required to go to meetings about reading and writing. Now it is nothing but data collection so I’m sure that is what our meetings will be about. Teachers better not be fooled, yes we are getting a step and COLA which was negotiated but every time this happens it seems like more is put on our plate adminstratively which takes away from the real point of our job…being there for the kids and making sure sound instruction is given.
Let me be clear, with the exception of the planning time already guaranteed in the contract, HCEA has zero control over professional development days. We have asked to be included in the planning and have offered to bring our resources to bear but have been refused.
I completely agree that PD is a waste. The principal at Magnolia Middle brings in people to talk so she does not have to do anything. You would think with Common Core coming the county would force principals to focus there.
On another note how did your principal know about the cuts? At our faculty meeting Melissa Mickey, the worst principal in the world told the staff she knew nothing. She waited until 3:30 to tell the people who are being moved that they would be leaving. They did not get a chance to say anything to the people they have worked with for years. But what do you expect from a principal with no people skills who gives the staff dead donated flowers as a sign of appreciation.
Mr. Burbey, what can the union do to get rid of her? She is killing morale at a time when things are difficult.the kids are very challenging but the admin is even more challenging and incompetent. Jeff Raff was not the only problem! The staff hates her, she is vindictive and sneaky but nobody wants to believe us because she has done such a great job kissing the higher ups a$$. Want to save some money cut her, we really do not need her for anything, and the ineffective IF who does nothing but kiss her a$$! I am sick of this. I am going to post all year and let the public know why the school will never get better. Parents keep your eyes open and report her a$$ to the board for everything!
It’s pretty standard when folks are being laid off or otherwise let go to wait until the end of the day to help ensure a less potentially dramatic exit. The last thing you want are scenes…what’s to stop someone from contacting these people at home? If you’ve worked with someone for years sure seems like a card of support would be perfectly appropriate. I would add, seems a bit hypocritical to wring your hands over others being fired – how else did teachers think thier demands would be met? The budget is fixed and somethings got to give.
If you listened to the descriptions of the deadweight making high salaries with no real value added you would have found the positions to be eliminated without destroying the esprit de corps at the point where the rubber meets the road. You really should practice a little more introspection. Your comment came across as primarily haughty with little regard for the rights of others. You show little to no sensitivity. In fact, the use of the word “Little” here is an exaggeration.
Sometimes reality isn’t nice. As much as I might think the humane thing to do when somebody is being let go is to tell them on Monday and let them hang around all week to say goodbye it’s not good policy. That seems to be one of the primary complaints this person had – and I’m telling this teacher that that’s how it works and there are very good reasons. Consider the person being let go might not appreciate a bunch of teachers that just got a raise at thier expense pretending they had no hand in it getting all weepy. Frankly I bet most would rather not endure the insult. No point hand wringing when in fact these teachers demanding colas and step increases. Just what did they think would happen?
@Money Tree
I work at the school. The problem is she has created such a bad climate that everything she does is suspect. I get why one might wait to have the conversation at the end of the day, but she stood in front of the faculty and pretended not to know when other principals shared the information. In this day of technology the word spreads fast. For the record people are not being fired and layed off, the are being transferred. They HAVE jobs. Another BOE and Tomback tactic to sway public opinion.
There indeed may be many things about this person that make him/her a bad boss, but I don’t see failure to blurt out in a public meeting unfortunate news that only affects a few as a mistake, quite the opposite. Hmmmmm? So when the game of musical chairs that smells a bit more like duck, duck goose is over a transfer won’t get you the millions of dollars you need to fund both salary increases and pensions. Yes, there will be layoffs and some will lose thier jobs – it’s inevitable.
No one is bring fired! Some vacant teacher positions will not be filled. From looking at how this agreement between the BOE and HCEA did not happen until the next to last day it is not hard to figure out that what positions were to be eliminated was not decided until the last minute and notice given to each school about their staffing levels. The late notice acerbated the problem. There are always shifts in staffing to meet school needs and transfers which normally would be announced well in advance but this time did not happen until the last day. I am sure individual teachers were moved that did not ask for it (and are unhappy about it) but they still have a job in the profession they chose.
MM@MMS…..My principal is always very open and honest with our staff. She went to that meeting and was told what would be cut and came back and told her staff…When she said professional development would be cut I did not want to raise my hand and ask any questions becasue she just told us which positions at our school would be cut and it did not seem to be the time or place to ask. I am sorry you have an A$$ for a principal. I had one of them a few years ago and it was so horrible to come to work everyday. My stomach was in knots just pulling into the parking lot. I don’t wish that feeling on anybody. Nobody on the board seems to listen to the people who have to work with these horrible people everyday. The morale in the school system is horrible and it actaully started before Tomaback came on board. He just made it worse. You know that saying “The Beatings Will Continue Until Morale Improves.”
I know this probably does not make you feel any better but the Instructional Facilitator at my school made a big deal about us writing down reading goals and hand them in at a specified deadline. She then proceeded to loose them so she had to tell us at a faculty meeting she lost them. Instead of letting us go back to our classrooms, she made us sit there for a half hour and discuss the students with our grade level until our time was up. We had already done this at 3 other faculty meetings throughout the year. We meet to meet. Things are made up to meet about and makes no sense, but she makes 6 figures. This is a complete waste of time position. My principal and assistant principal have plenty of time to come observe the faculty. We do not need these positions.
Bel Air Girl,
Well, since you have stated that you will continue to work to rule you will have time to do it.
Seriously, I sympathize with your complaints and they seem legitimate but what is your union, the HCEA, planning to do about it? If this is as serious as it sounds I hope they do something.
I really wish the Board would ask teachers their opinion on what needs to be cut. Our school as an ineffective IF too!! It’s such a joke…no one has respect for her. Also, the board is cutting classroom teachers but did they take a look at the special area? There’s definitely a problem when one special area teacher can have an entire day off so a another special area teacher can come in and teach for that day. Classroom teachers bust their butts everyday while a certain special area teacher can have one day off a week to relax during the school day!!
The board needs to ask the teachers…we see the waste everyday!!
Well now Daisy that would be something that you might want to encourage the HCEA to work on. Let all of us know what their reaction is to that suggestion.
Daisy, right on both points – IFs and special areas. I have taught in different places other than HC and have never had or needed an IF. I think that would be a definite cut. Also, you are spot on regarding special area people. I don’t get it. Why do they get an entire day when they don’t have to teach and another music, or gym etc. teacher is brought in. I have never heard of that in my life. The classroom teacher is the one who needs another teacher for a day. Who started that practice and why does it occur? And don’t tell me that they have extra “things” to do! They’re the last ones in the morning and the first ones out after school!
For extra time in special areas, I think it depends on what they are using their time for, I know in library they are in charge of the administration of the whole thing as in a public library. They have to order, fix materials as well as assist teachers in the fulfillment of requests and as classroom teachers planning time, it is up to them to match their curriculum to the classroom teachers.
I am a media specialist for the county and I have a “floater” who comes in once a week. In library, we have a lot of administrative duties which include ordering books and other materials, running the book fair, weeding the library, completing work orders, training and assisting volunteers, running the tv studio and computer lab and schedule, etc. We also keep track of grades for all of our students in three categories so we are always grading, etc. The extra time in invaluable for me. I was a classroom teacher for several years so I understand what they go through and they should have more planning time.
The instructional facilitators are a leftover from when Jackie Haas and Dave Volrath were doing their doctoral work and used the school system for their thesis and data collection and analysis. Remember all those surveys we were ‘required’ to do for their data collection that was done on school time and used HCPS supplies to print?
Their project required doing away with content area supervisors and putting an IF split between the middle and high school to ‘facilitate’ better communication between the feeder school and the high school and to have someone that would concentrate on curriculum and teacher evaluation. Many of the former content area supervisors were put in these positions when their jobs disappeared. One of the problems with principals and assistant principals evaluating teachers is that they may not necessarily be familiar with the content of the class they are observing. So then they threw in an IF that was more of the same. When your principal was formerly a phys ed teacher, do they really know if the math concept is correct? Or the scientific formula being taught is accurate? No. I remember a friend venting how a colleague in her department at her high school that ‘floated’ into her room was observed by the principal and assistant principal. She was in the back of the room grading papers and listening to the lesson and realized partway through that the concept and corresponding technique were being taught wrong! When she asked how the evaluation went she was shocked to see that there weren’t any causing concerns. The lesson was categorized as successful! Why? Because there were objectives on the board, the teacher taught a lesson and students interacted and then followed the directions and produced an end result that corresponded to the lesson, and finally there was a closing activity. Both the principal and assistant principal had no knowledge of the accurate content for that subject and had been trained to observe procedures and student response. Since the students seemed to be following along properly, no one questioned whether what they were learning was correct. That’s why content area people are important-education is not like a business…you can’t ‘manage’ learning the way you manage employees in a supermarket or WalMart. A principal that was a former history teacher may not have the knowledge base to know if the calculus class is learning the right concept or not-we’re missing some of the checks and balances here.
If you can’t be sure that correct content is being taught, then how can we work towards achieving the almighty test scores that the state requires to “prove there was learning”. We all know that it’s all about test scores these days, not whether we are making lifelong learners and thinkers.
And just from a parental viewpoint here…take a look at the HCPS website that shows the school calendar and look at all the yellow blocks. That color indicates a standardized testing day. Those days are pretty much lost to instruction-even if it doesn’t take up the whole day, the pressure of testing sets the kids off so much that they can hardly pay attention regardless of the grade they’re in. The amount of yellow on that calendar is staggering. What are we doing?!
I’ve tried but apparently don’t know the trick to post a website link, but if you go to the HCPS site and type in ‘2012-2013 calendar grid’ in the search box at the top right you’ll find it.
Our principal told us there was going to be between 2-4 assessment weeks per year. We all know how Maryland loves to assess, so I am assuming we will be assessing 4 times a year. Right now our reading benchmarks take away 8 days of instructional time for our reading classes. Can’t imagine how much time will be lost to the new assessments. I feel sorry for our kids!!
@Daisy
Could you be more elaborate about what school you are referring to and what special area’s have teachers who get full days off during the week or otherwise don’t teach full loads? I’m a special area teacher and I teach the same amount of time as other teachers at my school. I’m curious to find out what’s going on!
I teach at an elementary school where there are 3-4 classes each grade level. Since we do not have 5 classes…each special area receives and extra planning time a week and since there are extra specialist in the county, one comes in during the week and teachers for one day…”a floater” Well, the other specialist has the entire day off since the “floater” comes in for that one day.
Daisy, when the new PARC assessments are implemented, we will no longer use the reading benchmarks. THe new state assessments will replace those and yes, I also heard they would be administered 4 times a year. Hopefully, you use the information you glean from your students and utilize it to change or modify what you’re teaching.
Daisy, when the new PARC assessments are implemented, we will no longer use the reading benchmarks. THe new state assessments will replace those and yes, I also heard they would be administered 4 times a year. Hopefully, you use the information you glean from your students and utilize it to change or modify what you’re teaching. Obviously, the information I learn is the reason for the assessments.
HARFORD WATCH!!!!! When are your reports coming out????
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