Wednesday, January 9, 2013
The hearing on Superintendent Starr's $2.2 billion plan will be held at 7 p.m. Thursday.
The Montgomery County Board of Education will hold a public hearing Thursday on Superintendent Joshua P. Starr’s $2.2 billion operating budget request for the 2013-2014 school year. The hearing, the first of two before the board, will be held at 7 p.m. at the Carver Educational Services Center, at 850 Hungerford Drive in Rockville. The hearing also will be broadcast live on the web and on MCPS TV (Comcast channel 34, Verizon FIOS channel 36, and RCN channel 88). A second hearing will be held at 7 p.m. Jan. 17 at the Carver Center. Click here for more information, including how to testify. The proposed spending plan for fiscal 2014, which begins July 1, is a $48.95 million increase (2.3 percent) over the current budget. Starr’s plan aims…
Wednesday, December 12, 2012
Superintendent remains confident that he can win over the County Council.
Superintendent Joshua P. Starr’s proposed $2.2 billion fiscal 2014 budget for Montgomery County schools could face a familiar challenge—how to comply with a state law on school funding minimums while winning approval from a County Council determined to rein in spending on schools. Starr's spending plan, unveiled Tuesday, is $10 million—less than half a percent—above the funding floor mandated by the state’s maintenance of effort law, which requires counties’ per-pupil spending to remain the same or increase from year to year. But the half percent increase could have major implications. County school budgets that dip below the funding level can have the difference withheld by the state comptroller when passing through income tax revenues to…
The $2.2 billion budget adds teachers and targets middle school instruction.
A $2.2 billion county schools operating budget proposed Tuesday by Superintendent Joshua P. Starr increases spending to manage growing enrollment, seeks to address persistent achievement gaps and invests in a curriculum aimed at meeting new state and national standards. It also sets the school system up for yet another debate with the Montgomery County Council over spending on K-12 education. “This is a responsible budget that allows us to keep up with growing enrollment, while making strategic investments that will benefit our students today and in the future,” Starr said in a statement. “A budget is a reflection of our values and I know that Montgomery County understands the direct connections between the quality of our schools and …
John
4:07 pm on Saturday, December 15, 2012
This battle goes on every year and makes me sick. The schools need more money, MOE aside, because the number of students in the schools is increasing at a faster rate than the general population is increasing, in MoCo. Yet, the County Council, every year, does not give the schools enough money for MoCo's schools to remain among the top school systems in the country, which is why many people have … more ›