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Washington County Public Schools work session, date not confirmed yet

1 h 14 min

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What happened

What happened at this meeting

Board discusses FY28 budget priorities and name for new elementary school 55:18

  • District staff presented how the FY28 budget is built, covering enrollment, state funding formulas, staffing costs and projected expenses. 7:05
  • Staff presented four budget priorities, including salary, benefits and inflation, special education programming and elementary collaborative planning, and said the board would not vote on them that day. 55:18
  • After discussion, a staff member said the consensus was to keep those priorities and that staff would draft a version for board approval. 1:01:51
  • The board also discussed a name for a new elementary school, and Darrell Evans said the board would move forward with Downsville Pike Elementary ahead of a planned formal vote at the September business meeting. 1:02:04

Until Nov 4, lines where a board member takes a side don't name the member. Why →

Item by item (11)
  1. Opening and enrollment overview 6:56
    • Darrell Evans opened the work session and turned it over to district staff. 6:56
    • A staff member said enrollment is projected to be around 21,558 students and that the district is still 200 students below where it was in FY20. 8:26
    • The staff member said special education enrollment is up 25% since FY20 and ML enrollment is up 115%. 11:41
  2. State funding formula 13:11
    • A staff member said that in FY27 the state paid 68% of the foundation formula and Washington County paid almost 32%. 15:44
    • The staff member said foundation funding is expected to be $9,789 per student in FY28 and that 75% of each funding bucket follows the student to the school. 16:30
    • Mike Guessford asked why one example showed $9,561 instead of $9,789, and a staff member said it was a typo on the slide. ~19:50
  3. Pre-kindergarten funding 20:23
    • A staff member said Tier 1 pre-K students are funded at $19,950 for FY28 and that the district is funded to the 450% level in Tier 2. 20:23
    • The staff member said the district offers pre-K to all families despite not receiving funding for some. 20:23
    • A staff member said 3-year-olds are served by community providers to meet the intent of a state law on pre-K enrollment. 24:01
  4. School size and funding requirements 24:36
    • A staff member said large schools generate more total funding and smaller schools face higher per pupil costs. 25:16
    • A staff member said Boonsboro High School had roughly $7.7 million of required spending compared with $19.4 million at South Hagerstown High School in fiscal year 2026. 27:45
    • A staff member said similar spreads would appear among other smaller and larger schools. 30:02
  5. Staffing and benefit costs 30:50
    • A staff member said about 86% of the general fund budget is staff and staffing-related costs. 31:59
    • Mike Guessford asked why the amount was at $11 million and then dropped to $4 million, and a staff member said the district added roughly 128 positions from the fiscal year '23 to the fiscal year '24 budget. 35:54
    • A staff member said 62% of new positions have been in special education. 39:16
  6. Special education costs and class sizes 41:38
    • A staff member said the district spent about $18 million more on special education than it received in fiscal year 2026. 41:38
    • A staff member said elementary class sizes are healthy overall, with some bubble areas at smaller schools. 43:10
  7. Revenue and expense projections 47:08
    • A staff member estimated the Time to Care Act would cost about $1 million in the 2028 budget. 49:24
    • The staff member said a 1% health insurance increase would cost about $550,000 and a 1% raise across the board would cost $2.2 million. 49:47
    • A speaker asked whether the Time to Care Act was additional new money, and a staff member said it would also be a deduction from employee paychecks. 54:55
  8. Budget priorities discussion 55:18
    • Ashley McCusker asked whether new special education classrooms would be needed at middle and high schools or at elementary schools. 57:53
    • A speaker asked to continue a pilot elementary Encore program and to see data on the ABLE program. 59:25
    • One board member said special education programming absolutely needs to be a priority and raised a concern about increasing salaries while adding staff with finite resources. 1:00:18
    • A staff member said the consensus was to keep the priorities and that staff would draft them for board approval. 1:01:51
  9. Community budget session 1:02:04
    • A staff member announced an Understanding the school budget session on September 8th at 6 PM at the Center for Education Services and asked attendees to register ahead. 1:02:31
  10. New elementary school name 1:04:34
    • A staff member said a naming committee recommended Downsville Pike, Crossroads Elementary and Limestone Springs Elementary, with Downsville Pike as its first choice. 1:04:34
    • Darrell Evans said the board was leaning toward Downsville Pike Elementary and could move forward with it, with a formal vote planned at the September business meeting. 1:02:04
  11. Closing remarks 1:12:34
    • Darrell Evans said three school visits showed no cell phones in use under the cell phone policy. 1:12:34
    • Darrell Evans said the board would meet in closed session in about 10 minutes. 1:13:17

Written by software from the meeting's transcript and checked sentence by sentence against it.

Who spoke

Who spoke

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Video: posted by the district as “Board of Education Public Work Session | September 1, 2026 | 1:00PM”