SMCPS FY26 Budget Finalized

Board of Ed Votes to Approve

As the school year comes to a close so, too, does the process to finalize and adopt the fiscal year 2026 budget. The St. Mary’s County Board of Education (BOE) voted unanimously to adopt the FY26 budget on May 21st. That brought the school system’s budget to a total of $298M. 

Commissioner President Randy Guy joined Commissioners Colvin and Alderson on May 6th in voting to allocate an additional $3.1M to the schools. Commissioners Hewitt and Ostrow were against the plan, which required lowering the Commissioner’s emergency fund reserves, as well as other strategic funding moves, in a plan put forward by Colvin. After agreeing, Guy pointed at Superintendent Scott Smith, saying “I want to see some cuts in schools.” Guy noted other counties in the State are closing schools and cutting staff to make up budget shortfalls. “And if you’ve got to redistrict, that’s just the way it is,” Guy finished.

The BOE made significant efforts to address funding shortfalls, including negotiating a 25% reduction in stop loss insurance rates. Overall, budget savings included:

From the BOE’s May 21st meeting

This list of identified reductions was reviewed at the BOE’s May 7th meeting, where changes to elementary specials scheduling was also discussed. Earlier this year the BOE considered significant alterations to how specials like strings, chorus, band, physical education, art and media are scheduled throughout the student’s day. Intended to reduce pull out time away from core subjects, the plan’s unintended effect would limit time for specials and the need for instructors. Revising the plan after staff and community pushback, the BOE accepted a finalized plan for school year 2026-2027. Specials will keep a 10 day schedule, but will use a cohort model for third grade strings, and fourth/fifth grade strings and band. Chorus will have 45 minutes per week for fourth and fifth grade chorus at the same time. 

Redistricting was also discussed on May 7th. Policy JCAA provides the basic redistricting policy that requires the Superintendent to initiate the process under certain conditions. Proposed changes to policy JCAA mostly removed and streamlined language to reduce duplication and confusion with regulation JCAA-R, which governs the redistricting process and outlines details about the advisory committee. The policy was written over twenty years ago and geared towards BRAC–Base Realignments and Closures–which would have impacted Naval Air Station Patuxent River and the county. 

From the BOE’s May 7th meeting

Superintendent Smith pointed out the BOE will need to “take a long, hard look at the demographics of each school because that will drive how much state money is available to operate it.” Funding formulas in the Blueprint for Education assign a flat per-pupil funding amount to all students then builds on that based on factors like socio-economic status, multilingual learners, and special education needs. Funding follows the student, and the BOE must show money allocated is, in fact, spent at the school the student attends. That includes where staff are placed.

All things considered, the process becomes less about redistricting students and more about restructuring the entire school system–closing schools, changing bus routes, altering school districts, and moving staff.

From the BOE’s May 7th meeting

BOE Chair Karin Bailey suggested incorporating direction about publicizing the redistricting timeline to the community. This would make clear that the Superintendent must provide this information. BOE member Josh Guy mentioned avoiding “group think” in the selection of volunteers for the Redistricting Advisory Committee, encouraging broad representation from the community. Superintendent Smith said the committee’s makeup would depend on the reason for redistricting, but would include staff, students, PTAs, community members, and other stakeholders. Regulation JCAA-R will be reviewed as well. 

As the meeting concluded, Smith lamented “there isn’t a great gathering place for people to get information” in the county anymore. Those getting information through social media are getting a slanted perspective, leading Smith to ask “in the absence of a county organized group, how does the school system build a committee that will work for all of us?” Community participation, as with any government action, will be crucial.