In Howard County, students who do well continue to excel, while those who underperform fall further behind.

That’s the problem Howard County Superintendent Bill Barnes wants to tackle with his proposed spending plan for the fiscal year that begins July 1, which he said will invest heavily in special education and resources for children learning English.

Barnes proposed that plan to the school board Thursday afternoon, suggesting the system ask for nearly $1.3 billion, about a $62 million increase from last year. That adds up to a 5.1% boost.

“I believe this is a reasonable request,” Barnes said Thursday. “We’re trying to take control of our budget by leveraging available dollars to work better on behalf of our students and especially those for whom we have not helped achieve great outcomes yet.”

Here’s a first look at how he wants to spend that money.

Support for special ed and multilingual learners

New positions in the superintendent’s proposal include 23 special education jobs.

All elementary school general paraeducators (also known as teachers’ aides), except for those serving pre-K and kindergarten classrooms, will shift to instructional paraeducators whose roles will have a greater emphasis on supporting special education students and multilingual learners.

A total of 20 middle and high school multilingual paraeducator roles will be turned into 11 English language development teaching positions.

Pay raises for teachers

The school system would spend an additional $52.1 million on compensation and benefits next budget year. The district’s health care bill alone is nearly $18 million.

The $52.1 million includes a 2% cost-of-living-adjustment for all employees, with Howard County Education Association members receiving an additional raise of roughly 2.5%. The teachers union is entering the second year of a three-year contract with the school system.

Barnes said he intends to uphold the teachers union contract.

Growing transportation costs

There is also a $5.5 million increase for the contracts the school system has with transportation companies, including Zūm and Tip Top Transportation. Zūm’s unionized drivers authorized a strike in October but never acted on it.

Prekindergarten expansion

The school system must spend $2.4 million to continue adding prekindergarten classrooms to elementary schools. Barnes is proposing 25 new pre-K positions to support an expansion aimed at offering spots to all eligible 4-year-olds.

The funding requirement comes from the Blueprint for Maryland’s Future, education reform legislation passed in 2021 aimed at making the state’s schools the best in the nation.

There are pre-K programs in 32 of the district’s 42 elementary schools. Classes are limited to 20 kids, with one teacher per 10 children. Barnes’ proposal would add three pre-K classrooms for the 2026-27 academic year.

Safety measures

To address middle school behavioral concerns, Barnes wants to add six school culture and safety assistants. These positions are meant to maintain safe learning environments and to support thriving school settings.

Barnes also wants to add athletic trainers to all of the county’s 13 high schools to address the health and safety of student-athletes. He proposed this addition last year, but it did not make it into the final budget.

What’s next?

The school board will embark on a series of budget work sessions and public hearings. Community members will have two opportunities to weigh in on the proposal, on Jan. 29 and Feb. 9.

The work sessions will cover the school system’s strategic plan priority areas and funding for construction projects. The first work session is Jan. 22.

On Feb. 26, the school board is expected to adopt the budget before sending it to the county executive’s office for review. Howard County Executive Calvin Ball will present his own spending plan proposal, which includes dollars for public schools, to the County Council in early spring.

The council will work through its own budget process, deciding on what it will provide to the school system. Based on what the council decides, the school board will make any necessary adjustments before adopting its final operating budget.

A final school board budget vote is slated for May 19.