P.O. Box 651
Mount Savage, MD 21545
P.O. Box 651
Mount Savage, MD 21545
State cut to Allegany County public schools to be between $5.3 million and $6.5 million
By The Potomac Highlands Dispatch
CUMBERLAND, Jan. 31 -- If the agenda for the Allegany County Board of Education's next public meeting on Feb. 8 wasn't quite yet set, it likely has a new top item.
On Monday, the Allegany County public school system announced that state officials had, finally, let local jurisdictions know of what was presumed to be inevitable cuts of state aid.
The Allegany County Public School System will see a reduction between $5.3 -$6.5 million in state aid for its Fiscal Year 2012 budget, according to a news release from the county district made available mid-afternoon Monday. The loss comes as the result of a combination of factors including loss of student enrollment in the county, increases in relative wealth per pupil as compared to other Maryland school districts, and proposed legislation known as the Budget Reconciliation and Financing Act (BRFA).
Allegany County student population decreased by 177 pupils this year, putting it second only to Garrett County in terms of percentage loss of student population. This loss in population correlates to an approximately $1.5 loss in state aid. Compounding this is an approximately $3.5 million loss in state aid as a result of the state’s wealth index formula.
The wealth index formula takes into account real property values, personal property values, and taxable income from tax returns to compute a county’s wealth. That number is divided by the number of students to compute a wealth per pupil statistic. The county’s wealth per pupil is then measured against that of other Maryland school districts and state aid is allotted in such a way as to attempt to equalize wealth among districts.
“This past year Allegany County’s wealth rose 5.8% while the state actually decreased in wealth,” explained Allegany Public School System Chief Business Officer Randall Bittinger. “Even though we are still the poorest district in the state in terms of per pupil wealth, the disparity is not as great.” That being said, the Allegany County School System still ranks second in Maryland for state aid per pupil, behind only Baltimore City.
In addition to budget reductions as a result of student enrollment and the wealth index formula, the proposed Budget Reconciliation and Financing Act would further reduce state aid by decreasing Allegany County’s per pupil allotment by an additional $150 per student or $1.3 million.
Although the reduction in state aid is certainly a blow, the increasing need for fiscal belt tightening is nothing new to the Allegany County Board of Education. A number of cost saving measures have already been implemented within the past two years totaling more than $4 million. “These are difficult economic times, but we maintain our commitment to preserve a high quality of instruction for all students in our system,” said School Superintendent Dr. David Cox. “As always, the students are our first priority.”