Transcript
We begin with our strategic plan’s first priority area: “Strengthening Learning and Instruction”. This priority receives significant attention in my budget proposal because we are in the business of educating students.
In total, when we consider our strategic plan’s first priority, we are investing an additional $12.2 million dollars and 12 net positions primarily to support special education and prekindergarten, and to align with Blueprint requirements.
Here are the budget-related highlights associated with priority one.
Starting with our youngest learners, 25 new positions and associated costs for transportation are included to support the prekindergarten expansion in alignment with the Blueprint for Maryland’s Future. My proposed budget includes positions dedicated to the expansion of PreK for 4-year-olds, as required by the Blueprint. In this current school year, we converted all our half day 4-year-old programs to full day, and we look to expand, adding three additional classrooms in the coming school year.
Turning to Special Education, before I describe specific investments or programmatic shifts, I want to share a few foundational thoughts—particularly for our staff and our community—because changes in funding or programming alone will accomplish very little if we do not also confront and change some deeply rooted mindsets.
First and foremost, each and every one of our more than 57,000 students is a general education student first. We do not have one group of “general education students” and another group of “special education students.” Yet, in our language, our staffing models, and many of our practices, we have often reinforced that distinction.
The reality is that all students have gifts, strengths, and talents; all of them enrich our schools and our community; and all of them—without exception—experience challenges and benefit from support systems at different points in their educational journey.
Some students require additional services, supports, or modifications. Meeting those needs is not the responsibility of a small group of specialized staff alone—it is the shared responsibility of every educator and every program within this district.
So how have our current mindsets, programs, and structures served students with disabilities?
When we look at results from the Maryland Comprehensive Assessment Program—or MCAP—we see a stark difference in outcomes. Approximately 20 percent of HCPSS students with an IEP demonstrated proficiency in English Language Arts, compared to about 70 percent of students without an IEP.
Turning to mathematics, we see an even more urgent challenge. Only 11 percent of students with an IEP demonstrated proficiency, compared to 46 percent of students without an IEP.
These are just a couple of many data points showing persistent gaps in outcomes for students receiving special education services.
This gap is not a reflection of students’ potential or staff effort. It is a reflection of the systems, structures, and supports we have built.
If we are serious about becoming a school system that is great for every student, then we must be equally serious about changing the conditions that have produced these results.
As the Department of Special Education continues to refine and implement their strategic plan, we must continue to dedicate necessary resources and staffing to meet the growing needs of our students and workloads of our special educators and support staff.
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43.1 positions have been added this year to meet the increasing number of students receiving special education services. About half of these positions were created by reallocated general education teacher positions that were available to be reassigned due to the enrollment decline already discussed. Positions were created this year as part of the implementation of the special education strategic plan but are now being included in the budget proposal to allocate the funding into the base budget for FY 2027.
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Additionally, our school-based Instructional Team Leader positions are proposed to be converted from 10-month to 11-month positions to acknowledge the clear feedback we have received from school-based staff about the realities of our teachers who lead special education in our buildings. The work does not end when the school year ends, and our families and students need continued support in the summer months.
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Finally, we included a $4 million dollar investment to advance the expansion of the special education program continuum. Staff have been evaluating and prioritizing an initial classroom expansion for next school year to match the needs of our students. This investment will be used to increase the number of specialized program classrooms to match the differentiated needs we are seeing in our current program continuum, as well as support programming enhancements in our comprehensive school settings. This is a move that will provide effective and appropriate educational services to our students, and that will begin to reduce our dependency on non-public placements for our students.
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As part of our budget work session on January 22nd, leadership in the Department of Special Education will detail the next steps in the implementation of their departmental and service redesign and how this $4 million dollars and other investments helps advance their efforts.
The next major area of focus is enhancing support and services for our multilingual students and their families. These are students who possess incredible grit and determination. They are balancing the rigors of school with the challenge of learning the English language. I can’t imagine what it would be like to be placed in a school or work environment in a country whose language I do not speak and be told that I have to perform and produce at the same rate as my peers. I would certainly need additional support, and so do our students who are learning English as a new language.
When we evaluate our data, we see that, just as was the case with students receiving special education services, we have significant work to do on behalf of students receiving language services.
Looking at English Language Arts, just 12 percent of HCPSS students receiving language services were proficient based on the Maryland Comprehensive Assessment Program scores, compared to 69 percent of students who are not multilingual.
When we look at mathematics, just 10% of multilingual students were proficient, while 45% of students who are not multilingual were proficient. And these are just 2 of many troubling data points for this student group.
These gaps, like those we saw with students with disabilities, highlight that system-level change is required. Closing these gaps is not the responsibility of one department—it requires the coordinated efforts of every teacher and every staff member.
The first proposed move I will uplift related to enhancing services for multilingual learners, is the investment in 11 English-Language Development Teacher positions to optimize support for multilingual learners. These teaching positions are able to provide direct instructional support and case management of students, which has been a need uplifted by school staff. This is also a budget neutral move based on reallocations that will be detailed later in this presentation.
While this next particular move is anticipated to be budget neutral for the system, we are aligning many language access services for families that include translations and interpreters under the Office of Communications and Engagement. Historically, this work has been split between that office and the Department of Special Education, resulting in multiple processes for school staff to secure interpreters. This alignment will result in several cost efficiencies, and three additional staff will work towards providing greater levels of service for families without adding additional costs. While interpretation and translation requests have increased year over year, we will use FY27 to assess the new delivery model and include any necessary adjustments in FY28.
These positions will primarily support families and could have been included as part of the fifth priority, but they are budgeted as part of priority 1 to maintain alignment of enhanced investments for multilingual learners and their families.
To continue our alignment with Blueprint’s vision for providing mentoring and support for teachers, we will continue our work to reenvision our Lead Teacher model.
It has been exciting to see the ongoing renovation project happening at our Applications and Research Laboratory in order to increase capacity and serve more students. Investments for necessary increased staffing and supplies are included to help begin that expansion.
Finally, we propose eliminating the Leadership Intern program, as this position has been difficult to fill, and reallocating the funding to create nine new Assistant Principal positions. School leaders have identified additional Assistant Principal support as a priority.
Again, more details will be provided in this area during our work session on January 22nd.
On this slide, you begin to see our needs and total request from the County begin to build.
During our first budget work session on January 15th, the Board and community will receive further understanding of the impact that the use of one-time funds has on our starting point for next year.
I believe the steps contained in this first priority will continue to help us better serve all students.